Lead White vs Titanium

Titanium white is one of the most popular pigments that you can paint with, but I prefer to use lead white. Let's talk about it. I'm Katie Lydiard and I want to tell you why I do prefer lead white despite the negative connotation and why you might decide that it's better for your paintings. So I have my two whites here. This is lead white here and this is Titanium. Titanium is a great pigment because it's a nice bright white. Lead is a little, you can see it's a bit softer, it's a little grayer and that I can use to my advantage. Now, why would I choose lead when I can use Titanium, which is not only more accessible but you know, considered a safer pigment than lead. Now, to be clear, lead is very safe. As long as it's in paint form, you're not going to want to sand this, especially without any sort of personal protection. But if it is in paint form, it is very stable and very safe to use. But I'll show you why I do prefer it over Titanium. Now, I'll grab some Titanium and I'll bring it up to the canvas, I did tone this canvas so that you can see the difference a bit easier on the toned canvas instead of a white canvas. And you can see just how bright that is and great coverage. Grab some lead, still great coverage, but it is a bit more transparent than the Titanium. You can kind of see just a little bit more transparent color in there. And that brush has a little pigment in it already. So I'll get a new brush and cover. So it does take more paint to cover with lead than it does. Titanium Titanium is a very opaque color, which is great in a lot of different situations and it's really fantastic to mix with pigments while you're say Planar painting because you can get those really bright, you know, whites or colors that you'll find in the in nature that you might not find in the studio. Let's grab some green, some sap green here. You can kind of see, you know, it's just a really beautiful green. Um And then the lead, it's gonna be a bit more of a sub green, a bit more subdued, a bit more yellow and that is the real difference. Lead is a warmer white than Titanium. Titanium is a really bright cold white. Um And where the warmth of the lead really comes through in, in mixing. Uh That's where I really love to use it. Ok. So I'm going to grab some vermilion here. Lead is especially great for portraiture painting or any, any situation where you just want a bit more subtle, you know, transitions or, or whatever it may be if you want more subtle colors, that's where lead really, really shines. Ok. So we have some lead and vermilion here. Vermilion, by the way, is a classic portraiture color, really beautiful uh for a lot of different purposes. When it comes to painting the portrait, I'm gonna clean this brush really quickly and I'll grab some vermilion with the titanium and you'll be able to see just how much brighter, right? That is. Even if I add a little bit more for million, it just retains that brightness. It's far more pink, far more just kind of in your face where this is far more soft and you know, blends very nicely with the lead rather than with the titanium. So are there applications for this? Absolutely. Um But I prefer kind of the more subtle tones that lead offers. Um And if we mix it with some blue, so where blue is a cold color anyway, grab some ultramarine and some lead. Now, ultramarine on its own is a pretty powerful color. So you might need a bit more lead anyway, to kind of calm it down. Ok. So there it is with the led, let's see how it reacts with the titanium. Look how much brighter that is. So like I said, this would be great for painting a sky, right? Perfect for plain air painting, but this is just far more subtle um and is a lot more useful, at least to me in certain instances. So even if I add more blue to that mixture, right, it still is going to take a lot more blue to get kind of that rich, deep blue tone that you have here. That was really easy to get with the lead. Um But again, if you do want something brighter, then of course, Titanium is going to be an excellent choice for you. The other thing uh with lead is that it creates a very strong paint film. So if I'm using lead white throughout the entirety of my painting in every paint layer, then my paint film is going to be very, very strong and that's where I'm not going to be getting as much cracking in the in the paint layers. And, you know, I won't have to worry about the longevity of my painting near as much. So Titanium is a really great pigment and I absolutely think that there are a million uses for it, but I do prefer lead for my general painting purposes. So I hope this was informative to you lead is not the scary pigment that, you know, it's made out to be, it's a really useful and classic pigment that all the old masters used. And you know, you can use today to create a really strong painting and a really subtle painting at that. So give that a try, but also have Titanium, you know, ready to go whenever you need that little extra punch.