Colours of painting and art
On the palette: oils, watercolour, fresco, miniature and mural.
#E25822
Scarlet
A bright red with a touch of orange, long tied to power, sacrifice and sinNamed shade · 🇹🇷 Turkey +4
Red
Carmine
A deep red pigment made from cochineal insects, once prized across continentsPigment · 🇫🇷 France +2
Purple and violet
Tyrian purple
A reddish-purple dye once worth its weight in silver, made from sea snailsDye · 🇱🇧 Lebanon +4
Black
Bone char
A deep black pigment and filter made by charring animal bonesPigment
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Indian Yellow
A clear, glowing orange-yellow pigment once made in India from cow urinePigment · 🇮🇳 India
Red
Kermes
A deep red dye made from Mediterranean scale insects, once prized for scarlet clothDye · 🇪🇬 Egypt +5
Red
Lacलाक्षा
A red resin secreted by insects and used as dye, varnish and shellacColour named from nature · 🇮🇳 India +5
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Mummy brown
A transparent brown pigment once made from ground Egyptian mummiesPigment · 🇪🇬 Egypt
Green
Green fluorescent protein
A jellyfish protein that glows green under blue or ultraviolet lightColour named from nature
Red
Polish cochinealczerwiec polski
A crimson dye once vital to Poland, made from a native scale insectDye · 🇵🇱 Poland +5
Black
Cephalopod ink
A dark liquid from sea creatures, once used in pens and now in Mediterranean and Japanese foodColour named from nature · 🇯🇵 Japan +2
Red
Armenian cochinealորդան կարմիր
A crimson dye once prized across Armenia and the Middle East, made from a rare insectDye · 🇦🇲 Armenia +4
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Tyrian purple: Photograph: U.Name.Me Derivative work: TeKaBe, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Lac: Jeffrey W. Lotz, CC BY 3.0, source
- Mummy brown: Geni, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Carmine: Stephhzz, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Bone char: Honza Groh ( Jagro ), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Kermes: MyName ( Gryffindor ) stitched by Marku1988 This panoramic image was c, Public domain, source
- Polish cochineal: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Cephalopod ink: Ralf Roletschek, GFDL 1.2, source
- Armenian cochineal: Vahe Martirosyan, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Green fluorescent protein: Raymond Keller ( Raymond Keller ( talk )), under auspices of Crystal P, Public domain, source
- Scarlet: Daderot, Public domain, source
- Indian Yellow: Shisha-Tom, CC BY-SA 3.0, source