Moody Sepia

The word “sepia” is derived from the Italian word “Seppia” for the cuttlefish (a marine animal related to squid), which is the original source of the warm brown colorant. Sepia for writing and drawing is produced from the ink of this sea mollusk, which contains naturally occurring melanins that impart the characteristic color.

Use of Sepia ink for writing and art dates back to the ancient world and continued for centuries. Unlike iron gall ink, which contained acids that attacked paper and parchment, Sepia ink did not interact destructively with drawing supports. Sepia was used in the work of artists including Da Vinci and Rembrandt at a time before Asian carbon inks like black India would supplant soot- based Bistre ink.

In the late 1700s, German artist Jakob Seydelmann developed a condensed sepia suitable for use in painting as a toning glaze. This inspired the sepia- toning process for photography, which improved permanence and gave a warm, complex appearance to pictures that emulated the transparent veil of the natural sepia Seydelmann had used in his art.

In art materials, genuine sepia was sometimes included in early versions of proprietary mixed hues of watercolor including Payne’s Gray and Neutral Tint. Today, artists’ colors called Sepia are mixtures of modern pigments that simulate the historical color. Animal-derived sepia is now practically obsolete as an art material and is only available from niche, artisan sources, but the name is a permanent part of the lexicon of color, photography, film, and art.