Art Spectrum® Ivory Black Soft Round Pastel shade.
Ivory Black has its origins in ancient Rome. Even then, real Ivory black was a luxury item compared to the more common Bone Black. The higher proportion of carbon in the ivory gave the pigment an intense and velvety quality, which you see in the cavernous blacks of a Rembrandt and other masters. This explains the absence of elephants and Rhinos in Europe – not really!
By itself, modern Ivory Black pigment lacks the intensity of the original so we give it more punch with the admixture of the very powerful synthetic iron oxide, Mars Black. You might be interested to know that Ivory Black is still produced by charring animal bones, just not those of elephants and other endangered species thankfully. Genuine Ivory Black is still available and it is still produced from the remains of animals that have died naturally. Understandably, it is very rare and extremely expensive, worth in excess of one thousand US dollars for a kilogram.
 Ivory Black 598P |
PBk9; PBk11 |
