Paint Dates Back To Around 40 000 Years

You may not know about this such a very interesting fact that paint dates back to around 40 000 years. So what is paint? Paint is any liquid or mastic composition which after applying to a surface or substrate will be converted to an opaque solid film. We will now take a look at the history of paint which dates back as far as forty thousand years ago. There are many cave paintings that have been found which were drawn with red and yellow ochre, hematite as well as manganese oxide and charcoal.

If we take look at the many ancient walls that were painted in Egypt which has survived the harsh open air climate and has still retained the perfect brilliance of colour after two thousand years. They used a technique whereby they mixed their colours with a gum type substance it was noted that they only worked with six colours such as black, white, red, blue, yellow and green. They first painted the area white and then traced a design onto the surface using black and then filled the design in using the remaining colours.

The ingredients used to make paint as the yolk of eggs as these hardened readily and would stick to any surface easily. Colour pigments were obtained from many different sources such as plant materials as well as sands and the red pigment was made from the blood of animals.

Then during the Renaissance period oil paints came into being whereby linseed oil was the base which was used for fine art and oil based paints were extensively used through the different periods and are still in existence today.

In modern day time we now find water based paints as well as watercolours and acrylic paints which are very popular. And paints that were manufactured way back like the milk medium paints which are now called casein are still available today.

You will still find a medium of egg yolk mixed with oil which is called egg tempera as well as encaustic wax paints. And there are watercolours which obtained their pigment from ground semiprecious stones and bound with gum Arabic or egg white is still available.

A very popular paint which is used primarily by art students and children is poster paints. In today's time there is a collection of different types of paints to suit all occasions from interior to exterior paints. Nowadays Primers are used before using a coat of paint to ensure better adhesion of paint which also increases paint durability as well as provides protection to the material being painted.

Then you can buy varnishes which are used to protect your paint work as these are clear paints that do not contain pigments. There are also wood stains which enhance the colour of the wood as well as protect it. Other paints which are obtainable are enamel, glaze, finger paints and even anti graffiti coatings. The best of all now on the market is anti climb paint when painted onto a surface makes it extremely slippery and should someone try and climb the wall the paint will rub off onto the climber and they will also slip down the surface. This paint was designed to deter burglars and vandals.

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