Islamic Painting tools
The work of the Islamic photographer was not an easy matter, but rather a painstaking and hard work that required a long time and great effort, as he was not limited to drawing only, but he had to bring himself his tools such as brushes, colors, dyes, decorative paper and everything he needed in his work.
Each photographer specialized in his method of preparing these tools and was proud of them and considered them a secret that he does not reveal to anyone except to his students, because he believes that it is the best method and the best way in which he can gain colors and pigments luster and splendor.
The Kind Of Colors
There are two king of colors the first is metallic colors, and the second is botanical colors. The photographers preferred the first colors because they are naturally opaque and opaque. They preserve the color and its degree and do not mix with each other, forming secondary colors. If we put a blue color over a yellow color, the yellow disappears and the blue remains blue.
As for plant colors, due to their transparency, the two colors mix and become a secondary color, green, and so on. These colors were prepared by crushing the minerals into soft dirt, usually with a hard stone specially made for this purpose, After that, it is sifted with a very thin cloth, then mixed with a viscous carrier, which is the liquid that the photographer uses to create dyes by adding minerals to it.
What colors depends on
The beauty of colors depends on two things:
the first is the accuracy of crushing and screening, and the second is the amount of bearing used in the process of color formation. Al-Mahmal had three types: earthquakes, glue, and gum Arabic. And the first of them was preferred in the early ages for the persistence of the colors equipped with it and their resistance to the action of moisture, and the color images in it would not be damaged if water was poured on them, and since the earthquakes were sticky, the photographer used to add alum to it, and due to the speed of corruption, the preparation was done when needed and when necessary.
The glue replaced the albumen, and grape juice or sugar solution was added to it to prevent the images from cracking if it was limited to the glue alone. The colors added to it retain their luster, but to a lesser degree than albumin.
As for gum Arabic, it was rarely used, because it is much less likely. It is noticeable that the dye used to vary in color from one era to another according to the material from which it was brought, and this property was relied on in verifying the ratio of images to different Ages depending on the analysis of the colors used in their coloring.
It is known that the red color was prepared from the red lead resulting from heating the lead, and from other metal oxides. As for the blue color, it was evoked from azurite and azurite. To obtain the yellow color, use yellow lead oxide or yellow ocher.
As for the purple, it was from the seashell of a purple-colored fish, or from sulfur and yellow arsenic, which is called Tarija. And white from lead white or thin chalk. The color is bright violet, and pink is a mixture of blue and scarlet Indian.
The scarlet color is a dry insect from the cochineal family that lives on the many thorny oak trees that grow around the Mediterranean and finally gold for its golden color. The brush was made of animal hair. In Iran, it was from the hair of a two-month-old cat, and it must be especially long, and in India, squirrel hair was used, and the brush was specially prepared so that its tip ends with one hair, of course, in order to be able to color the fine lines.
The photographer mastered the form of paper, so the paper was speckled with gold, marble, or cloud, which are simple, combed, complex, flowered types with inscriptions and drawings, and finally gold.
The paper had to be glazed so that it would not absorb the colors. Use egg albumen or a dilute solution of starch to sand the paper.
And how to do that is to put the solution on the surface of the paper using a wide, not thick brush, then leave it to dry, and then put the paper on a curved sheet of wood specially made for this purpose, then rub with oysters or oak until it becomes shiny.