Body Colour

Body Colour, a term applied to such pigments as have body enough to be opaque, as distinguished from those which are transparent. As a general rule, pigments have more body the nearer they approach to white; consequently the light parts of pictures in oil are in body colour to give them brightness and strength, while the dark parts are transparent to give them depth. Water-colour painting, when executed by mixing the pigments with white after the manner of an oil-painting, is said to be painted in body colour.