Early in my career, the earth colors were central to my palette because they were cheap. Price was the criterion I used to select my colors: raw umber, burnt umber, burnt sienna, raw sienna, yellow ochre, earth green, Van Dyke brown, ivory black, Prussian blue, and lead white. The cadmiums and the rich blues and greens cost too much for my pocket. Because they were the most affordable, I could buy them from premium brands like Blockx and Old Holland.

Today, when price is no longer the sole consideration, raw umber and the other earths remain on my palette. Raw umber is made from natural brown iron oxide and is designated as PBr7 in the Color Index. It is a broad earth-pigment category rather than a single fixed color. Sienna colors are historically linked to deposits near Siena in Tuscany, and umbers to Umbria. “Burnt” versions are heated, which makes the colors redder. So raw umber and burnt umber are made from the same material, differing only in the production process.

In my experience, raw umber displays the same handling characteristics regardless of where it’s procured: transparent and quick-drying. Raw umber is the fastest-drying pigment, which makes it ideal for underpainting and sketching. While its handling is consistent, its appearance can vary widely depending on where the iron oxide is mined, from warm reddish to cool blue or green.

Currently. I prefer the cooler versions, and Williamsburg Italian Raw Umber is a fine example: it handles crisply while demonstrating great depth. Good stuff. Here is a painting, “Lunch in Savannah,” I’m working up. The underpainting is made entirely with Italian Raw Umber over a cool gray ground.

Here’s another view of the painting. Mybe I’ll call it “Pizza in Savannah?”

My palette, a cheap glass-framed reproduction, shows that I ignored every color except raw umber. By the way, I replaced the palette’s reproduction with a cool-gray mid-value backing. Comparing the palette’s cool gray to the coolness of the raw umber demonstrates that Italian Raw Umber’s coolness is relative to other raw umber varieties. To further illustrate the point, here is another painting I’m working on, done entirely with warm raw umbers from several vendors, primarily Williamsburg’s French Raw Umber.

Despite the poor quality of the camera-shot photo, you can see that the umber is much warmer than in the other painting. I will name this painting “Something Dance,” or Dance Something?”

I love raw umber, especially Williamsburg’s Italian Raw Umber.