'Dichroism'; in the ground or 'varnish'?

[~ Ben Conover]

The point of saying (a couple pages ago) that proper video is better than iphones is 
simply that it is better. An iphone is an over priced compromise or ideas and functions
not very well as a camera or video. 

 

[Stephen Faulk]

Indian yellow make a lot of sense. It has a green feel to it. Some oranges, my favorite kinds of orange have a green feeling/look  to them. It makes a lot sense also that the glaring monotonous orange phenomena will drop out if the greenish Indian yellow is used as filter. 

 

If violin makers were taking a cue from painters, by the time the baroque period rolled around the idea of under painting in layers that were calculated for an effect of surface color were profoundly known. Even though paintings are not dichromatic,not usually, in glaze layering the idea of shooting for a final effect by tuning the under painting up or down with brightness or darkness and under color that could filter out parts of the spectrum of upper glaze layers was the name of the game. Being in proximity to painters pulling off those tricks...well it was in the air. 

 

Indian Yellow used to be known as fugitive as glaze. The actual lake pigments that came from India, made from cow pee, were not fugitive. The synthetic Indian Yellows that followed in the late 19th century were not true lakes and not as permanent. I remember using Indian Yellow when I began painting and my teacher reminding me it was fugitive. Now I understand in the last 20 years there have been better formulations of Indian Yellow which are permanent. So I am eager to look into Indian Yellow again as a varnish/ finish color. 

 

Reminds me of some paint that I made with Turmeric and calcium carbonate mixed with hide glue, a kind of distemper half way a gesso half way a paint. My mom has the painting in her house and last I saw it seemed to be fairly bright and that Turmeric yellow with green feeling. Makes me wonder if Turmeric could be make into a semi lake pigment. Might be a fun experiment.