Traditional and modern pigments
Many of painting's classic colors come from pigments made with heavy metals: cadmium, lead, mercury, cobalt and others. Over the last century, modern pigments with different chemistry have arrived that do many of the same jobs. Painters switch for all sorts of reasons: price, handling, how a color mixes, or to avoid working with a particular metal. Here's which traditional pigments contain what, the modern pigments and hues that replace them, and pigments that are no longer made.
Cadmium Contains cadmium
Cadmium yellows came into artists' use in the mid-1800s and cadmium reds in the early 1900s. They're opaque, warm, strong and very lightfast, which is why many painters still reach for them.
- Wear gloves, or wash your hands well, and keep it away from food.
- Wear a well-fitted respirator rated for fine dust (for example N95/P2 or better) if you sand or spray it.
- Don't pour cadmium paint or rinse water down the drain; let solids settle and dispose of them as hazardous waste.
Modern replacements
Yellows
Arylide and benzimidazolone yellows are bright and lightfast but more transparent. Bismuth vanadate (PY184) is the most opaque, cadmium-like lemon.
See single-pigment paintsReds
Pyrrole red (PR254) is the closest match to cadmium red medium in strength and warmth; pyrrole scarlet (PR255) is the lighter, more orange option. Quinacridone red (PR209) is a cooler, more transparent red.
See single-pigment paintsOrganic pigments are usually more transparent than cadmiums. Makers' 'cadmium-free' colors often add a little titanium white or another opaque pigment so they cover like cadmium.
Hues made to replace cadmium colors 20 paints
Sold as hues of a cadmium color and made with other pigments. Each one's page compares it with the genuine pigment.
Paints that contain it 218 paints
Lead Contains lead
Lead white was the main white of European painting for centuries. Lead also gives Naples yellow (lead antimonate), lead-tin yellow, and the 19th-century chrome yellows and oranges (lead chromate).
- Wear gloves and keep lead paint well away from food, children and pets.
- If you sand or scrape lead paint or a lead ground, wear a well-fitted respirator rated for fine dust (for example N95/P2 or better) and clean up with a damp cloth rather than sweeping.
- Never burn or heat lead paint.
Modern replacements
White
Titanium white is the strongest, most opaque white; zinc white is transparent and cool but can make films brittle in lower layers. Many 'flake white replacement' paints mix the two to imitate lead white's warmth and handling.
See single-pigment paintsNaples yellow
Chrome titanate (PBr24) with white gives the warm, creamy Naples look. Nickel titanate (PY53) is a pale, opaque alternative; it contains nickel, a skin sensitizer.
See single-pigment paintsChrome yellow and orange
Arylide and diarylide yellows and pyrrole orange give the same punch without lead.
See single-pigment paintsNothing quite matches lead white's fast, tough, flexible film. For grounds and underlayers, a titanium-based ground or an alkyd white are common lead-free choices.
Hues made to replace lead colors 43 paints
Sold as hues of a lead color and made with other pigments. Each one's page compares it with the genuine pigment.
Paints that contain it 18 paints
Mercury (vermilion) Contains mercury
Vermilion, mercury sulfide, has been used since antiquity, first as the mineral cinnabar and later made synthetically. It was the classic warm red until cadmium reds replaced it.
- Wear gloves and keep it away from food.
- Wear a well-fitted respirator rated for fine dust (for example N95/P2 or better) if you sand or spray it.
Modern replacements
Warm scarlet reds
Pyrrole scarlet (PR255) and naphthol scarlet (PR188) come closest to vermilion's warm, slightly orange red, and are inexpensive and stable.
See single-pigment paintsHues made to replace mercury (vermilion) colors 15 paints
Sold as hues of a mercury (vermilion) color and made with other pigments. Each one's page compares it with the genuine pigment.
Paints that contain it 2 paints
Hexavalent chromium (barium chromate) Contains hexavalent chromium
Barium chromate was sold as a pale 'lemon yellow' in the 19th and 20th centuries.
- Avoid skin contact.
- Wear a well-fitted respirator rated for fine dust (for example N95/P2 or better) if you sand or spray it.
