Where Do We Get Color? Earth Pigments
Humans have come up with some pretty interesting, innovative, and even a few barbaric ways to create pigments. This is my fourth post in my series on pigment origins. This is a stand alone post, but you can read the rest of the series by searching the “color” tag on Flight Patterns.
Sienna
What is sienna, and why is it so often burnt? Fortunately it's not something you'll find on a menu.
Sienna comes from dirt, clay to be precise, and is known as one of the earth pigments. This clay is often baked or burnt to create a darker, deeper color. That is why you'll find both raw sienna and burnt sienna in a set of paints— while paints are now made sythetically, raw and burnt sienna were originally both made from the same source but had two different shades.
Siennas also vary in shade because of natural variations in the clay, all of the shades are red and orange. They are this color because they contain iron oxide, among other minerals.
Clay containing sienna was originally mined in Siena, Italy during the time of the Renaissance. Since then, those mines have been closed and most colors labeled "sienna" are synthetic, although there is some natural sienna in France.
Umber
Like sienna, umber comes in both raw and burnt forms. This clay contains iron and manganese oxides and is a rich brown often used to paint shadows. It was mined in Umbria, Italy, but today the best umber comes from Cyprus. It is more common than Sienna and is also mined in France, Italy and the U.S.
In a chicken-or-the-ege-esque discussion, either Umbria was named after umber, or umber was named after Umbria. Nobody really knows. We do know that the name has connections with the (more Latin, I’m sorry) Latin word umbra which means shadow.
As a side note, months after originally writing this post, we adopted a mottled brown kitten and named her Umbra.
Ochre
Ochre can be found on six of the seven continents. It was used in cave paintings, and it is still used today. It is the most transparent of the earth pigments, and the word "ochre" comes from a word that meant "pale." Nevertheless, it creates a wide range of colors, the most famous of which being red and yellow, but also including grey and purple.
Next week, we'll look at some more colors. Are you enjoying what you find here? Subscribe, comment, or share Flight Patterns with a friend!
Sources:
Here are some of the sites I consulted.
color
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-humans-created-color-for-thousands-of-years?utm_source=pocket-newtab
sienna
https://www.winsornewton.com/na/articles/colours/spotlight-on-sienna/
https://www.earthpigments.com/natural-sienna-pigment/
https://www.earthpigments.com/burnt-sienna-pigment/
https://www.earthpigments.com/light-sienna-pigment/
https://www.earthpigments.com/burnt-sienna-usa/
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sienna#word-history
umber
https://www.earthpigments.com/natural-umber-pigment/
https://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/indiv/overview/umber.html
https://www.winsornewton.com/na/articls/colours/spotlight-on-raw-umber/
ochre
https://www.earthpigments.com/yellow-ocher-usa-pigment/
https://www.earthpigments.com/natural-earth-ocher-pigments/
https://www.livescience.com/64138-ochre.html