Hello everyone.

Can anyone help in the area of making ones own pigments. So far we all know about bianco de san giovanni, but what about others? The earth tones? Ive read about michelangelo digging in the popes garden to find the right tones for his ceiling, is there anyone who understands how this is gone about? Or where one could find some good information on the subject? Can pigments be made out of anything that comes to us naturally from the ground or from stones? I know colors that are made from anything vegatable won't work for fresco because of the caustic nature of the lime, but i see colors everywhere everyday and i want to extract them. The reason why I ask mostly is beause i was thinking about lapis lazulie, and how it is a blue stone from afghanistan (ultram-marine - over the sea) and it can be ground into color. Does this mean i can take say amathyst, or quartz or whatever and do the same with it? Or is there some special quality or characteristic found in some stones and not others? And when i see a pigment called say 'Italian Raw Sienna', does that just mean that its made from earth from italy? Can i take the dirt\clays from outside my home and make a color from it somehow? Anyways, sorry for the remedial way im asking the question, its just an area i know little about as of now and wish to expand. Thank you everyone for your help in this quest.

Ryan