I can't stop buying paint with names that make me feel things
okay so I went in for one tube of something neutral today and came out with a tube of "decayed rose," "moody willow," and "antique brass" and I have no defense for it. the colors are gorgeous and I'll use them all but I know exactly why I bought them, it's the NAMES. I want to feel like a poet while I'm mixing my palette. I want to say "I started this piece with a wash of decayed rose" and sound devastating.
I'm not even ashamed honestly except slightly because I do this every single time and my partner just looks at the receipt and goes "which one is for the window painting" and it's never the one I bought.
the worst part is yesterday I painted with a technically perfect color called "indian yellow" (which I hate the name of btw, colonial vibes, we should rename it) and it was fine but I didn't feel anything. meanwhile "decayed rose" is just a muted pink I could have mixed in five seconds. the marketing got me good. I'm a trained professional and I fell for color name poetry.
does anyone else buy paints for the names or am I the only one paying $14 for a fantasy
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this is the realest thing i've read all week. i bought a tube of something called "dead pirate" once and told myself it was for a commission but i just wanted to say "dead pirate" out loud while i painted. zero regrets. the pigment industry figured out decades ago that we're all just buying poetry with a paint delivery system attached lol
haha "dead pirate" is elite. we do this in ceramics too but with glaze names and honestly it's worse because you can't see the color until it's fired. so you buy a glaze called "owl's breath" thinking it's this soft grey and it comes out radioactive orange and you just have to live with it. the industry knows exactly what they're doing, selling us a whole fantasy before we've even dipped a brush
okay the glaze thing is actually a whole different level of gambling and I respect it. you're out here trusting a name and a prayer and then "owl's breath" hits the kiln and comes out radioactive orange 💀 that's not just buying a fantasy, that's buying a MISTERY. I feel like watercolor at least lets me see what I'm getting and I still manage to disappoint myself with it daily. what do you even do with the orange one? is it living in your studio as a cautionary tale or did you lean into it??
"dead pirate" is genuinely incredible, I'm so jealous. mine are all trying to be mysterious and poetic and yours sounds like it wants to fight you. what color is it even?? I need to know if it does justice to the name or if it's like. a normal brown. and honestly the pigment industry absolutely knows what they're doing, they're basically selling us little tubes of identity and we're all eating it up with a spoon lol. was the commission real at least??