Ochres with a Hint of Color

Ochres with a Hint of Color

Ochres with a hint of color: pink, brown, or red, are natural yellow earth pigments that have been heated or processed further to add warmth and depth to their mass tones and mixing properties.

Already natural in color, these pink, brown, or red ochres blend easily with white or other colors to represent the soft transitions found in nature and the depiction of space in an interior or landscape.

 

A Woman Scraping Parsnips, with a Child Standing by Her, by Nicolaes Maes, 1655, oil on oak, 14 x 11.7 inches, National Gallery, London, UK

 

Pink and Red Ochres

French Ochre Havane, at left, compared with French Ochre Red, at right, each tinted with Titanium White.

 

Our French Ochre Havane is a great example of pink ochre, just slightly red, while the French Ochre Red is a more fully burnt earthy red. Both are especially useful as “flesh ochres”, even just tinted with white.

 

 

Self-portrait with a Vanitas Still Life, by Samuel van Hoogstraten, 1644, oil on panel, 22.8 x 29.1 inches, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands

 

 

Brown Ochres

Brown Ochre Light, at left, compared with the more neutral French Raw Sienna Natural, at right. Both tinted with Titanium White.

 

The French Raw Sienna choices are, like the Brown Ochre Light, deep yellow earths. As true ochres, they are not as strong in mixing as our regular Raw Siennas, which are brown earth pigments.

 

Valdemosa, Majorca: Thistles and Herbage on a Hillside, by John Singer Sargent, 1908, oil on canvas, 21.9 x 27.9 inches, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

 

 

Our French Raw Sienna Natural and French Raw Sienna Light mix gently to modify and soften other natural looking colors and mixtures or even very vivid modern pigments. Here are some examples of these deeper ochres:

 

Viridian, at top, our French Raw Sienna Natural, at bottom, and the resulting delicate earthy green mixture in the middle.

 

Viridian, at top, our French Ochre Red, at bottom, for comparison, and the resulting even deeper and more neutral green mixture in the middle.

 

Sap Green, at top, is modified with our Brown Ochre Light, at left, and the resulting mixture is shown at bottom.

 

In this image Sap Green is mixed with our Yellow Ochre, at top right, for comparison, and the now paler mixture is shown at bottom. Notice how the Brown Ochre Light warms the Sap Green, in the previous image, with a greater richness and depth than the regular Yellow Ochre. Both soften the brightness of the Sap Green and add light to it but with very different results.

 

Artists Sketching in the White Mountains, by Winslow Homer, 1868, oil on panel, 9.5 x 15.8 inches, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME

 

French Raw Sienna Natural and French Ochre Red also complement cool mixing blues and easily create colorful grays when white is added to the mix.

 

Prussian Blue, at top, our French Raw Sienna Natural, at bottom left, and the resulting deep blue green neutral mixture in the middle left side. Titanium White tints the mixture into a rich teal gray.

 

Prussian Blue, at top, our French Ochre Red, at bottom left, and the resulting dark neutral mixture in the middle left side. Titanium White tints the mixture in two variations into soft blue and cool neutral grays.

 

Eight Bells, by Winslow Homer, 1886, oil on canvas, 25.1 x 30.1 inches, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA

 

A few examples with our French Raw Sienna Light mixing into bright modern colors:

 

French Raw Sienna Light, at top left, mixing into our Ruby Red, at top right, with the resulting neutral tone created in the top middle. At bottom is a tint of the Ruby Red with Titanium White that has the French Raw Sienna Light added on the left side. Additional Titanium White is added, at far left, to show how this florescent pink can be transformed into a dusty rose with a colorful ochre.

 

Beginning with our new Brilliant Lemon, at top, our French Ochre Havane, is mixed into it, at bottom, to gently warm and soften the brightness of the cool lemon yellow.

 

 

Beginning at top again, with our new Brilliant Lemon, our deeper  French Raw Sienna Light is mixed into it, at bottom, to soften the brightness and gently add shadow, creating an earthy yellow green.

 

Here are links to learn more about our Ochres with a Hint of Color:

 

French Ochre Havane

 

French Ochre Red

 

Brown Ochre Light

 

French Raw Sienna Natural

 

French Raw Sienna Light