Umbra: natural color and its shades

Umbra is the color that people get from nature itself. Warm earth, trunks of trees, fragrant spices, marsh clearings, warm animal furs - such associations cause this warm color, and it is for their image is often used. But the main direction of its application is the application of deep and soft shadows when drawing a human body.

Features of color

Natural umber is a color that belongs to ocher species, but it also includes manganese. This component causes the presence of a greenish shade.

Obtained in a natural way, this paint is resistant and dries quickly. A thin layer of natural umber is sometimes used so that the rest of the paint applied over it also dries out faster.

Burnt umber

Several natural derivatives are obtained from the natural shade. For example, due to calcination at a temperature of 400-600 ° C, the natural umber gets red-copper and brown shades. This is the umbra burnt, the color of which is used to draw brick buildings, shadows on the skin, draperies.

Green shades of the umber

When certain components are added, natural greenish shades are obtained. Such additives are: spinel green, chromium oxide green, hydrates of iron and manganese oxides, aluminosilicates. Light green and dark green umber has the same color fastness and the ability to dry quickly, which is natural, because these paints also contain manganese. However, it should be remembered that when combined with oil, the shade of the original paint may become darker.

Use in Painting

Artists use the umbra for drawing shadows while drawing the skin, replacing the previously used earthy green. Umbra with a greenish tint is highly valued by painters. For example, Rembrandt and Rubens believed that the umber is a color that is simply irreplaceable for sketches.

And if the paint is mixed with white, you can get green and silvery gray. Vermeer mixed with the whites of the umber for preliminary drafts. This paint was found in his works and in the primer. For the depiction of expressive shadows on whitewashed walls, Vermeer used the umber in a mixture with black paint and white. Other artists of that time also widely used this combination.

To get a brown shade, a clear or translucent layer of umber is applied to the light tone of the soil. The color turns soft, but not bright.

How to get dye shades of umber?

Usually in a set of colors this shade is in the pure state, and it is used for obtaining other colors, and not vice versa. But if it is not included in the kit or the paint is over, it may be necessary to get it mixed.

Natural umber is a color that is obtained from grassy-green paint and cadmium red light, with the addition of ultramarine and white. The shade has depth and softness.

Mixing dark red and grassy green, you can achieve a beautiful shade of burnt umber. To color the mixture was better visible, add a little white.

Green umber is obtained by adding to the natural color cold or warm shades of green, depending on the desired result.