Artist's Pigment Chart

I put this Artist's Pigment Chart together as an aid in limiting my palette to only quality base colors. Many beginning artists buy colors based on their look alone without thought of whether the color can be mixed. Also, many companies manufacture artist's pigments under false names. For example, a tube of oil paint in an art supply store may be named by the manufacturer "Cerulean Blue Hue", however if you look on the back of the tube it will have the chemical elements of Cobalt Blue (PB-28) and Titanium White (PW-6). So actually, the tube you are holding isn't Cerulean Blue at all. It's a tint of Cobalt Blue! A color that could be mixed by colors that you may already have.

Hopefully this chart will aid you in buying quality colors that aren't "watered-down" by the manufacturers. Art supplies are expensive enough without buying colors you don't really need and can mix on your own.

 Color Name  
 Pigment #
True Pigment Name
Lemon Yellow  
PY - 3
 Arylide Yellow
Cadmium Yellow Lt.  
PY - 37
 Cadmium Sulphide
Cadmium Orange  
PO - 20
 Cadmium Sulphoselenide
Cadmium Red Lt.  
PR - 108
 Cadmium Sulphoselenide
Permanent Magenta  
PV - 19
 Quinacridone Violet
Ultramarine Blue  
PB - 29
 Sodium Alumino-Silicate
Cerulean Blue  
PB - 35
 Cobalt / Tin Oxide
Cobalt Blue  
PB - 28
 Cobalt / Aluminum Oxide
Pthalo/Winsor Blue  
PB - 15
 Copper Pthalocyanine
Viridian  
PG - 18
 Hydrated Chromium Oxide
Phalo/Winsor Green  
PG - 7
 Phalocyanine Green
Yellow Ochre  
PY - 43
 Natural Iron Oxide
Raw Sienna  
PBr - 7
 Natural Iron Oxide
Burnt Sienna  
PBr - 7
 Calcined Natural Iron Oxide
Burnt Umber  
PBr - 7
 Calcined Natural Iron Oxide
Raw Umber  
PBr - 7
 Natural Iron Oxide
Ivory Black  
PBl - 9
 Bone Black
Titanium White  
PW - 6
 Titanium Dioxide

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© 1994-2010 Gene Snyder. All rights reserved. All images and written material copyright Gene Snyder unless otherwise indicated. All rights are the personal property of the artist. No image may be published or reproduced in any form or for any purpose without the written consent of the artist, including any electronic means of image transfer in whole or in part.