When I wrote my Powerful Powders handout in 2023, there was a wealth of pigment sellers and colourmen that existed that due to changes to global trade that now no longer exists or I have discovered additional vendors.
Of note, I have not vetted all of these vendors, but I can at least give a giant list of places to get started, especially if you’re not quite ready to start making your own or are making the choice to do a period thing and purchase your pigments. This list is not meant to be exhaustive, but to give you an idea of where to get started with your own historical pigment purchases.
Vendors to buy from
New York Pigment Co. (USA); When Kremer pulled out of the New York market, a hole existed for places to get pigments. Thankfully, Roger and Rachael of the NYC Kremer store got right back into the game and reopened shop. They sell mostly Kremer pigments and raw materials (and if you’re in the NYC area, their store is on 29th Street). Roger and Rachael also hold numerous workshops on paintmaking and are deeply knowledgeable of what it is they’re selling and working with.
Kremer Pigmente, (Germany); Kremer remains my preferred pigment vendor for overall quality and ease of purchase. Additionally, they are just as concerned about safety, so they have MSDS per pigment on each pigment, which I find extremely comforting. (Look, I am a bit more safety-focused given what I’m working with.) The downside is that they are in Germany, so shipping and taxes are a bit of a bear.
Sennelier (France); Sennelier’s pigments are pretty good. I find they are finely milled and need very little additional processing. However, the pigments that they tend to work in are a little more modern (e.g. Helios Red [PR3-Toluidine Red] is one of their feature red pigments). That said, Blick, Jerry’s Artarama, and other art supply stores tend to carry a lot of their pigment line, and if you are in need of pigments in a pinch, chances are that your local Blick may have what you need.
Gamblin (USA); Gamblin colours are similar to Sennelier in that they are finely milled, tend towards the modern, and can be easily found at Blick, Jerry’s, and the like. I also find them to be incredibly affordable, and as a 30 person shop, they have shown a commitment to not only their team but the environment around them.
Natural Pigments/Rublev Pigments (USA); Natural Pigments’ selection is incredible. From a variety of earth pigments (a literal rainbow of dirt) to carrying some of the more hazardous materials, their approach to colour, safety, and providing quality artist materials is beyond compare. They also have several articles delving into research on some pigments that I’ve used as resources.
Natural Earth Paint (USA); I have used a lot of their pigments for creating student sets., with a strong bang for your buck. Their commitment to sustainability and general health and safety. That said, many of the pigments are modern and may not give the look you’re looking for.
Ancient Earth Pigments (USA); A small company with SCA connections, they are one of my fave places to get lapis pigment. Highly knowledgeable and with high-quality products. Selection is quite small, however.
Demairo (Canada); Demairo specializes in lapis lazuli only, using the process as outlined by Cennini in Libro dell’Arte. Because they are focused on lapis only, it means that they have really refined their process and can make their small batches consistent from batch to batch.
Morrow Archival (USA); Morrow is dedicated to historical pigments. Unfortunately, they do not have as much on safety on their site, and when working with some of the more toxic period pigments (like cinnabar, realgar, and lead white), caution should be exercised as much as possible, including warning the public that is purchasing items from the vendor.
Books to have in your library
These books (mostly from my last two posts (Scribal Library 1 & 2) of books from my scribal library) have details on paintmaking, the historical practice of period illuminators and artists, or have modern information on pigments through a historical lens. That said, many of these texts are expensive. You do not have to rush out right now to get them; build your library at your own pace.
Pigment Compendium, Nicholas Eastaugh, Valentine Walsh, Tracey Chaplin, Ruth Siddall, Routledge; 2008. This was expensive. Like, really, really expensive. That said, this book is an incredible resource for anyone interested in historical pigments from the oldest to the newest, and while geared for museum professionals (especially with the microscopy and spectroscopy portions), I find that the details in this book (an entire pigment glossary of historical names for pigments!!!) really are phenomenal for advanced pigment nerds.
The Pigments of British Medieval Illuminators: A Scientific and Cultural Study, Edited by Richard Gameson, Archetype Publications; 2023. If you want extremely granular views of pigments used by medieval illuminators in Britain, this text is for you. This includes Raman spectroscopy of manuscripts, and details differences not only from location to location but down to individual manuscripts. This is an incredible source, and covers a period of time from pre-Conquest Britain into post-plague work. Pigments that were found include mineral, organic, and even some alchemical ones.
The Colors of the New World: Artists, Materials, and the Creation of the Florentine Codex, Diana Magaloni Kerpel, Getty Publications; 2014. This monograph covers the Florentine Codex, a 16th-century ethnographic research study in Mesoamerica by the Spanish Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún. The Florentine Codex is significant in that it uses a combination of native Mesoamerican organic pigments (cochineal, indigo, Maya blue) and mineral pigments, in a style that blends both Aztec and Spanish styles of art of the late-1500s. It’s not a large book by any means, but this text is absolutely powerful in what it shares.
What is Color?, Steven Weinberg, Macmillan; 2024. This is a children’s book. Don’t let that stop you. Sometimes, the silly is needed, especially with some colours, and in this book, it’s a great jumping off point to get smaller kids interested in the science and the art of what goes into the stuff that makes their world colourful. It’s hilarious, kind of zany, and I really do love it.
