Payne's grey

Payne's gray
Payne's gray
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#536878
sRGB B (r, g, b)	(83, 104, 120)
HSV (h, s, v)	(206°, 31%, 47%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(43, 19, 234°)
Source	Ridgway:
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Grayish blue
	B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte);

Last updated November 04, 2023

Payne's grey is a dark blue-grey colour used in painting. Originally a mixture of iron blue (Prussian blue), yellow ochre and crimson lake,^[2] Payne's grey now is often a mixture of blue (ultramarine, phthalocyanine, or indigo) and black,^[3]^[4] or of ultramarine and burnt sienna.^{[ citation needed ]} The colour is named after William Payne, who painted watercolours in the late 18th century, who most likely developed the colour while trying to produce a mixer that was less intense than black.^[2] Payne's grey was deemed an obsolete term in the early 19th century, but is well loved by artists today.^[2]^[3]

History

Payne's grey was created by the watercolourist, William Payne, for whom the colour is named, in the late 18th century. Little is known about Payne's life, and the origins of the colour are equally as unknown. However, theories suggest that Payne made the colour in the attempts to find a replacement for black when he taught watercolour, since black was the traditional mixer.^[2]

Many different recipes of Payne's grey have existed due to the fact that the shade is a composite colour. The original mixture was made with Prussian blue, yellow ochre, and crimson lake in the late 18th century.^[2] A recipe listed in the 20th century, called for indigo instead of Prussian blue, and now it appears to be made by mixing ultramarine (natural or artificial) with a carbon-based black.^[4]^[7]

Payne's grey was described as an obsolete term for the mixture of black, ultramarine, and ochre in the early 20th century.^[3] However, this has been contradicted by other sources that suggest that the name and the color itself are still commonly used.^[2]^[3]

Visual Properties

A gradient of Payne's grey oil paint, mixed with increasing amounts of zinc white from left to right.

Payne's grey is a dark blue grey that has long been considered similar to another colour of a similar origin called neutral tint. The reason why they are similar is because both colours are made of the same pigments of indigo, ochre, and ivory black in watercolour, but in different proportions. The main difference between the two of them is that Payne's grey has a more lilac shadow, and therefore a warmer tint. Even though Payne's grey has a composition for acrylic paint, which uses a mixture of artificial ultramarine, ochre, and ivory black, its visual properties stay the same.^[7]

Permanence

Payne's grey does not have significant resistance to light. Over time, the lilac shadow will fade, transforming the color into a neutral grey.^[7]

Notable occurrences

A significant number of William Payne's works include the shade. The shade is primarily used for atmospheric perspective to create the impression of distance.^[2] In Payne's work, it was primarily applied to the middle distance to produce the effect.^[8]

Related Research Articles

Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model, as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The term blue generally describes colors perceived by humans observing light with a dominant wavelength between approximately 450 and 495 nanometres. Most blues contain a slight mixture of other colours; azure contains some green, while ultramarine contains some violet. The clear daytime sky and the deep sea appear blue because of an optical effect known as Rayleigh scattering. An optical effect called the Tyndall effect explains blue eyes. Distant objects appear more blue because of another optical effect called aerial perspective.

Sienna is an earth pigment containing iron oxide and manganese oxide. In its natural state, it is yellowish brown, and it is called raw sienna. When heated, it becomes a reddish brown, and it is called burnt sienna. It takes its name from the city-state of Siena, where it was produced more widely during the Renaissance. Along with ochre and umber, it was one of the first pigments to be used by humans, and is found in many cave paintings. Since the Renaissance, it has been one of the brown pigments most widely used by artists.

A pigment is a powder used to add color or change visual appearance. Pigments are completely or nearly insoluble and chemically unreactive in water or another medium; in contrast, dyes are colored substances which are soluble or go into solution at some stage in their use. Dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic. Pigments of prehistoric and historic value include ochre, charcoal, and lapis lazuli.

Navy blue is a dark shade of the color blue.

Grey or gray is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed of black and white. It is the color of a cloud-covered sky, of ash and of lead.

Lavender is a light shade of purple or violet. It applies particularly to the color of the flower of the same name. The web color called lavender is displayed adjacent—it matches the color of the palest part of the lavender flower; however, the more saturated color shown as floral lavender more closely matches the average color of the lavender flower as shown in the picture and is the tone of lavender historically and traditionally considered lavender by the average person as opposed to those who are website designers. The color lavender might be described as a medium purple or a light pinkish-purple. The term lavender may be used in general to apply to a wide range of pale, light, or grayish-purples, but only on the blue side; lilac is pale purple on the pink side. In paints, the color lavender is made by mixing purple and white paint.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lilac (color)</span> Color

Lilac is a color that is a pale violet tone representing the average color of most lilac flowers. The colors of some lilac flowers may be equivalent to the colors shown below as pale lilac, rich lilac, or deep lilac. However, there are other lilac flowers that are colored red-violet.

Spring green is a color that was traditionally considered to be on the yellow side of green, but in modern computer systems based on the RGB color model is halfway between cyan and green on the color wheel.

