Talk:Bistre

Weird shade given

 * Bistre's appearance is generally of a mid-to-dark warm brown, with a yellowish cast.

As an artist, I have frequently used the colour bistre brown, and it is almost always a mid-to-light warm brown with a yellowish cast - and certainly nothing like the colour shown in the picture! If I had to give a c,m,y,k rating for bistre, it'd be closer to 40, 50, 80, 0 than the 0, 30, 49, 76 listed. Although I have no doubt that the original pigment was a darker colour, the normal art use of the term is surely now considerably lighter. Grutness|hello? 06:24, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)


 * It wouldn't hurt to show several example colors advertised as "bistre", sort of a NPOV for shades. it seems to be one of those colors that has many interpretations; I have postage stamps described as "bistre" that run the gamut from tan to sepia... Stan 17:18, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Isn't mahogany more brownish? the shade givn is too orange.

The correct shade of the brown tone of bistre has now been added to the article. Keraunos (talk) 01:18, 12 October 2012 (UTC)

Cyclopaedia reference
"Instead of this, some used the strokes of a pen, some Indian ink, others a black stone, etc. [1]"

This reference from the Cyclopaedia doesn't make much sense. I believe the intent of the author was to indicate that some other artists used hatching ("some strokes of the pen"), or washed using indian ink or ink from a "black stone" as used in China, in the place of bistre. I think the reference is definitely usable, but in its current, nearly original state, it's more confusing than informative. Rujoking (talk) 22:38, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

Color
Old masters may have drawn with BLACK (very dark gray) bister/bistre and their current color is the result of time, right? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.255.168.151 (talk) 13:10, 23 March 2021 (UTC)