Colour Names

[dbclemons]

For starters I'd suggest tossing out this chart. Names like AliceBlue, Moccasin, or Reef are useless. Almost all paint manufacturers have color charts on-line for their products, so do some searches on various suppliers like Windsor & Newton, Blockx, or any personal favorite you may use. It's also helpful to pay attention to the color index numbers on the labels (i.e. PW1 for lead white) and most companies have these online also. The names can vary from company to company, so the CI number can help you identify the pigments more accurately.

[Lunatique]

Paint manufacturers sometimes use different names for similar colors, or produce unique colors that other manufacturers don't. The best way is to look at a bunch of different paint makers (Grumbacher, Winsor & Newton, Holbein, Old Holland, Blockx, Gamblin...etc) and find the common names they DO use and whether the colors match (they often don't. One company's color of the same name might look quite different to another's). The very common standard colors found on most oil palettes are pretty much universal--those are the ones you really should know. Beyond that the names used by individual manufacturers can become esoteric and not very useful.

Off the top of my head, these are some of the common color names that are often very similar from one manufacturer to another:

Alizarin crimson
Cadmium red
Cadmium yellow (pale)
Cadmium yellow (deep)
Cadmium orange
Vermillion
Cobalt violet
Dioxazine purple
Ultramarine blue
Cobalt blue
Thalo blue
Cerulean blue
Prussian blue
Indigo
Thalo green
Viridian
Sap green
Burnt sienna
Transparent oxide red
Venetian red
Indian red
Light red
Yellow ochre
Naples yellow
Burnt umber
Raw umber
Sepia
Vandyke brown
Ivory black
Mars black
Titanium white
Zinc white

But keep in mind even with these universal color names, there are still differences from one manufacturer to another. But usually if you use these universal names, other traditional artists will more or less know what color you mean.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.