Deep, transparent, mysterious, and best only used sparingly in oil paint. Thankfully this color is no longer made of real ivory. Its origin is still a bit melancholy as it is made from the charred bones of other animals. None of the versions on the market these days are going to be made of charred ivory, but needless to say this color is not vegan.

Ivory Black is a bit of a warmer black and has some transparency, though Mars Black is also warm, and differs in most respects. Ivory Black is lovely in glazes but it is oil rich and can have drying problems.

There can be some confusion regarding names for this pigment. Most paintmakers call their PBk9 bone black Ivory Black, but at least one also labels this Lamp Black, so here the pigment code helps.

As a pigment this color requires a high amount of oil and tends to be a slow drier.

Something very surprising that we found in Monona Rossol's work was a note that there could be some concern of prion exposure through PBk9, which makes a lot of sense due to the sources for the bones to be burned. There is also a note for limits of respirable dust called PNOS limits, please see her work.