ASTM D01.57, the Subcommittee on Artists' Paints and Related Materials, helps artists and consumers recognize product quality and safety when manufacturers' products conform to its Standards.
ASTM Artists' Paints and Related Materials Standards
ASTM D01.57, the Subcommittee on Artists' Paints and Related Materials, helps artists and consumers recognize product quality and safety when manufacturers' products conform to its Standards.
There are several Main Committees in ASTM, and 126 Subcommittees. The D01 Committee covers Paints, and D01.57 is the Subcommittee of D01 called Artists' Paints and Related Materials. D01.57 has about 45 voting members and 17 non-voting members, representing consumers and manufacturers of artists' materials. Members of the Subcommittee include artists, educators, conservators, medical doctors, chemists and other materials scientists, and representatives from art materials manufacturers, artists' groups, manufacturers of testing equipment, and regulatory agencies. Its meetings, held twice a year, are free and open to anyone who wishes to attend - but those who wish to vote during the standards-writing process must be members of ASTM.
ASTM D01.57.has developed and published eleven standards covering such topics as testing of pigments for lightfastness, labeling content, paint performance criteria, and the health hazard labeling of art materials. Three additional standards are currently in development.
ASTM D01.57's mission includes the education of artists through the dissemination of information about the Standards. Furthering this part of the mission, D01.57 recently has commissioned articles for artists' magazines, to be written by Subcommittee experts. Topics include such issues as quality labeling of artists' paints, lightfastness testing procedures for the non-scientist, craftsmanship and art materials, and descriptions of current research on modern artists' materials, among many others.
ASTM D 4303 Standard Test Methods for Lightfastness of Pigments Used in Artists' Paints
This is a highly technical method that describes the ways in which pigments used in artists' paints (any kind of artists' paint) can be tested for relative lightfastness. It requires the use of color measuring instruments and instrumentally monitored exposure equipment. It details the preparation of test specimens and controls, describes the four types of simulated daylight exposures used in the method, and details how the test results are to be evaluated in order to place products on one of five lightfastness Categories.
ASTM D 4302 Standard Specification for Artists' Oil, Resin-Oil, and Alkyd Paints
A standard for the labeling, composition, physical properties, and performance requirements for these types of paints. Artists' paints that conform to this specification will have the following statement on container labels: "Conforms to ASTM D 4302." The standard also contains a Table of pigments tested according to D 4303 and rated for their lightfastness. Only pigments rated Lightfastness I (excellent) or 11 (very good) conform to the standard. Paints conforming to this standard must have been tested for lightfastness and rated in conformance with D 4303.
ASTM D 5067 Standard Specification for Artists' Watercolor Paints
This standard is similar to ASTM D 4302, but applies to the specific paint in this category. There are performance and property requirements for the various paints, which make it necessary to have separate standards for them. In addition, the different binders affect the lightfastness of pigments, and it is necessary to have separate Tables of approved pigments.
Paints that meet the requirements of these specifications will have a conformance statement, similar to the one for D 4302, on the container label. Paints conforming to these specifications also conform to ASTM D 4303 by default.
ASTM D 5098 Standard Specification for Artists' Acrylic Emulsion Paints
This standard is similar to ASTM D 4302, but applies to the specific paint in this category. There are performance and property requirements for the various paints, which make it necessary to have separate standards for them. In addition, the different binders affect the lightfastness of pigments, and it is necessary to have separate Tables of approved pigments.
Paints that meet the requirements of these specifications will have a conformance statement, similar to the one for D 4302, on the container label. Paints conforming to these specifications also conform to ASTM D 4303 by default.
ASTM D 5724 Standard Specification for Artists' Gouache Paints
This standard is similar to ASTM D 4302, but applies to the specific paint in this category. There are performance and property requirements for the various paints, which make it necessary to have separate standards for them. In addition, the different binders affect the lightfastness of pigments, and it is necessary to have separate Tables of approved pigments.
Paints that meet the requirements of these specifications will have a conformance statement, similar to the one for D 4302, on the container label. Paints conforming to these specifications also conform to ASTM D 4303 by default.
ASTM D 4236 Standard Practice for Labeling Art Materials for Chronic Health Hazards
This practice describes a procedure for developing cautionary labeling for chronic health hazards in art materials. All art materials sold in the U.S. are required by federal law (the Labeling of Art Materials Act of 1988, also called LHAMA) to conform to this standard, and to display on the container label a statement to that effect: "Conforms to ASTM D 4236." Some labels then might have two conformance statements: "Conforms to ASTM D 4236 and D 4302," for instance.
D 4236 requires that a qualified toxicologist, who determines which products must carry a warning statement and safe handling instructions, must evaluate all art materials. The standard includes tables of chronic hazard and precautionary statements that companies are required to place on product labels - these hazard and precautionary statements are based on current and developing knowledge that exists in the scientific and medical communities.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has been charged by Congress to enforce this use of the standard.
ASTM D 5383 Standard Practice for the Visual Determination of the Lightfastness of Art Materials by Art Technologists
This practice describes a method for testing the relative lightfastness of art materials not covered by D 4302, D 5067, D 5098, and D 5724: non-traditional materials like colored markers, pastels, inks, colored pencils, and so on. The practice uses Blue Wool textile fading cards as controls to determine when the proper amount of natural daylight exposure has been reached. D 5383 does not require the sophisticated instrumentation of D 4302 to evaluate the results, but it is a less strenuous and less definitive test than D 4302. It does, however, reveal products that will fade or otherwise change if used, and enables the user to communicate the test results to others with a good degree of confidence.
ASTM D 5398 Standard Practice for the Visual Determination of the Lightfastness of Art Materials by the User
This is a simplified version of D 5383, intended for individual artists to use to evaluate their own non-traditional materials for light permanence. It does not have as strict a set of controls as D 5383, nor is it as accurate.
ASTM D 5517 Standard Test Method for Determining Extractability of Metals for Art MaterialsThis is a scientific technical method used in the evaluation of art materials for determining labeling according to ASTM D 4236.
ASTM D 4838 Standard Test Method for Determining the Relative Tinting Strength of Chromatic Paints
This is a highly technical instrumental method for determining the tinting strength of a colored paint. It is more accurate, but also more complicated, than the traditional method of reducing comparative paints with a standard white and then drawing them down side-by-side for visual comparison. It must be said, in addition, that almost no one uses D 4838. Almost all manufacturers of paints (and artists) use the traditional method since it is so much simpler, even if inaccurate in some instances.
ASTM D 4941 Standard Practice for Preparing Drawdowns of Artists Paste Paints
D 4941 is a relatively simple method that tells users how to prepare samples, using the proper equipment, for testing normally thicker artists' paints for lightfastness according to D 4303. Industrial drawdown equipment is designed for more liquid paints - house paints, industrial paints - that flow slightly.
ASTM PS-XX Provisional Standard Test Method for Determining the Autocombustibility of Oil Based Art Materials
This is a provisional (emergency) standard for determining the potential for spontaneous combustion of an oil-based art material, to be used as a supporting standard for ASTM D 4236. It is in the midst of ASTM's lengthy balloting process.