Pigment Analysis in 13th-18th century Persian Miniature Paintings
Media: Procreate, Adobe Photoshop & Adobe Illustrator
Client: Shay Saharan (MSC2023Y)
2025
This infographic tells a story starting from the left side, describing the importance of pigment identification, with a timeline with examples of Persian paintings from the 13th - 18th century and differences between organic and inorganic pigments. Moving right, we look onto the view of the artist's desk with the tools used for painting and a miniature painting. This painting connects with the information of the identified raw materials used. The infographic further talks about the origin of the raw materials and also connecting to how the same organic dyes were used for dyeing paper. Lastly, on the most right side of the painting, the infographic dives into the cultural symbolism of some of the elements within the painting.
Ideation & Sketches
My first idea was to communicate the use of flowers as pigments in historical paintings. However after doing some research, I first found that there was not much research done with such old techniques as inorganic pigments were heavily used from the early 10th century. Going with this idea, I continued my research, when I found a few papers on analytically discovering the pigments used in Persian miniature paintings and manuscripts. I decided to uncover more about this and go with this approach as it was scientific-based evidence on the pigments used.
I took lots of inspiration from Persian miniature paintings and looked into the different colours and elements that were commonly painted to create my own version of a miniature Persian painting for this infographic. By looking into various literature papers, I understood which inorganic and organic materials were used and how they were prepared in order to create these beautiful paintings.
Comprehensive Sketch & Feedback
Feedback from my professor:
After reviewing the feedback, I decided the Raman microscopy (analytical technique) part did not flow through with the entire story of the infographic, thus I omitted it from my final. However, I did want to continue to communicate the combination of colours that I had initially shown this way:
But writing it out was quite a boring approach so I decided to experiment around the region where I had already placed these minerals/plants. I made connecting lines which would make the colour between the two or three minerals/plants. I decided to add more visual elements that could communicate this more clearly. I coloured the lines and added dots to clarify which lines connect to make that pigment – a better approach.
Persian Painting
My main focus for this piece was the main Persian painting which would be the audience eye grabber. I wanted to create a Persian painting that blended a lot of different elements such as the different trees, flowers, water, gold and abstract ‘mountain’ elements. I took elements from various Persian miniature paintings and made the combination of the elements and colours still work together in an aesthetic manner. Besides the painstaking amount of time the details took for this painting, I have a great appreciation for the masters who spent decades of their life dedicated to painting miniature paintings.
I first started with the circular flower elements I already created in my comprehensive sketch and drew around it. I wanted some of the elements to be coming out of the circle and create a whimsical feel overall. I started out with drawing the mountains within and outside of the circles and adding some of the flower trees. Then I added the water flowing and smaller plants around the water and finished by adding more flowering plants and the lady in yellow.
Paper Layers & Cultural Symbolism Section
With the analytical section removed, I had a lot of space to incorporating something else. I knew I wanted to add something related to the type of paper used during that time or the contents of paper. I found a very nice paper (Barkeshli, M. (2016). Historical Persian Recipes for Paper Dyes.), which went over the process of dying paper in detail and showed the different organic materials used to obtain different coloured paper. After reading this paper, I brainstormed further and found another paper talking about the layers of the paper (studied through analytical techniques).
I like the layers created however I felt the paper was too static and required some movement within this area. I decided to add a wave wrap to all the layers to give it the aesthetic flow. I also added the coloured paper, and their organic materials used to dye it that colour on top of it. My goal with this area was to communicate this topic without adding too much text and with interesting visual elements and flow.
Symbolism is important!
I found a lot of papers which were talking about the symbolism of cypress trees and lily flower, so I made those have its own subheading. However, for the other nature elements, they all belonged to the idea of a Persian garden and the symbolism of plants and trees being holy. I decided to take elements from the Persian painting I created for the infographic and use those in a whimsical way to communicate this part.
References
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