Question from a foreigner.
 

What is the meaning of the terms " Body Color" and "Dead Color" ?

Is it the same as "local color", the color of the thing that is painted, without any influence of light or reflections?

Thanks, Allan.

I'm not sure those terms have any generally-agreed-upon meanings. I could only guess, which may not be whatever the author intended.

Michele,
this is from the ARC Articles - The Painter in Oil - Daniel Burleigh Parchurst - Page 9 / 10.
"Luminosity. The impressionist is imbued with the fact that all the light by means of which things are at all visible is luminous - that it vibrates. He does not think that living light can be represented by dead color."

"body color" I have seen used in that same article and other places too.

Allan

Ps. I see now that "dead color" could be something like "one plain color" in contrast to the effect of two contrasting colors that interacts.
Body color is still in question.

Hi Allan,

I'm also a foreigner, but as far as I'm concerned, dead color is a color which has no gloss upon it. Artists like Rembrandt used to apply a layer of dead color on the canvas and then paint on it, it was a dark toned paint. If you visit www.angelartschool.com/secret.htm secret.htm you will see an example of painting with Caravaggio's technique with the dead color.

Body color is a paint or pigment that has consistency, thickness, or body, in distinction from a tint or wash.

Hope it helps buddy.

Dead palette....
 

I've heard the term "dead palette" as meaning a very limited palette comprised of an earth red, an earth yellow, a black (that tints blue) and flake white.

Bonfim and Mari,
Thanks for your reply

Allen

A little late responding .... but,

The British I believe use the term 'body color' when referring to opaque watercolor or gauche especially as in a stroke of body color on top of a transparent watercolor as occasionally Sargent would do in order to not paint around very small touches of light value surrounded by dark. A more satisfactory and fresh approach than the purist idea of straight transparency or 'lifting' which can often look overworked.

'Dead color' I would think would refer to the dead layer of a multi-layered painting method in which a gray opaque layer is painted upon a transparent massing in of a line drawing on canvas. When the dead layer is dry, the transparent and opaque color layers begin and so forth until finished.

I hope you don't mind me chiming in a couple of years after the fact but I just recently been active.

Clayton

Thank you, Clayton,
"opaque color" must be the answer to both "body -" and "dead color".

By the way, I really enjoy looking at the paintings you posted lately, I wish that I could see you paint.

Allan, I'm not sure what "dead color" actually means, but I have always assumed it meant the overall color of something, the color you would put down first after drawing the outlines of the major forms. It could be tending toward a midtone, maybe slightly greyed, but never the lightest you are going to go with the color.

To me, the term "dead" means that the painting has no light in it yet at that stage. So, in other words, the painting comes "alive" with the application of the colors in the light. And of course the "life" is further enhanced by the addition of deep shadows.

It's pretty similar to what Clayton is saying, I think.

He is dead, he is alive...
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/

Parkhurst is worth the read. As with everyone who writes on the subject of color, the problem is the same as attempting to communicate the concept of "color" to someone who has been blind since birth.

The term "dead layer" has been generally applied to a grisaille underpainting. In this case, I think Parkhurst is referring to a layered approach in painting (i.e., solving form and value in monotone and overpainting/glazing color in layers) as opposed to the Impressionists' a primier coup method, using "pure" color, and painting wet into wet.

"Dead color" as a critical observation is, of course, a personal value judgment. Anyone who has painted very long at all recognizes that "muddy color" doesn't reside in the paint itself, but results from bad values and unhappy combinations in placement.

I'd hazard that by "body color" he means "local color" or "mass tone".

body color or bodycolor - An opaque paint. Transparent colors are often made opaque by mixing them with some gouache or some opaque white. Often considered synonymous with gouache. Body color has sometimes been used in local areas in drawings, and sometimes as a general medium.

Also see whiting.

An example of a work employing bodycolor:

Honor