{"id":12234,"date":"2023-03-12T17:39:21","date_gmt":"2023-03-12T21:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/?p=12234"},"modified":"2023-03-12T17:44:59","modified_gmt":"2023-03-12T21:44:59","slug":"titanium-white-sucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2023\/03\/titanium-white-sucks\/","title":{"rendered":"Titanium white sucks"},"content":{"rendered":"

I take back all the nice things I said about titanium white<\/a>. I was never a fan of titanium white but after trying some of Michael Hading’s versions of the color, warm white and unbleached white, I decided to give it another chance. My preferred white, flake white, is orders of magnitude more expensive than titanium white so I hoped to find a viable replacement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might be asking, “What’s wrong with titanium white?” Titanium, a late-comer on artists’ palettes, was purported to have all the good qualities of lead white without any of lead white’s bad qualities. This turns out to be wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/span>In the Studio Oct. 14 2012<\/span><\/a><\/div>

The most obvious problem with titanium white is its garish chalkiness that easily overpowers other colors. New artists might not realize that the chalkiness they experience is unique to titanium white. Paint manufacturers search for ways to correct the chalkiness by adding adulterants during production. The top brands offer multiple modified versions of the color. Harding, for example, provides 3-4 versions of titanium white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also reports of titanium white forming spongy surfaces and delaminating. I personally haven’t experienced the last two, probably because I don’t use it enough. The show stopper for me is its stiffness and poor handling attributes when compared with lead white. Painting is difficult enough without handicapping myself with subpar tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/span>In the Studio—10\/28\/12<\/span><\/a><\/div>

While lead white is dangerous when ingested, so are several other colors routinely found on artists’ palettes, such as the cadmiums. Lead white is most dangerous when used in pigment (powder) form. If you grind your own colors, ensure that you use a well-ventilated space and wear a mask. For day-to-day use, take care not to get it near your mouth. Notice that this advice is good, commonsense advice across the board for oil painters, even those who do not use flake white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The row of three titanium paint piles in the middle of my palette help to illustrate the issues with this paint. The first or left-most is from a tube of Old Holland titanium. I don’t know how old the tube is but because I stopped routinely using titanium a long time ago, and because I no longer use Old Holland, it must be really old. I had to twist the lid off with pliers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/span>Hurricane Sandy<\/span><\/a><\/div>

The other two titanium (the scribbled piles of white in the lower right are flake white) are from my recent purchase from Harding. The center white is Harding’s ‘warm white.’ It’s a little warmer and duller than the Old Holland version. It still suffers from the usual titanium chalkiness and so it’s not suitable for my style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the tannish white is Harding’s ‘unbleached titanium.’ It’s the best-handling titanium I’ve used, BUT it still cannot compare to flake white. When I wrote about this paint earlier, I’d hoped to be able to use it in a few corner cases, such as when I need more body than what flake offers, but it’s just a poor performer and useless for me. This is not a knock against Harding oils which are excellent; it’s a titanium thing. Harding’s good qualities convinced me to give the titanium stuff another try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/span>Thumbs-up: van Ruisdael; Thumbs-down: Renoir<\/span><\/a><\/div>

Has anyone found a truly good flake white substitute? If so let me know. I’d love to save a few bucks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I take back all the nice things I said about titanium white. I was never a fan of titanium white but after trying some of Michael Hading’s versions of the color, warm white and unbleached white, I decided to give it another chance. My preferred white, flake white, is orders of magnitude more expensive than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":12264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[208,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-materials","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/zzztit2.jpg?fit=800%2C393&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10820,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2022\/08\/titanium-white\/","url_meta":{"origin":12234,"position":0},"title":"Titanium white","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"August 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"In the past, I trolled titanium white users--zinc white users too. These whites, inferior as they are, provide the only competition for the champion of oil-paint white, lead white. Actually, it isn't even a contest; lead white wins easily on every metric that matters: blending, body, and all-around handling. Titanium\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "materials"","block_context":{"text":"materials","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/materials\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/ti-white1.jpg?fit=800%2C467&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/ti-white1.jpg?fit=800%2C467&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/ti-white1.jpg?fit=800%2C467&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/ti-white1.jpg?fit=800%2C467&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11445,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2022\/10\/the-problem-with-blended-commercial-oil-paint\/","url_meta":{"origin":12234,"position":1},"title":"The problem with blended commercial oil paint","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"October 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The ideal palette consists entirely of single-pigment colors. Such an ideal palette provides artists with total control over values and tones. This is especially important for artists, like me, who use lead white. These days, even high-end brands use titanium white in their multi-pigment colors. Old Holland, for example, uses\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "materials"","block_context":{"text":"materials","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/materials\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/pal-a.jpg?fit=1000%2C587&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/pal-a.jpg?fit=1000%2C587&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/pal-a.jpg?fit=1000%2C587&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/pal-a.jpg?fit=1000%2C587&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":680,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2013\/01\/white-paint-in-praise-of-lead\/","url_meta":{"origin":12234,"position":2},"title":"White Paint–in Praise of Lead","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"January 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The most important color--by far--is white. \u00a0White\u00a0oil paint comes in three flavors: Zinc white (zinc oxide, PW4, usually called\u00a0Chinese\u00a0White when used in watercolors). \u00a0Although known from ancient times, its common usage is relatively modern, dating from the 18th century when it was developed as a replacement for lead white, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Shop Talk"","block_context":{"text":"Shop Talk","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/shop_talk\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11576,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2022\/11\/review-michael-harding-oil-paint\/","url_meta":{"origin":12234,"position":3},"title":"Review: Michael Harding oil paint","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"November 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"In the past, I used enough Michael Harding paint to add it to my oil paint reference. My initial rating was \"good.\" Later, I tried their titanium white and was surprised to discover that it is the best titanium white I've ever used. I am not a fan of titanium\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "materials"","block_context":{"text":"materials","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/materials\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/z-harding1.jpg?fit=1000%2C410&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/z-harding1.jpg?fit=1000%2C410&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/z-harding1.jpg?fit=1000%2C410&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/z-harding1.jpg?fit=1000%2C410&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7533,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2017\/12\/turpentine-diaries-12-17-17\/","url_meta":{"origin":12234,"position":4},"title":"Turpentine diaries 12\/17\/17","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"December 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I feel like Sisyphus.\u00a0The batch of paintings that are working me over are\u00a0all in mid-flight.\u00a0 I keep rolling the rock uphill but I haven't reached or even seen the crest of the hill.\u00a0 Not only that, I've fallen backward\u00a0with some of them--bah. The Press is 40\" x 50.\" Studio corner\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cleveland"","block_context":{"text":"Cleveland","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/cleveland\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/studio-2017-12-17.jpg?fit=799%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/studio-2017-12-17.jpg?fit=799%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/studio-2017-12-17.jpg?fit=799%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/studio-2017-12-17.jpg?fit=799%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9671,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2021\/07\/blue-ridges-cremintz-white\/","url_meta":{"origin":12234,"position":5},"title":"Blue Ridge’s cremintz white","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"July 17, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The brands I use most often for the all-import flake white are RGH, Blue Ridge, and Utrecht. I crossed Utrecht off the list after discovering that they've added zinc to their Flemish white. I don't buy the premier brands--Blockx, and Old Holland--anymore because the small manufacturers provide excellent paint at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "materials"","block_context":{"text":"materials","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/materials\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/br-1.jpg?fit=800%2C415&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/br-1.jpg?fit=800%2C415&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/br-1.jpg?fit=800%2C415&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/br-1.jpg?fit=800%2C415&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Gw6F-3bk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12234"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12273,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12234\/revisions\/12273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}