The Shadowy Umbers

The range of bright colors available today is so broad and complete it’s possible to mix practically any neutral imaginable. Yet, there’s nothing quite like the instantly recognizable appearance of traditional earth colors like the Umbers, which are present in countless works of art. Umber was one of the earliest pigments adopted for use by artists, and today Raw and Burnt Umber remain affordable, versatile workhorses of the artist’s palette, offering some of the best values available in any medium or brand of paint.

The word “umber” is derived from the Latin “ombra” meaning “shadow,” which indicates a key application for these natural, dark earth tones in painting. Umbers are obtained through mining terrestrial sources of iron oxide minerals with natural manganese content. There are several variations of Umbers, but the most common are Raw and Burnt Umber. Raw Umber, as the name suggests, features the unmodified, natural color of the pigment. The process of “burning” pigments to alter color originates in prehistory, with the first manufactured inorganic pigment, Red Ochre, dating back to the Paleolithic period. Through the modern version of that process, Burnt Umber is heated to temperatures in a range of several hundred degrees Fahrenheit in order to induce a color change to a warm, reddish tone.

Raw Umber has cool, yellowish undertones and moderate tint strength—perfect for the initial ébauche or “wash” of an oil painting. Raw Umber combines with bright, transparent blues and greens to produce beautiful near-black neutrals with subtle undertones, ideal for landscape and still life. Burnt Umber provides fleshy, natural reddish-brown mixtures that support figurative work both impressionistic and realistic.

Raw and Burnt Umber also influence drying rates in oil paint, a significant advantage unrelated to their appearance. The natural manganese content of Umber acts as a chemical catalyst to gently speed the drying of linseed and other drying oils. This chemical action occurs through the entire paint thickness, which is another reason why Umbers are excellent for supporting drying at any stage of a painting. Raw and Burnt Umber can also be mixed in tiny amounts with slower-drying colors to induce faster curing, especially in pigments like Lamp Black, where the natural brown color of umber will not be detected. The modern palette is dominated by bright, chromatic hues, many of which did not exist before the 20th century. Yet, today, artists still depend on some of the most ancient pigments, mined from the earth, to contrast against and fine-tune bright colors, and to impart important working properties to paint. The Umbers still stand out as incredibly versatile and useful colors, earning them privileged status in what is still considered the standard assortment for most artists.