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. Gouache ...

paint in that it contains more glue than

watercolours Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

, 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. The hanging scroll was displayed in a room for appreciation; it is to be distinguished from the handscroll, which was narrower and ...

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 (), from the grc, κιννάβαρι (), is the bright scarlet to brick-red form of mercury(II) sulfide (HgS). It is the most common source ore for refining elemental mercury and is the historic source for the bri ...

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

Vermilion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color, color family, and pigment most often made, since antiquity until the 19th century, from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide, which is toxic) and its corresponding color. It i ...

cake (朱膘膏). Basic stone colour. *Vermilion powder (銀朱粉). Essentially, a synthetic form of

mercury sulfide Mercury sulfide, or mercury(II) sulfide is a chemical compound composed of the chemical elements mercury and sulfur. It is represented by the chemical formula HgS. It is virtually insoluble in water. Crystal structure HgS is dimorphic with ...

, more brilliant than traditional vermilion made from ground cinnabar. *

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

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 insect), cochineal extract, crimson lake, or carmine lake is a pigment of a bright-red color obtained from the aluminium complex derived from carminic acid. Specific code ...

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 Maroon ( US/ UK , Australia ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word ''marron'', or chestnut. "Marron" is also one of the French translations for "brown". According to multiple dictionaries, there are v ...

cake (深紅膏). Synthetic colour.

Blues

Azurite Azurite is a soft, deep-blue copper mineral produced by weathering of copper ore deposits. During the early 19th century, it was also known as chessylite, after the type locality at Chessy-les-Mines near Lyon, France. The mineral, a basic car ...

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

Indigo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', ...

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 ...

(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 __NOTOC__ Chrome yellow is a yellow pigment in paints using monoclinic lead(II) chromate (PbCrO4). It occurs naturally as the mineral crocoite but the mineral ore itself was never used as a pigment for paint. After the French chemist Louis Va ...

cake (鉻黃膏). Stone colour. *

Realgar Realgar ( ), also known as "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, often in asso ...

(雄黃). Stone colour. Requires glue. *

Orpiment Orpiment 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 is formed both by sublimation and as a byproduct of the decay of anothe ...

(雌黃). Stone colour. Requires glue. *

Litharge Litharge (from Greek lithargyros, lithos (stone) + argyros (silver) ''λιθάργυρος'') 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 co ...

Lead monoxide Lead(II) oxide, also called lead monoxide, is the inorganic compound with the molecular formula Pb O. PbO occurs in two polymorphs: litharge having a tetragonal crystal structure, and massicot having an orthorhombic crystal structure. Modern a ...

(密陀僧). Synthetic colour. Requires glue. *

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

powder (金粉). Requires glue.

Greens

Malachite Malachite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the formula Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses, in fracture ...

(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 ( ; , ), 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 colours produced ...

burnt sienna Sienna (from it, terra di Siena, meaning "Siena earth") is an earth pigment containing iron oxide and manganese oxide. In its natural state, it is yellowish brown and is called raw sienna. When heated, it becomes a reddish brown and is calle ...

cake (赭石膏). Basic stone colour. *Burnt

umber Umber is a natural brown earth pigment that contains iron oxide and manganese oxide. In its natural form, it is called raw umber. When calcined, the color becomes warmer and it becomes known as burnt umber. Its name derives from ''terra d'omb ...

(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 molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two shel ...

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

Calcite Calcite is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, based on scratc ...

powder (白方解). Stone colour. Requires glue. * Titanium white (鈦白). Modern synthetic colour. Appears in modern sets of tube colours. *

Zinc white Zinc oxide is an inorganic compound with the formula . It is a white powder that is insoluble in water. ZnO is used as an additive in numerous materials and products including cosmetics, food supplements, rubbers, plastics, ceramics, glass, cement ...

(鋅白). Modern synthetic colour. Sometimes called Chinese white. Appears in old sets of tube colours. *

Lead white White lead is the basic lead carbonate 2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2. It is a complex salt, containing both carbonate and hydroxide ions. White lead occurs naturally as a mineral, in which context it is known as hydrocerussite, a hydrate of cerussite. It was ...

(鉛白). Synthetic colour. Traditionally used in the past. Comes in flakes or powder form. * Mother of pearl powder (雲母粉). Requires glue. *

Silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

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 extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements such as silicon ...

(岩黑). Requires glue. *

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...

(黑). Synthetic pigment from tubes.

References

Visual arts materials Chinese painting