Lightfastness

What is Lightfastness?

In the past watercolor wasn't considered a serious medium because pigments faded very quickly and paintings had a rather short lifespan. Hanging them on the wall wasn't even up for discussion. If anyone takes advantage of such an opportunity to display old drawings, it's museums, where under a dark velvet curtain you can enjoy the sight in pale brown tones.

Back then, watercolors faded quickly because the pigments didn't have high light resistance. Fortunately, science has moved forward, and now we can be almost certain that our paintings will last for about a hundred years.

However, I still recommend being careful.. Not every pigment can withstand strong light exposure, so when buying paint, you must pay attention to the lightfastness rating.

If you're drawing just to scan the artwork and put it aside, then you can ignore this parameter. Nevertheless, it's still advisable to keep the drawings in a dark place.

Usually, lightfastness is indicated by small plus or star signs. Three plus signs indicate the most stable pigment. The fewer plus signs, the less lightfast the pigment is.

A vivid example of such non-lightfast paint is "Opera Pink," PR112, on which I personally conducted an experiment: a couple of hours in direct sunlight and we lose half the brightness, plus the paint's shade changes.

Usually, serious manufacturers display this parameter next to each product name in catalogs, as well as on the packaging of pans and tubes.

Summary

If you plan to decorate walls with your paintings, then you have no choice: watch for the number of plus signs on the packaging.