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pigmented colorants: dependence on media and time - Cornell ...

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Figure 2.7: A sample of pure pigments.<br />

ground dried roots of the herbaceous rubia tinctorium of Greece <strong>and</strong> Asia Minor.<br />

The particles are laked with aluminum hydrate, forming the crims<strong>on</strong> red pigment<br />

Madder Lake.<br />

Thanks to the developments in chemistry in recent history, painters today have<br />

hundreds of pure colors from which to choose. Historically, there were fewer pig-<br />

ments available to painters of Medieval Europe. With few excepti<strong>on</strong>s, the same<br />

pigments are used in all types of paints. The difference in the various methods of<br />

painting–oil, watercolor, acrylic–lie in the material with which the pigments are<br />

applied <strong>and</strong> attached to the ground.<br />

For a pigment to be suitable for use in an artists’ paint, it must meet a number<br />

of requirements [Got87]. A pigment must be a fine, smooth powder that does not<br />

react to changes in normal atmospheric c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>s. It should not react chemically<br />

with other paints or supplementary materials to which it is exposed–this includes<br />

the binder, vehicle, ground, or other pigments. While no pigment is perfect in all<br />

binders, a pigment should form a stable film with the binder. Defective pigment-<br />

binder mixtures usually show so<strong>on</strong> after paint manufacturing. Flocculati<strong>on</strong> is when<br />

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