Pigments: Three Artists' Whites
Titanium White, Zinc White and Lead White Pigments and Their Use
Except for a few minor white paint pigments, titanium white, zinc white and lead white are the artist's main tools for painting light in their acrylic and oil paintings.
The three most common artists' white paint pigments are titanium white, zinc white and lead white. They are the white pigments used in making oil paints, acrylic paints and white paints in most other painting mediums.
Titanium White
Titanium white pigment (rutile titanium dioxide) is the most commonly used white in artists' paints. Titanium white pigments were first developed around 1919, and today's versions are very lightfast and chemically stable.
Titanium white is the most opaque artists' white pigment. It very easily covers paint layers underneath it. Of the three common artists' whites, titanium is the most nearly neutral in color but is actually a slightly cool white.
While pure titanium dioxide makes reasonably good water-based paints, even in those paints, it tends to be so opaque that it very quickly grays colors in pale mixtures. Manufacturers usually reduce this opacity by adding other, more transparent pigments or, in a medium such as acrylics, they add more transparent medium.
In oil paint, pure titanium makes an almost unusably stiff, clumpy paint. Also, pure titanium dioxide oil paints dry to a chalky, brittle paint film.
However, manufacturers can at least partially solve these problems by adding one or more other pigments to the oil paints. Usually they add zinc oxide pigment.
Since zinc oxide is about five times less opaque than titanium dioxide, combining zinc and titanium pigments alleviates the worst, color-killing quality of titanium. Zinc also adds its much better brushing qualities to titanium-based paints. Also, the two pigments mixed together produce a more permanent paint film than either does alone. However, the resulting paints are still not perfect since any added zinc cools the warmer titanium.
Zinc White
Most professional grades of zinc white are made from pure zinc oxide, which was developed in the late 1700s. It is a very beautiful, partly translucent white that produces brilliant color mixtures. In oil paints, it has an interesting, responsive working quality, generally referred to as "brushable."
However, zinc white produces very cold color mixtures. It also tends to produce very brittle, glass-like paint films. As noted above, it works much better on both counts when mixed with titanium dioxide.
Lead White
Basic lead carbonate was developed around the time of Christ and so is by far the oldest white pigment usable for oil painting. It produces very intense, very warm color mixtures. It also produces what is generally thought to be the most permanent paint film of the three basic oil paint white pigments.
Many of the color qualities and almost all the textural qualities of the "old masters'" paintings come from the use of lead white. The particular warmth of the works of painters such as Monet also comes from their use of lead white and cannot be produced by any other oil paint white.
Pure lead white is often sold as "Cremnitz White." Lead white mixed with zinc oxide is generally sold as "Flake White."
However -- and this is very important -- lead white is very toxic. Even very small amounts of lead in the body are dangerous. Lead white should never be used by or even around children. Also, great care should be taken in using and particularly in disposing of lead white paint.
Sources:
- The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, by Ralph Mayer, Viking Press, 1982.
- The Materials & Techniques of Painting, by Kurt Wehlte, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1982.
- The Oil Color Book by Winsor & Newton, PDF Edition, Colart Fine Art and Graphics Limited, 2001.
