Modern painting has various colors of pigments, where did the ancient painting pigments come from?

Pigment is the substance that can make the object dyed with color, modern painting can be said to be all kinds of pigments, painting works are also bright colors, gorgeous and moving. The history of painting in our country is also a long history, so how did our ancients make pigments?

The ancients were very strict in the production of pigments, from the selection of materials to the production of the process is also very complicated and difficult, especially the production of mineral pigments in the absence of grinding machines to assist the era, the ore grinding very fine is very difficult.

Chinese pigments are divided into mineral pigments and vegetable pigments, also known as stone colors and grass colors.

Here are the sources of the individual color pigments:

White: Hu powder, or lead white, is poisonous and has been abandoned in modern pigments. Gesso and chalk are used for murals. Before the Song Dynasty, there was clam powder, which was lost to later generations and returned from Japan in the last hundred years.

Red: The big head is natural cinnabar, but there are also artificial pigments synthesized from sulfur and mercury, called silver beads. Silver beads are more monotonous in hue than cinnabar. There is also lead dan, an oxide of lead, which is poisonous. Other red coral is used, which is expensive. Plants have cochineal, cochineal formula I do not know. There is also the use of cress or sumac juice for glue.

Yellow: minerals with yellow earth, depending on the difference in soil color, different colors. andrographis, that is, the stone yellow, slightly poisonous, yellow and not full estrus, often with andrographis *** raw, orange-yellow. Plants are commonly used in the sea vine sap collected and dried, called garcinia cambogia. National painting yellow fullest, also can use gardenia fruit peeled decoction juice collect glue substitute.

Green: I know of two kinds, in fact, are stone green or copper green. One is malachite powder, which the ancients called toad's back best. Another branch green, very light, more for stone green backing, to unopened acacia flowers, scalded in hot water, twisted out of the juice to collect glue with. In addition, the acacia flowers have opened strung out is yellowish.

Blue: the mineral head is rock green, blue copper ore, rock green and rock green is actually the same composition. Plants use is the flower green, the national painting of the key colors, indigo extract, ancient first fermented with blue leaves produced, and later evolved into from indigo mud.

Black: first the unimportant, graphite useful, but not commonly used. For starting drafts use willow charcoal. Drawing birds and flowers plumes with the bottom of the pot of ash, elegantly known as Bacchus cream. mainly take the burning ash, called smoke. Mainly, pine smoke, lacquer smoke, tung oil smoke, rapeseed oil smoke.