Chinese pigments ({{zh, t=中國國畫傳統顏料) are the traditional medium to execute traditional Chinese brush paintings, besides ink. Chinese pigments is similar to Western

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouach ...

paint in that it contains more glue than watercolours, but more so than gouache. The high glue content makes the pigment bind better to Chinese paper and silk as well as enabling works of art to survive the wet-mounting process of Chinese

hanging scroll A hanging scroll is one of the many traditional ways to display and exhibit East Asian painting and calligraphy. They are different from handscrolls, which are narrower and designed to be viewed flat on a table. Hanging scrolls are generally i ...

mountings without smudging or bleeding.

Types

Traditionally, Chinese pigments come in form of chips, cakes or powder made from natural plant and minerals. Some of these require preparation by adding glue (明膠) before they can be used. Traditional pigments require some skill and knowledge to mix as some pigments do not blend well with others (e.g. herbal and stone colours generally do not combine well). Also, layering a different pigment on top of another can create different effects depending on the type and transparency of the upper layer pigment. Synthetic versions that already contain glue come in tubes and are more convenient.

Traditional colours

Out of the many pigments used for traditional colours, around 12 are basic colours that are widely used. Some of the pigments use natural plant ('herbal') or minerals ('stone') that are poisonous or toxic. Outside of these traditional pigments, other colours are made from synthetic chemicals.

Reds

Cinnabar Cinnabar (; ), or cinnabarite (), also known as ''mercurblende'' is the bright scarlet to brick-red form of Mercury sulfide, mercury(II) sulfide (HgS). It is the most common source ore for refining mercury (element), elemental mercury and is t ...

powder (硃砂粉). Basic stone colour. Requires glue. *

Vermilion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color family and pigment most often used between antiquity and the 19th century from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide). It is synonymous with red orange, which often takes a moder ...

cake (朱膘膏). Basic stone colour. *Vermilion powder (銀朱粉). Essentially, a synthetic form of mercury sulfide, more brilliant than traditional vermilion made from ground cinnabar. *

Eosin Eosin is the name of several fluorescent acidic compounds which bind to and from salts with basic, or eosinophilic, compounds like proteins containing basic amino acid residues such as histidine, arginine and lysine, and stains them dark red ...

red cake (曙紅膏). Basic herbal colour. It is now used in replacement of traditional carmine. *

Carmine Carmine ()also called cochineal (when it is extracted from the Cochineal, cochineal insect), cochineal extract, crimson Lake pigment, lake, or carmine lake is a pigment of a bright-red color obtained from the aluminium coordination complex, compl ...

powder (洋紅粉). Very expensive, it is now replaced with substitutes. * Rouge (胭脂). Basic herbal colour. Usually comes in cream form. * Scarlet cake (大紅膏). Synthetic colour. * Dark red cake (深紅膏). Synthetic colour.

Blues

Azurite Azurite or '' Azure spar'Krivovichev V. G.'' Mineralogical glossary. Scientific editor A. G. Bulakh. — St.Petersburg: St.Petersburg Univ. Publ. House. 2009. — 556 p. — ISBN 978-5-288-04863-0. ''(in Russian)'' is a soft, deep-blue copp ...

(石青). Basic stone colour. Comes in four shades, from dark to light: 頭青, 二青, 三青, 四青. Requires glue. *

Indigo InterGlobe Aviation Limited (d/b/a IndiGo), is an India, Indian airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest List of airlines of India, airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 64.1% domestic market ...

cake (花青膏). Basic herbal colour. * Phthalocyanine blue/

cyanine Cyanines, also referred to as tetramethylindo(di)-carbocyanines are a synthetic dye family belonging to the polymethine group. Although the name derives etymologically from terms for shades of blue, the cyanine family covers the electromagnetic s ...

(酞菁藍). Basic synthetic colour. * Azure cake (天 ��/藍��). Basic synthetic colour.

Yellows

All traditional yellow pigments are toxic. Because of this, modern synthetic substitutes are often used. * Gamboge (藤黃). Basic herbal colour. Comes in flakes or stick form. * Chrome yellow cake (鉻黃膏). Stone colour. *

Realgar Realgar ( ), also known as arsenic blende, ruby sulphur or ruby of arsenic, is an arsenic sulfide mineral with the chemical formula α-. It is a soft, sectile mineral occurring in monoclinic crystals, or in granular, compact, or powdery form, ...

(雄黃). Stone colour. Requires glue. *

Orpiment Orpiment, also known as ″yellow arsenic blende″ is a deep-colored, orange-yellow arsenic sulfide mineral with formula . It is found in volcanic fumaroles, low-temperature hydrothermal veins, and hot springs and may be formed through sublimatio ...

(雌黃). Stone colour. Requires glue. *

Litharge Litharge (from Greek , 'stone' + 'silver' ) is one of the natural mineral forms of lead(II) oxide, PbO. Litharge is a secondary mineral which forms from the oxidation of galena ores. It forms as coatings and encrustations with internal tetr ...

/ Lead monoxide (密陀僧). Synthetic colour. Requires glue. *

Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

powder (金粉). Requires glue.

Greens

Malachite Malachite () is a copper Carbonate mineral, carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the chemical formula, formula Basic copper carbonate, Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often for ...

(石綠). Basic stone colour. Comes in four shades, from dark to light: 頭綠, 二綠, 三綠, 四綠. Requires glue. *

Jadeite Jadeite is a pyroxene mineral with composition Na Al Si2 O6. It is hard (Mohs hardness of about 6.5 to 7.0), very tough, and dense, with a specific gravity of about 3.4. It is found in a wide range of colors, but is most often found in shades ...

powder (碧玉粉). Stone colour. Requires glue.

Browns

Ochre Ochre ( ; , ), iron ochre, or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colou ...

/ burnt sienna cake (赭石膏). Basic stone colour. *Burnt

umber Umber is a natural earth pigment consisting of iron oxide and manganese oxide; it has a brownish color that can vary among shades of yellow, red, and green. Umber is considered one of the oldest pigments known to humans, first used in the Ajant ...

(焦茶). Herbal colour. Requires glue.

Whites

In modern practice, painters tend to use white

paint as a substitute to traditional whites, typically for underpainting. *

Clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve mollusc. The word is often applied only to those that are deemed edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the sea floor or riverbeds. Clams h ...

shell cake (蛤白膏). Made of ground white clam shells. *

Calcite Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...

powder (白方解). Stone colour. Requires glue. * Titanium white (鈦白). Modern synthetic colour. Appears in modern sets of tube colours. * Zinc white (鋅白). Modern synthetic colour. Sometimes called Chinese white. Appears in old sets of tube colours. *

Lead white Lead white is a thick, opaque, and heavy white pigment composed primarily of basic lead carbonate, , with a crystalline molecular structure. It was the most widely produced and used white pigment in different parts of the world from antiquity unti ...

(鉛白). Synthetic colour. Traditionally used in the past. Comes in flakes or powder form. *

Mother of pearl Nacre ( , ), also known as mother-of-pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer. It is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent. Nacre is ...

powder (雲母粉). Requires glue. *

Silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

powder (銀粉). Requires glue.

Blacks

* Ink (墨). From ground inksticks made of pine, oil, lacquer or charcoal soot. *

Obsidian Obsidian ( ) is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Produced from felsic lava, obsidian is rich in the lighter element ...

(岩黑). Requires glue. *

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

(黑). Synthetic pigment from tubes.

References

Visual arts materials Chinese painting