earth colour

In art, a pigment that is found in its natural state in the earth. Earth colours include yellow, brown, and red ochres, raw sienna (yellowish-brown), raw umber (dark yellowish-brown), and terre-verte (greyish-green). Roasting will change the colour, for instance raw sienna becomes reddish-brown as burnt sienna, and raw umber a dark brown as burnt umber. Before paints were chemically produced, earth colours were the most dominant in art. Prehistoric cave paintings are made up of earth colours, mainly ochre. Even now, earth colours are among the most permanent and least expensive pigments.