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YInMn Blue  or Yin Min blue is a recently developed inorganic pigment, the first inorganic blue pigment discovered since cobalt blue was discovered in 1802.  The pigment was accidentally discovered a decade ago by Professor M.A. Subramanian in Oregon. Composed of yttrium, indium, and manganese, it yields a blue pigment that is chemically stable, fade-proof, opaque and non-toxic.  Because some of the ingredients are fairly rare, the patented pigment is still mostly inaccessible as an artist’s color, but Gamblin has made a 164-tube limited run of the color for oil painters at a cost of $75 per tube.  Professor Subramanian has experimented with other variations of the basic recipe, substituting some less expensive ingredients, and the result has been some additional colors, which also look promising.

Sketches arrive early in the planning process for a National Geographic article. By means of these rough, tentative sketches, the art director must convince the magazine’s editor to allot valuable space in the article for illustrations. Wounded charioteer. Pencil sketch for a  National Geographic article on the Etruscans 1987. You’re competing against the writer (who has reams of text), and the photographer who has hundreds of gorgeous, finished photos. Sometimes the editor’s knife cuts out a lot of visual ideas that might have made exciting paintings, but they didn’t add enough to the story.