The essential colors to buy are ivory black, titanium white, cadmium red, cadmium yellow, alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue. For a comprehensive oil painting set for beginners, expect to pay ...

Once more valuable than gold, ultramarine blue, now sold in its synthetic ... a plastic additive used in paint. Then, paint companies faced a shortage of flaxseed oil, which some have blamed ...

Recent investigations into this shade of blue -- ultramarine blue ... status of a work's commissioner. Ultramarine was the pigment often reserved to paint the mantel of the Virgin Mary.