Taupe is a dark gray-brown color. The word derives from the French noun taupe meaning "mole". The name originally referred only to the average color of the French mole, but beginning in the 1940s, its usage expanded to encompass a wider range of shades.

Russet is a dark brown color with a reddish-orange tinge. As a tertiary color, russet is an equal mix of orange and purple pigments. The first recorded use of russet as a color name in English was in 1562.

Bole is a shade of reddish brown. The color term derives from Latin bōlus and refers to a kind of soft fine clay whose reddish-brown varieties are used as pigments, and as a coating in panel paintings and frames underneath the paint or gold leaf. Under gold leaf, it "warms" the colour, which can have a greenish shade otherwise. However, bole in art is a good deal more red and less brown than the modern shade; it is often called Armenian bole. Although bole also means the trunk of a tree, these words are simply homographs that do not share an etymological origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electric blue (color)</span> Shade of blue representing lightning

Electric blue is a color whose definition varies but is often considered close to cyan, and which is a representation of the color of lightning, an electric spark, and the color of ionized argon gas; it was originally named after the ionized air glow produced during electrical discharges, though its meaning has broadened to include shades of blue that are metaphorically "electric" by virtue of being "intense" or particularly "vibrant". Electric arcs can cause a variety of color emissions depending on the gases involved, but blue and purple are typical colors produced in the troposphere where oxygen and nitrogen dominate.

Varieties of the color green may differ in hue, chroma or lightness, or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint being a green or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these various colors is shown below.

Varieties of the color red may differ in hue, chroma or lightness, or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint being a red or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these various colors are shown below.

Livid is a medium bluish-gray color. This color name comes from the Latin color term lividus meaning "'a dull leaden-blue color', and also used to describe the color of contused flesh, leading to the English expression 'black and blue'". The first recorded use of livid as a color name in English was in 1622.

Varieties of the color blue may differ in hue, chroma, or lightness, or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint being a blue or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these colors are shown below.

Variations of gray or grey include achromatic grayscale shades, which lie exactly between white and black, and nearby colors with low colorfulness. A selection of a number of these various colors is shown below.

The color cyan, a greenish-blue, has notable tints and shades. It is one of the subtractive primary colors along with magenta, and yellow.

Violet is a color term derived from the flower of the same name. There are numerous variations of the color violet, a sampling of which are shown below.

There are numerous variations of the color purple, a sampling of which are shown below.

References

↑ Of the various tones of Payne's Grey shown on the web page of the Ridgway color list, the color displayed in the color box above matches most closely the color called Payne's Gray in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill; the color Payne's Gray is displayed on page 117, Plate 47, Color Sample A9.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 St. Clair, Kassia (2016). The secret lives of colour. London. pp. 266–267. ISBN 978-1-4736-3081-9. OCLC 936144129.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
1 2 3 4 Nicholas, Eastaugh (2004). Pigment compendium : a dictionary and optical microscopy of historical pigments. Routledge. p. 293. ISBN 978-0-7506-8980-9. OCLC 1061503478.
1 2 "Professional Watercolour | Winsor & Newton".
↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 201; Colour Sample of Payne's Grey: Page 117 Plate 47 Colour Sample A9
↑ "ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Colo(u)r Names (1955)". tx4.us. Archived from the original on 2012-11-22. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
1 2 3 Carlyle, Leslie (2001). The artist's assistant : oil painting instruction manuals and handbooks in Britain, 1800-1900, with reference to selected eighteenth-century sources. Leslie Carlyle. London: Archetype Publications. pp. 497–498. ISBN 1-873132-16-6. OCLC 47075799.
↑ Long, Basil S. (1922). William Payne, water-colour painter working 1776-1830. Robarts - University of Toronto. London, Walker's Galleries. p. 13.

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[1] Of the various tones of Payne's Grey shown on the web page of the Ridgway color list, the color displayed in the color box above matches most closely the color called Payne's Gray in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill; the color Payne's Gray is displayed on page 117, Plate 47, Color Sample A9.

[:1-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 St. Clair, Kassia (2016). The secret lives of colour. London. pp. 266–267. ISBN 978-1-4736-3081-9. OCLC 936144129.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

[:12-3] 1 2 3 4 Nicholas, Eastaugh (2004). Pigment compendium : a dictionary and optical microscopy of historical pigments. Routledge. p. 293. ISBN 978-0-7506-8980-9. OCLC 1061503478.

[:3-4] 1 2 "Professional Watercolour | Winsor & Newton".

[5] Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 201; Colour Sample of Payne's Grey: Page 117 Plate 47 Colour Sample A9

[6] "ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Colo(u)r Names (1955)". tx4.us. Archived from the original on 2012-11-22. Retrieved 2022-10-11.

[:02-7] 1 2 3 Carlyle, Leslie (2001). The artist's assistant : oil painting instruction manuals and handbooks in Britain, 1800-1900, with reference to selected eighteenth-century sources. Leslie Carlyle. London: Archetype Publications. pp. 497–498. ISBN 1-873132-16-6. OCLC 47075799.

[:2-8] Long, Basil S. (1922). William Payne, water-colour painter working 1776-1830. Robarts - University of Toronto. London, Walker's Galleries. p. 13.

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