Chinese Painting Pigments: High-Quality Colors for Artists

Having regard to the inherent characteristics of Chinese ink paintings, the pigments used are mainly black and are composed of soot or graphite. The ink has a variety of consistencies and can be thick and opaque for bolder strokes or thin and translucent for delicate washes. Besides black ink, accent colors of red, blue, and green may be added. These pigments need to have optimum flow and good adhesion on paper in order to create the required effects. It is from the quality of the pigments that the master stroke of the binder takes shape and any degree of water ink painting is executed whether as an outline or as a broad structure of a form with the fullest possibilities of the imagination