Modern replacements
Lemon yellows
Arylide yellow 10G (PY3) and benzimidazolone lemon (PY175) are clean, cool lemons; bismuth vanadate (PY184) is the opaque option.
See single-pigment paintsPaints that contain it 1 paints
Cobalt Contains cobalt
Cobalt gives some of painting's most loved colors: cobalt blue, cerulean, cobalt violets and teals, and aureolin. They're lightfast and mix to clean, slightly cool tints.
- Wear gloves and keep it away from food.
- Wear a well-fitted respirator rated for fine dust (for example N95/P2 or better) if you sand or spray it.
Modern replacements
Cobalt blue
Ultramarine with a little white comes close; hues often add a touch of phthalo blue.
See single-pigment paintsCerulean and cobalt teal
Phthalo blue (green shade) or turquoise phthalo with white imitates cerulean; add phthalo green for teal. They're far stronger, so use very little.
See single-pigment paintsCobalt violet
Ultramarine violet is the closest soft violet; dioxazine and quinacridone violets are stronger and more saturated.
See single-pigment paintsAureolin
Transparent yellows such as nickel azo (PY150, which contains nickel) or PY128 replace aureolin, which is often not very lightfast in oil.
See single-pigment paintsHues made to replace cobalt colors 25 paints
Sold as hues of a cobalt color and made with other pigments. Each one's page compares it with the genuine pigment.
Paints that contain it 146 paints
Arsenic Contains arsenic
Emerald green (copper acetoarsenite) and the arsenic sulfide yellows orpiment and realgar were used for centuries.
- If you inherit old tubes or dry pigment that may contain arsenic, don't open or use them; take them to a hazardous-waste collection.
Modern replacements
Emerald green
Phthalo green with a cool yellow and white gives a bright emerald; most emerald green hues are mixed this way.
See single-pigment paintsHues made to replace arsenic colors 12 paints
Sold as hues of a arsenic color and made with other pigments. Each one's page compares it with the genuine pigment.
No longer made, or nearly
Some historical pigments dropped out of use because they were poisonous, unstable, or impossible to make. Their names live on as hues.
Emerald green PG21
Copper acetoarsenite. Its arsenic made it deadly; it was also used as a pesticide.
No longer made. Emerald green hues use phthalo green.
Manganese blue PB33
A clean, cool turquoise blue whose manufacture was stopped in the 1990s, largely because of environmental concerns.
Every 'manganese blue' paint is now a hue, usually phthalo blue with white.
Indian yellow
A glowing transparent yellow traditionally said to be made from the urine of cows fed on mango leaves. Production ended in the early 20th century.
Modern 'Indian yellow' paints use transparent synthetic yellows and oranges.
Mummy brown
Made, as the name says, from ground-up Egyptian mummies. It fell out of use in the 20th century as supplies, and tastes, ran out.
Brown iron oxides give similar warm transparent browns.
Natural Van Dyke brown NBr8
A natural organic earth that fades in light and can make paint films crack.
Still made by a few makers; most 'Van Dyke brown' paints are permanent iron-oxide mixtures. See the paints
Bitumen (asphaltum) NBk6
Loved in the 19th century for rich transparent browns, but it never fully dries; it caused wrinkling and wide cracks in many paintings of that era.
A few makers still sell it; use it thinly, or choose transparent iron oxide browns instead. See the paints
Lead-tin yellow LTY
A favorite of the old masters that was forgotten for centuries and only identified again in the 20th century.
A few specialist makers have revived it; it contains lead. See the paints
Orpiment and realgar
Arsenic sulfide yellows and oranges used since antiquity.
No longer made for artists; arylide yellows and pyrrole oranges replace them.
Studio safety
Modern pigments are not automatically safe, and a paint without a heavy metal is not harmless. The safest approach is to treat every paint, medium and solvent as toxic, and to build habits that keep them off your skin, out of your mouth and out of the air you breathe.
Read our studio safety guide for the habits painters rely on, and how to find the safety data sheet for any paint.
This page is general information about what pigments contain. It isn't medical or safety advice and doesn't say any paint is safe. Each maker publishes a safety data sheet for its paints; read it, and follow the warnings on the label.