The Secret Lives of Color, Kassia St. Clair, Penguin; 2016. This is one of those books that really delves into what makes colour a thing in our world, and how some of those colours are made, found, or used. This is a little on the pop art history route, but it’s a delightful read, and a great way to start seeing pigment use everywhere.
The Art of Colour: The History of Art in 39 Pigments, Kelly Grovier, Yale University Press; 2023. Much like The Secret Lives of Color, this covers 39 different pigments (some modern, many period) and their use in significant pieces of art history (and some a little less significant). As a resource, it’s another fantastic read, though it’s a little more of the pop art history route. That said, much like The Secret Lives of Color, it’s a great way to really start seeing how different pigments are used and move in and our of artistic practice.
The Artist’s Color Box, Kelly Grovier, Skittledog; 2025. Not a book, but written by the same author of The Art of Colour: The History of Art in 39 Pigments, this deck of cards is a more portable method to examine colour. Many of the photos come from the Forbes Pigment Collection, and each card talks about the use of these pigments in context from artists ranging from Georgia O’Keeffe to Giotto. This is definitely an art history snack in a pack.
Color: A Natural History of the Palette, Victoria Finlay, Random House; 2002. Another art history book, not dissimilar from Grovier and St. Clair, this weaves storytelling with historical use, and is a fun read to follow the journeys of the artists who rely on the criss-crossing nature of the pigment trade. Again, this is a little pop-history, but make a cuppa and take time to read it on a rainy day, and it’s not a bad way to explore the origins of where our pigments come from.
Book of Earth: A Guide to Ochre, Pigment, and Raw Color, Heidi Gustafson, Abrams Books; 2023. If you want a gorgeous book, this is it. There are a lot of things I deeply appreciate this, however, there are also items that tend a little less academic and a little more interesting anthropological studies into the mystical meanings attributed to certain ochres (which one part of me found simultaneously charming and frustrating). That said, this does go into breaking down raw ochre processes (though modern) and geological sources of a literal rainbow of dirt.
From Plant to Pigment: How to make your own vibrant inks, pastels and paints, Natalie Stopka, Skittledog Books; 2025. This book goes into detail about foraging, harvesting, and working with organic materials to make your own artist supplies, including how to build your lab to process your foraged materials for making lake pigments.
Found and Ground: A Practical Guide to Making Your Own Foraged Paints, by Caroline Ross, Search Press, 2023. Caroline Ross discusses where to forage mineral, organic, and earth pigments, and how to bind them in this text. For scribes interested in processing their own materials, this goes through the full process of smashing, sieving, levigating, and further processing earth pigments for studio use, as well as where to find them. She also discusses how to make some binders (mostly glair and egg tempera, though watercolour is also mentioned). If you want to make your own pigments from scratch, this is a great way to get started. Very little discussion is made on historical pigments, but for more earth pigments, the process largely has remained unchanged for millennia.
Make Ink: A Forager’s Guide to Natural Inkmaking, by Jason Logan, Abrams Press, 2018. This beautifully photographed and straightforward text shows readers how to forage materials to make writing inks, but also does so across the full spectrum of visible colour. This goes through the process of making ink starting from a walk in the woods to taking items home to make something to write with after an hour or two at the stove. This book is beautifully accessible, and makes the process of making ink a rewarding one.
Inks & Paints of the Islamic Golden Age: A Handbook of Art Technology, by Joumana Medlej, Majnouna Books, 2026. I got in on Joumana’s Kickstarter for this book, which is an expanded version of her 2018 publication on the same subject. It is packed from cover to cover on the history and process of making so many of the artist materials for art dating to the Abbasid Caliphate (750 to 1258 CE). Medlej is extremely thorough, and this tiny spiral bound text is perfect for studio use. She talks about how to source pigments, as well as how to process them. That said, she does talk about some pretty toxic materials (with notes) so if you are going to use this absolutely beautiful text, please note the safety notes.
Gold from Newton’s Apple Tree: Historical Recipes for Natural Inks, Paints, and Dyes, Nabil Ali, Princeton University Press, 2026. This showed up about the same time as Joumana’s book on the pigments of the Islamic Golden Age, so I had a lot to chew through. This book is beautiful, and Ali is knowledgeable. Many of the citations date from post-SCA period, however he walks through his own practice within this text and discusses how to get inks, pigments, and dyes from organic sources like saffron, buckthorn, and hibiscus. If Found and Ground is how to make paint from the earth, Gold from Newton’s Apple Tree is how to make paint from plants and flowers.
The Art & Science of Illuminated Manuscripts: A Handbook, Harvey Miller, Stella Panayotova (ed); 2024. Covering everything from chemical analysis to pigments to painting techniques, this 500+ page text is information dense and filled with numerous colour plates. Anything a scribe would want to know about modern historical and scientific analysis of medieval texts all the way to how paint was laid onto the page is covered in this book. It is pricey, but if you can bring this one into your life, I strongly recommend it.
Trade in Artists’ Materials: Markets and Commerce in Europe to 1700, Archetype Publishing, Jo Kirby ,Susie Nash, Joanna Cannon (editors); 2010. Discussing supply lines and what the pigment and art material trade looked like, this text is another information-dense text, covering supply lines dating from about the 1300s into 1700s across wWestern Europe. Tables of materials, what they were called, how much they were valued, and even who the supplier was is covered in this text. With this primarily dating to post-High Middle Ages, I would recommend this for anyone interested in period supply lines and those interested in Western European materials used by artists.
konstantia kaloethina 