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Blues
Owning an oil painting made with expensive blues was once a status symbol. Painters who were poor or didn't live in cosmopolitan areas never used any blue at all. Jan van Eyck used lapis - but only at the request of his patrons.
Blue is the most commonly confused color in terms of its hue temperature. There is a widely held misconception that all blues are cool. This is not at all the case: Prussian, Cobalt, and Phthalo Blue, for example, are warm, and Ultramarine Blue is so warm that it's almost purple.
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Prussian Blue: First synthetic color of the Industrial Revolution, discovered by accident in 1704 while a chemist was trying to formulate artificial crimson. Warm blue with more muted tint than Phthalo Blue. It has a high tinting strength, is lightfast, and is especially beautiful in its transparency.
Pigment: Ferri-ammonium ferrocyanide (PB 27:1)
Vehicle: Alkali refined linseed oil
Lightfastness I, Series 2, SEMI-TRANSPARENT,
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Cobalt Blue: "True blue," first manufactured in 1804. This color is well worth the price because of its working properties and unique color, which cannot be mixed.
Pigment: Oxides of cobalt & aluminum (PB 28)
Vehicle: Alkali refined linseed oil
Lightfastness I, Series 5, SEMI-TRANSPARENT,
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Cobalt Teal: An elegant and intense pure hue that replaces Turquoise.
Pigment: Oxides of cobalt and aluminum (PB28)
Vehicle: Alkali refined linseed oil
Lightfastness I, Series 4, OPAQUE,
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Ultramarine Blue: A great glazing color, warm Ultra Blue is one of the few mineral colors that is completely transparent. Lightfast with moderate tinting strength. Consider using Alizarin Permanent instead of Alizarin Crimson to mix violets.
Pigment: Complex silicate of sodium & aluminum with sulfur (PB 29)
Vehicle: Alkali refined linseed oil
Lightfastness I, Series 2, TRANSPARENT,
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Cerulean Blue: Mixed metal oxide from the early 19th century with an important place on the mineral palette because blues are rarely shifted to the cool, green side, like this one. Very muted in its tint so most valuable as a pure hue.
Pigment: Oxides of cobalt & tin (PB 35)
Vehicle: Alkali refined linseed oil
Lightfastness I, Series 6, OPAQUE,
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Cerulean Blue Hue: A medium, semi-transparent blue. Other Series 2 blues are transparent, so Robert Gamblin formulated this color for painters looking for more opacity at a reasonable price. Cerulean Blue Hue has a higher tinting strength than its namesake.
Pigment: Zinc oxide, Copper phthalocyanine (PW 4, PB 15)
Vehicle: Alkali refined linseed oil
Lightfastness I, Series 2, SEMI-TRANSPARENT,
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Phthalo Blue: Warm blue first made for printmaking ink (cyan) to replace Prussian Blue in the 1920's. With clean, pure masstone and transparency, Phthalo Blue, like all modern colors, has high tinting strength.
Pigment: Copper phthalocyanine (PB 15:1)
Vehicle: Alkali refined linseed oil
Lightfastness I, Series 2, TRANSPARENT,
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Manganese Blue Hue: Gamblin's version is an excellent recreation of the original color, successfully replacing an obsolete pigment. Cool, transparent blue with green undertone; especially useful for painting sky and water.
Pigment: Copper phthalocyanine (PB 15:4)
Vehicle: Alkali refined linseed oil
Lightfastness I, Series 2, TRANSPARENT,
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Phthalo Turquoise: Perfect transparent marriage of blue and green, this transparent Turquoise has high tinting strength and makes a high key tint. Excellent for painting tropical water.
Pigment: Copper phthalocyanine, chlorinated copper phthalocyanine (PB15:2, PG 7)
Vehicle: Alkali refined linseed oil
Lightfastness I, Series 2, TRANSPARENT,
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Indanthrone Blue: An excellent, all-purpose blue with a beautiful, smoky glaze.
Pigment: Indanthrone (PB60)
Vehicle: Alkali refined linseed oil
Lightfastness I, Series 3, SEMI-TRANSPARENT,
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