From: Katharine Thayer (kthayer@pacifier.com)
Date: 04/06/03-03:40:12 AM Z
Christina Z. Anderson wrote:
>
> I mixed a tube of sepia this week, and it smells so horrible that I can
> hardly stand using it. Does everyone else find this with sepia? Hey, I can
> put up with the rotten egg odor of sulfides, but this is like dead animal.
Hi Chris,
Well, if you gathered the pigment yourself from the inksacs of squid,
perhaps it would smell bad, (I certainly have no experience of my own to
shed on this matter) but I can't think of any reason why today's paints
called "sepia" would smell bad. "Sepia" is one of those paint labels
that have no meaning any longer in relation to actual pigments because
the pigment called "sepia" that came from the inks of squid and
cuttlefish is no longer used in paints. The paints named "sepia" are
mixes of different earth browns and blacks; each brand uses a different
combination of pigments. This is why it makes more sense to refer to
colors by pigment names and numbers rather than by paint names. For
mixes like this, I prefer to start with pigments I know and mix them
myself, rather than rely on manufacturers' mixes. Besides, just as in
watercolor painting, you can get a more interesting sepia color by
mixing a blue and a brown, rather than a brown and a black. My 2cents,
Katharine
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