
Product details
- Blick SKU
- 21948-5111
About this product range
Blick Artists' Soft Pastels are available in a variety of rich, vibrant colors and soft hues, ideal for all types of pastel painting and color sketching.
Created by combining the finest pigments with a minimal amount of binder, Artists' Soft Pastels have a velvety texture that offers easy laydown and consistent coverage. They're great for blending, layering and softening edges — all with minimal crumbling. They're also extremely lightfast.
Available by the individual stick, sets of full length sticks, or half stick sets that allow artists access to twice the color and twice the creative possibilities of the full stick sets. Individual sticks measure 2-1/2" L x 1/2" Dia (64 mm x 13 mm). Half sticks measure 1-1/4" L x 1/2" Dia (32 mm x 13 mm).
For professional quality at an affordable price, artists choose Blick Artists' Soft Pastels.
Please refer to the Item Specs tab of this page for lightfast ratings.
Pigment information
General reference notes about pigments can describe other media (such as oil). They do not verify this product’s exact formulation or behavior.
Phthalo Green
- Pigment code
- PG7
- Type
- organic
- Chemical name
- polychlorinated copper(II) phthalocyanine
- Chemical formula
- C32H3Cl13CuN8 to C32HCl15CuN8 or C32H16CuN8Cl15 (PG7) or C32Br6Cl10CuN8 (PG36)
- Properties
- Phthalo Green is a transparent, cool, bright, high intensity color used in oil and acrylics. It comes from a Phthalocyanine Blue pigment where most of the hydrogen atoms have been replaced with chlorine, forming highly stable molecules. It has similar pigment properties and permanence to Phthalo Blue. It is slow drying and an excellent base color for mixing a range of bright greens. Phthalo Green is considered a very good alternative to Viridian because it is intense and mixes well and can be used to emphasize mineral colors in various tints. However, its tinting strength is very high, so it can overpower other colors. This pigment most closely resembles the discontinued and toxic Verdigris.
- Permanence
- Phthalo Greens are completely lightfast and resistant to alkali, acids, solvents, heat, and ultraviolet radiation. They are currently used in inks, coatings, and many plastics due to their stability and are considered a standard pigment in printing ink and the packaging industry.
- Description
- Bocour Green, Cyan Green, Intense Green, Monastral Green, Phthalocyanine Green BS, Rembrandt Green, Thalo Green, Winsor Green.
Ultramarine [Blue]
- Pigment code
- PB29
- Type
- inorganic
- Chemical name
- complex silicate of sodium and aluminum with sulfur
- Chemical formula
- Na8-10Al6Si6O24S2-4 or Na6-8Al6Si6O24S2-4
- Properties
- Ultramarine is the standard warm blue, a brilliant blue pigment that has the most purple and least green in its undertone. It has a moderate to high tinting strength and a beautiful transparency. Synthetic Ultramarine is not as vivid a blue as natural Ultramarine. Ultramarine dries slowly in oil and tends to produce clean, though granular, washes in watercolor. French Ultramarine mixes well with Alizarin colors in oil and watercolor form to create a range of purples and violets. It can dull when mixed with white in acrylic form, but mixes well with other colors. The shade varies based on manufacturer. Considered a great color for glazes, it is not suitable for frescoing.
- Permanence
- Ultramarine has excellent permanence, although synthetic Ultramarine is not as permanent as natural Ultramarine. It may discolor if exposed to acid because of its sulfuric content.
- Toxicity
- Ultramarine has no significant hazards.
- History
- The name for this pigment comes from the Middle Latin ultra, meaning beyond, and mare, meaning sea, because it was imported from Asia to Europe by sea. It is a prominent component of lapis lazuli and was used on Asian temples starting in the 6th century. It was one of the most expensive pigments in 16th century Europe, worth twice its weight in gold, and so was used sparingly and when commissions were larger. Ultramarine is currently imitated by a process invented in France in 1826 by Jean Baptiste Guimet, making blue affordable to artists and extending the range of colors on their palettes.
- Description
- Artificial Ultramarine, French Blue, French Ultramarine, Gmelin's Blue, Guimet's Blue, Permanent Blue, Royal Blue, Synthetic Ultramarine. New Blue describes particular shades of Ultramarine. Armenian Blue and Lazuline Blue are names for genuine Lapiz Ultramarine. Sky Blue is a pale tone of Ultramarine.
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