Description
- Burnt Umber is a more intense reddish brown pigment that results from heating the clay pigment Raw Umber.
- It has medium to excellent tinting strength and high opacity, and it is quick drying in oil form.
- Burnt Umber is somewhat more transparent than Raw Umber.
- It has excellent color properties and can create a variety of subtle, clear tints when mixed with white.
- It can tend towards chalkiness in dark mixes in oil form, but overall it mixes well with other colors.
- To create a black color in oil form, mix Burnt Umber with Phthalo Blue or Ultramarine.
- To achieve a similar color in watercolor form, mix it with Ultramarine or Payne's Gray.
- This pigment gets its name from the Latin word umbra, meaning shadow or shade.
- Its full name is listed as terra di ombra, meaning earth of shadow/shade, due to its original extraction from the area of Umbria, Italy.
- It has been used as a pigment since prehistoric times. Currently, the finest umber comes from Cyprus.