Colors that are not pigments Mixtures & marketing There are more color names than pigments. The fashion, house painting, design, automotive all arbitrarily assign fanciful names to pigments that bear little or no relation to the actual colors used. Unfortunately the artist's materials manufacturers too tend to  use confusing names often. Gouaches, Pastels, and Color Pencils all are rife with fanciful names. Often perfectly good pigments have silly names and perfectly bad pigments have the names of good colors. There are also colors that have common names but no pigment associated with that color for good reason. Primary Yellow for example is a color that indicates a position in the spectrum rather than a pigment. There are also the colors that were common in the past but were made of impermanent colors and rather than let the old name fade away as they should, the manufacturers reformulate with better pigments. Then there are the convenience colors, simple mixtures easy to make on the palette but mixed by the manufacturer for you and packaged with a fanciful name. Usually these colors lack the vitality of colors mixed on the palette and should be avoided as being totally unnecessary. This list contains the more commonly found colors from the above categories. It makes no attempt to note the purely fanciful or fashion names that are found in folk art and designer color ranges as there are hundreds of those and they change with the seasons, but it does give those colors that do find their way into professional artist's ranges but are not listed under specific colors elsewhere on this site Miscellaneous colors A mixed bag of color names Academy Blue Originally a mixture of Ultramarine Blue and Viridian that is very permanent, but these days is likely to be any mixture of various qualities Aniline Dyes A name commonly used in the 19th century for organic colors. As many of the early organics were relatively fugitive they had a poor reputation. Bordeaux A deep maroon red. The color name has existed for a long time without there being a particular pigment or pigment mix, however in recent years there have been several of the new synthetic organic colors that have been given this as a supplementary name. I am unaware of an artist's paint manufacturer putting one of these into a tube labeled Bordeaux however. Burgundy The name of a deep red wine. Several pigments are used for this color. Mostly they tend not to have great light fastness in tints. Similar colors mixed from more permanent pigments may be mixed on the palette. Coal Tar Dyes The early synthetic organic colors were made from coal tars, were impermanent and were considered poor artist's colors, so the names 'Aniline' and 'Coal Tar' were synonymous with fugitive in artist's eyes. They still sold fairly well even so. Cyan The blue color used by the printing and photographic industries. It is commonly a  version of Pthalocyanine Blue with a lot of extender added. Also called Primary Blue Jaune Brilliant Usually a mixture of  white, yellow and red. Easily mixed on the palette. Formerly the French name for Naples Yellow. Lemon Yellow A light greenish yellow. Numerous pigments have been used for this purpose especially the Hansa Yellows. Neutral Tint A mixture of black with violet, red, or blue pigments easily mixed on the palette. Olive Green Any of various combinations of yellows and greens or blues. Permanent Green Originally another name for Victoria Green it is now any mixture of various greens and yellows that are easily mixed from more permanent alternatives on the palette. Primary Blue The colors provided in the printing trade where the four color printing process relies on the use of the 3 primaries plus black. Unfortunately permanence is not as important to the printing trade as cost, strength, and handling properties. For artist's use there has been little research into developing pigments that are exact primaries that are also absolutely permanent. Pigments offered as primaries therefore should be examined closely to be certain of their permanency. Having said that it is possible to find permanent close approximations of all three. Primary Red See comments under Primary blue above. Primary Yellow See comments under Primary blue above. Sap Green Originally a real color, the juice of green Buckthorn berries, it was very fugitive. Now it has become a convenience color as it is a mixture easily duplicated on the palette. Skin Tone Usually unpleasant pinkish mixtures that bear little resemblance to any skin I ever saw. Various mixtures of reds yellows and whites easily mixed on the palette. Sunproof colors A marketing name for various organic pigments often of very dubious ability to resist light. Turner's Yellow Originally a lead pigment of poor quality named after the inventor James Turner, not the artist. These days is a mixture of yellows whites and reds that can easily be mixed on the palette. Turquoise Usually a mixture of Pthalo Blue and Pthalo Green, but can be various combinations of blues and greens, often with white added. Unbleached Titanium Often an addition of Yellow Oxide and red with Titanium White which is strange as a brownish version of Titanium White is available and used by some manufacturers. Mixed easily on the palette. Ultramarine Yellow A marketing name for Barium Yellow and nothing to do with real Ultramarine. Van Dyke Brown The original pigment that this applied to was impermanent but now it can mean anything and should always be avoided. Veronese Green Variously a form of Green Earth, Emerald Green, Viridian or Chrome Green in the past these days the name is even more creatively used for mixtures of all kinds. Victoria Green Originally a mixture of Viridian, Zinc Yellow and extender. Now any of various mixtures. Zinc Green Could be either Cobalt Green or a mix of Prussian Blue and Zinc Yellow reduced with extenders Zinnober Green This is a strange name as Cinnabar is the name of a red and applying it to a green mixture seems illogical. The mixture is likely to be anything. This spelling of Cinnabar was used for pure Vermilion as well. Go to pigment main page Go to White pigments Go to Yellow pigments Go to Orange pigments Go to Brown pigments Go to Green pigments Go to Blue pigments Go to Violet pigments Go to Black pigments Go to Historic pigments Go to Inert pigments Go to Iridescent and Metallic pigments Go to Red pigments Internet Resources  |  Contact  |  Frequently Asked Questions