Description
- Raw Umber is a cool, transparent brown ranging from yellowish brown to greenish brown.
- It has surprisingly good tinting strength, a high level of opacity, mixes well with greens, and is quick drying in oil form.
- It has excellent color properties and can create a variety of subtle, clear tints when mixed with white. It grays when mixed with blue and white.
- Raw Umber can tend towards chalkiness in dark mixes in oil form.
- 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.