Color of the Week: Alizarin Crimson

As part of my study about painting, I've been interested in learning more about color. What's the difference between 'cool' and 'warm' colors? What does 'transparent', 'semi-transparent' and 'opaque' mean for a color. What does 'fugative' mean? What are pigments and how do they relate to the paints I use?

I thought I would also make cards of the colors for my reference using several of the different mediums that I dabble in. What you see above is my first attempt using the color   Alizarin Crimson  .

Alizarin Crimson is a 'cool' red, meaning that the color leans more to the blue side of the color wheel than the yellow. This is a good color for making clean purples. Mixing it with yellow will give a muddy brownish orange.

It's color originally comes from the roots of the Madder plant and this color has been used for centuries. It was the colorant for the British army's "redcoat" during colonial times as well as dye for Egyptian pharaohs. Chemists in the 1800's were able to artifically reproduce the color, causing the collapse of the madder growing industry.

Alizarin is a 'fugative' colorant, meaning that it will lose it's color over time due to sunlight. This has caused paint companies to come up with replacement pigments that are more stable. If you look at the swatch above, the Permanent version of the watercolors is actually Quinacridone Pyrrolidine Red instead of Alizarin. Quinacridone was invented for use as an automobile paint in the 1950s.

I know I won't be posting these every week, but I don't think "Color of whenever I get around to posting again" sounds as clever. If you have a better name for this feature, let me know!