Flake White, is a warm white pigment that is completely opaque and permanent. It dries
quickly, maintains a fresh appearance, and mixes well due to it’s low tinting strength.
The fine brushing and mixing qualities of Flake White make it a favourite among oil
painters, notably the late Lucian Freud.
It’s also called Snowflake White or White Lead.
Yup, this very attractive white is a synthetic inorganic pigment derived from lead.
While we know very well today lead is poisonous, and not good for our body, flake white has
a surprisingly long history despite these health hazards.
Composed of basic lead carbonate with zinc oxide, it’s considered one of the oldest
pigments. It was used as a cosmetic in 400 BC Athens. It was used by Ancient Egyptians
and in the earliest Chinese Paintings.
Traditionally, Flake White is created by the stack process. They have hundreds or thousands
of earthenware pots containing vinegar and lead.
The pots were designed so that the vinegar and lead was separated, but the vapor of the
vinegar would reach the lead.
The pots were covered loosely with a grid of lead, which allowed carbon dioxide to circulate
in the pot. The pots were stacked on top of each other, with a layer of tan bark or cow
feces in between.
They were left for about a month to ferment, and the lead gets covered with a crust of
rust that is white lead. The rust is separated from the lead, washed and ground into a pigment.
Venetian Ceruse, also called Spirits of Saturn, was basically Flake White used as a cosmetic
instead of paint, (But I guess, painting your face instead of painting a canvas) and was
used during the 16th century as a cosmetic skin whitener.
At the time, it was in fashion to have really pale skin, so this powder was really popular
and it was in great demand.
However, since it was basically putting lead directly on your face, it was very bad for
your skin. There’s a lot of bad things associated with lead poisoning, but using it as a cosmetic
on your skin, it will actually cause scarring. And the women would pile on even more to cover
up the scarring, and it was just this very vicious cycle.
Plus, since it was directly on their skin, it would be easily absorbed and caused lead
poisoning. And this is associated with a bunch of horrible things like nervous system damage,
stunted growth, delayed development, kidney damage, hair loss, and over an extended period
of time, could lead to death.
So be very careful with lead. Anyways, back to painting!
As I said, flake white was extremely popular for painting. And part of it was due to the
fact that there weren’t really any other whites that were really easily accessible,
until the 19th century when other white paints began to pop up.
Flake White also has a lot of attributes, as I said before. But just to add to the list,
it was durable, moisture resistant, and flexible. Basically, it lasted a really long time. It
was sometimes painted as a base layer because its flexibility actually made the paints on
top last longer, and it helped preserve the paints.
Now, I think i’ve made it pretty clear that lead is toxic, as if you didn’t know already.
So if you are working with this color, make sure to not ingest any. With proper precautions,
it can be perfectly safe to use in small quantities. But if you’re a painter, I definitely recommend
for you to read the Safety Materials provided with your paints. Probably for all your paints
in general, which can be found online. I’ll leave a blog post down below which talks about
this.
If you’re still concerned, consider substituting it with another white. Flake White Hue is
a very similar alternative, but skips the whole lead part.
There’s also titanium white and zinc white. They’re also usually cheaper because safety
regulations has increased the price of flake white.
Titanium white has a stronger tinting strength, so use it in smaller quantities. Zinc white
a little bit less opaque and a little bit more transparent, so it’s great for mixing
more subtle colors while maintaining transparency.
I hope you guys enjoyed this video about the dark history of flake white. Thanks so much
to the person who suggested this topic. I hope it lived up to you expectations. If you
want to see more videos about the history of colors, I’ll link a playlist down in
the description below.
Thanks so much for watching and I’ll see you guys next time.
Flake white… Hrm why is there a fuzz?