Art Spectrum Studio Blend Oil
Raw Umber 40ml
Cool, greenish-brown earth: the fastest dryer in the palette and the underpainting essential.

Art Spectrum Studio Blend Oil Raw Umber 40ml is a cool, greenish-brown earth colour with the fastest drying rate of any colour in the Studio Blend range. Based on PBr7 (natural Raw Umber iron oxide with manganese content), it combines a distinctive cool, slightly greenish-brown tone with an almost uniquely fast drying speed. Raw Umber is the standard oil painting choice for tonal underpainting: diluted with a lean solvent, it dries within hours, giving a transparent, detailed tonal structure over which all subsequent layers can be built. As a colour in its own right, it gives the cool brown tones of aged timber, shaded earth, neutral shadow, and the greenish-brown of dry Australian bush in flat overcast light.

Pigment
PBr7 (Raw Umber, natural iron oxide with manganese)
Opacity
Semi-transparent
Lightfastness
ASTM I
Drying
Very Fast
Manganese content makes Raw Umber one of the fastest-drying oil pigments
★ Art Shed Staff Tip
Raw Umber is the traditional first-layer underpainting colour for a reason: its manganese-rich pigment dries fast enough that a lean underpainting can be ready to overpaint within 24 hours rather than the several days that some other pigments need. For a structured approach to oil painting, mix Raw Umber with a small amount of fast-drying medium (like Liquin or an alkyd), thin it to a lean wash consistency, and establish your full tonal value structure before any colour goes on. Painting over a dry Raw Umber underpainting gives a confidence and speed in the colour layers that direct alla prima work does not.
Perfect For
Tonal underpainting: grisaille, ebauche, imprimaturaFast-drying lean first layers and sketching inCool shadow colour without warmthNeutral dark mixing: cool shadow and dark passagesAged timber, weathered wood, dry earthAustralian bush in flat or overcast light: greenish-brown

What Makes This Colour Essential

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Drying Speed
The Fastest-Drying Oil Colour
Raw Umber is the fastest-drying colour in the Studio Blend range due to its manganese oxide content. A lean underpainting wash in Raw Umber can dry touch-dry in hours and be safely overpainted within a day. This is invaluable for layered painting approaches.
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Tone
Cool, Greenish-Brown Earth
Unlike the warm browns (Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber), Raw Umber has a distinctly cool, slightly greenish character. It gives cool, neutral shadow tones that do not add warmth to a composition, and it reads as the most natural of the neutral earth tones.
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Transparency
Semi-Transparent
Raw Umber is semi-transparent: applied as a lean, diluted wash it gives a transparent tonal layer for underpainting; applied more thickly it gives semi-opaque coverage for direct modelling. This range makes it useful both as a wash layer and as a direct painting colour.
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Origin
Australian-Made Since 1966
Art Spectrum has manufactured artists' materials at their Epping, Victoria facility for over six decades. Studio Blend Oil is triple-milled in refined linseed oil with ASTM I rated pigments throughout the 26-colour range.

Mixing With Raw Umber

Raw Umber is a fundamental mixing colour in traditional oil painting technique. Mixed with Titanium White it gives a range of cool, neutral grey-browns for the cool mid-tones of stone, aged wood, and overcast shadow. Mixed with French Ultramarine it gives cool, neutral near-black shadow tones. Mixed with Dioxazine Purple it gives very deep, almost black shadow tones with a subtle violet-brown undertone that is more interesting than a flat black.

In Australian landscape, Raw Umber is the brown of dry winter grass, of bare earth in flat light, and of the cool shadow side of tree trunks and rock faces where no warm light reaches. In portrait and figure painting, Raw Umber is one of the most useful shadow colours for all skin tones: it gives the cool, natural quality of deep shadow without the chalky grey of a black mix. Mixed with Burnt Sienna it gives a neutral warm-cool brown mid-tone that is highly useful for all kinds of earthy subject matter.

About Art Spectrum Studio Blend Oil: Melbourne Made Since 1966

Art Spectrum Studio Blend Oil is the rebrand of the former Art Prism range, with fresh new packaging and artwork. The formula is unchanged: same pigments, same linseed oil base, same manufacturing standards. Made in Epping, Victoria since 1966. The 26-colour range is fully compatible with all Art Spectrum oil mediums and varnishes, and is also available in 150ml tubes.

Why does Raw Umber dry so fast in oil painting?

Raw Umber contains manganese oxide in addition to iron oxide. Manganese is a natural drier that accelerates the oxidative polymerisation of linseed oil, making Raw Umber dry substantially faster than other pigments. This property makes it the traditional choice for underpainting layers in oil painting.

What is the difference between Raw Umber and Burnt Umber?

Raw Umber is the unburned form: cool, greenish-brown, semi-transparent, and fast-drying. Burnt Umber is calcined Raw Umber: warmer, darker, more orange-brown, more opaque, and slightly slower-drying. Raw Umber gives cool shadow and underpainting tones; Burnt Umber gives warm, rich dark brown for deep warm passages.

Is Raw Umber suitable for grisaille underpainting?

Yes: Raw Umber is one of the two traditional choices for grisaille underpainting (the other being Ivory Black). Its fast drying speed, semi-transparency in thin washes, and cool, neutral tone make it ideal for establishing the full tonal value structure of a composition before colour glazes are applied.

Is Art Spectrum Studio Blend Oil the same as Art Prism?

Yes. Art Spectrum Studio Blend Oil is the direct successor to the Art Prism range with new packaging and artwork only. The formula, pigments, and linseed oil base are unchanged.

Is Raw Umber good for Australian landscape?

Yes. The cool, greenish-brown quality of Raw Umber is well-suited to the colour of dry Australian bush in flat or overcast light: the brown of bare earth, dead grass, weathered timber, and dry leaf litter in the understory of eucalyptus woodland. Combined with Sap Green or French Ultramarine it gives the muted, naturalistic greens of dry Australian vegetation.

Art Shed Online is an authorised Australian stockist of Art Spectrum products. All Art Spectrum Studio Blend Oil products are sourced through official distribution channels. We ship Australia-wide.

Available at Art Shed Online, Australia's specialist art supply store. Questions? Contact us at customerservice@artshedonline.com.au.

(APRU4)

SKU APRU4
Barcode # 93446082
Brand Art Spectrum
Shipping Weight 0.0670kg
Shipping Width 0.040m
Shipping Height 0.030m
Shipping Length 0.120m
Shipping Cubic 0.000144000m3

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