Rosco Spectrum: In 2016, Pantone 448 C was declared as the world’s ugliest color. So ugly, in fact, an Australian research and marketing project covered cigarette packs in the color and successfully discouraged people from smoking. While most people may be disgusted with this green/brown color, often called “Opaque Couché,” we in the scenic art biz call it Raw Umber – and we are madly in love with it!
8 comments:
"View Full Version : Raw or burnt umber???
BrideOfTyr
10-07-2005, 09:17 AM
Hi all,
I'm rapidly approaching the time to buy some more paint (acrylic). That said, I'm revising my limited palette of 6 colours and I'm curious to know if raw and burnt umber are all that different. If so, which would you recommend? My current palette consists of; burnt umber, cadmium yellow med, cadmium red med, mars black, titanium white and ultramarine. All of which are winsor & newton galleria acrylics. Any suggestions?:confused:
Patrick1
10-07-2005, 11:42 AM
In terms of color, Burnt Umber is a dark brown. Raw Umber is also dark but looks a bit greener in comparison, and a bit duller (greyer). Both are opaque and lightfast. Compare the two (click on each color)...
http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/color/heavybody/heavybody.php
Your current pigment selection is good. I personally find Burnt Umber more useful (I don't like Raw Umber's 'green-ness'). But it's up to you...it depends on how you use it.
Also, Burnt Umber + Ultramarine Blue might make Mars Black unnecessary (unless you often use black in your color mixes and would prefer to have a tube of it on hand, or you need the opacity of Mars Black.).
FriendCarol
10-07-2005, 01:45 PM
I don't know if the same is true for acrylics, but raw umber is a great 'yellow' basis for w/c dark skin tones (I like it with cadmium red for some opacity). Also, burnt umber is very easy to make (at least in w/c) by adding a tiny touch of something like phthalo blue to the raw umber (except that the result is 'staining' rather than 'non-staining,' of course; a distinction presumably unnecessary in acrylics). So, I have raw umber on my complete palette, but find no need for burnt umber.
Aren't you glad you asked? :evil: lol"
RAW UMBER IS BAE
What a humorous article! It's ironic that one of the world's ugliest colors is our favorite. I guess with theatre we always love the extremes. What I found particularly interesting is color's power. I know we often discuss color in a connotative sense: red is angry, blue is sad etc. However, I thought it was very cool how color had actual scientific effects on people with smoking habits. I definitely thought it would not have a strong effect, if at all on people with habitual patterns. It really shows the power of color connotation. Along with this idea of color in marketing is this idea of manipulating someone's unconscious. We were discussing the implications of this in Susan's class today when Sarah talked about scare tactics used in marketing as well. Is it morally right to persuade someone to do or don't do something by manipulating how they perceive it? Would it be any better if they were aware of how it persuades them?
I remember using this color for a paint mixing project in stagecraft. I avoided it at first, because the greenish brown hue is terrible, but Beth recommended it, so obviously it worked really well. We probably think that this is a disgusting looking color for the same reasons that it is perfect for scenic painting. It looks like dirt, or something aged and grimy. Of course you are not going to find a house paint that works as well (and not just because of the quality). No one wants to paint their house to look dirty, they want it to look pretty. Plus, I have never had the need to paint something in my house to look like it is kind of dirty and aged from being outside. Even a trendy vintage look pretty much stops at a patina finish. Sometimes scenic painting needs to bring the outdoors in. And it looks much less gross on the sidewalk in the article than the walls or the concentrated color in the can of paint.
During the ever famous Monet my group was assigned the Weeping willow and water-lily pond. Which you can see through the link.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Claude+Monet.+Weeping+Willow+and+Water+Lily+Pond&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwizvvKE9qvSAhVDRiYKHVLjAKoQ_AUICCgB&biw=1920&bih=887#imgrc=WszvuUrkUyettM:
My portion had a lot of muddied and muted colors and my recreation turned out to vibrant because no paint brand in their right mind is going to provide paint samples for ugly colors that no one is going to buy. Because our paint chips came from home depot the rich colors that look beautiful in the painting and disgusting as a flat color on a wall were unavailable. Colors like Burnt Umber are beautiful in every sense but a commercial one. It funny that out of all the nasty colors to choose burnt umber was the worst. How do you even decide that, is it a survey like a general consensus or some sort of board of respectable designs. It definitely wasn't the company itself that went out of its was to show off their ugliest color. Maybe it was a reflection of what color sold the least.
Article Rating:
6/10
Notes:
Opposite sides of a six sided dice add up to seven.
First, I find it weird that raw umber was picked as the ugliest color. It is a perfectly reasonable shade of brown, but I guess how ugly a color is is subjective, and I disagree with whoever was pulled for the study that decided this color was the grossest. I use raw umber all the time though. It is really good for getting in cracks and shadows to add depth to whatever I’m painting, assuming the thing I’m working on is mostly brown tones. I agree with what Claire said. I had the same issue with my Monet project, because a lot of the more neutralized and muted colors that are important for making a painting look good don’t look good if you just paint the whole wall that color. Straight raw umber may not beautiful, but you can certainly get beautiful results using raw umber as part of the painting process.
Let’s be real, this color is only used because of the awesome name that Rosco gave it. Come on, with a name like RAW UMBER, how could not want to use it. Another big one in the Carnegie paint shop that gets used in practically every show we do is Burn Sienna, a color that looks like it would be used in prison, but yet again the name pulls through. I think something that should be noted from the article is the fact that the majority of these colors are beginning used as a destressing agent with heavy dilution. I have seen artists use 15 parts water to one-part paint and achieve some beautiful aging effects. So next time you are wondering how the scenic artist made that pot or wall look it was from your grandmother’s house you know that it was curtesy of the world famous RAW UMBER.
I was drawn to this article because the title reminds me of something my mom used to say about me as a kid. The side by side comparison of house paint next to the rosco is unbelievable. The rosco has so much more pigment and thins so much better and has a beautifully disgusting finish. Its amazing to see how different levels of water added represented the wear, age, an organic, mossy, muddling of old cement. Standing alone this color is so disgusting and off putting and the thought of another department using it, like lighting or (god forbid) costumes, is haunting and would be incredibly unfalttering against any skin tone. I remember seeing the original pantone article about how revolting this color was and thinking any use of it would be unforgiveable, but all i can think about when I see these photos is the things you could do with Secret Garden.
Personally, I think mustard yellow is an even worse color than raw umber but I could see why green-brown isn't very appealing. Personally, as an occasional oil painter, raw umber is ALWAYS on my palette because it creates a great brown for shadows, grime, or undertones. That's why, in a props or scene painterly sense, it's an amazing color because it brings a certain life into an object by making it...ugly. By putting grime and dirt into a prop, we show the audience how old it is, where it's been, how the actor interacting with it has treated it. It also tells us about the person's personality and the dirt alone has a symbolic meaning of its own for sure. I think the article is formatted well and makes a strong point of why raw umber is important in this industry through the use of contrasting imagery. Similarly, it's interesting just how much people associate the concentrated color with ugliness, as seen through the Australian cigarette example. However, I'm sure there are plenty of colors that use raw umber as a base that actually do look pretty and you can see just how pretty it can be water down and painted onto something. RAW UMBER IS BAE
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