Love Letters in Crayon: Burnt Sienna
Proven time and again as the favorite least favorite color in the box.
Every Friday afternoon, “64 to Infinity: Love Letters in Crayon” will illustrate the long, strange story of humankind in one of the 64 colors that make up this world-famous primary palette. In the most recent Love Letter, we felt the warm embrace of Burnt Orange as we examined the color’s featured role in our shared story. This week, we celebrate a crayon with an irreplaceable role in the Color Canon: Burnt Sienna!
When you think of colors in The 64 that were seldom if ever used, Burnt Sienna strikes that peculiar balance between immortality and oblivion that always brings it to mind first.
Despite (or maybe even because of) this, this humble hue won its continued relevance in the quintessential prepackaged palette by way of a 2003 "Save the Shade" competition, sending flashier but less essential shades such as Magic Mint and Blizzard Blue to the Color Graveyard.
One of the original "Earth Tones," Burnt Sienna may be the first engineered pigment employed by human artists; the foundation of countless prehistoric cave paintings that help to illustrate our impossibly unlikely journey to the chrome-plated future in which we live.
An unknown inventor’s fateful flame branded Burnt Sienna into our consciousness, opening a pantonic Pandora’s box...control of color remains one of our kind’s more underrated achievements.
Taking its name from a city famous for its production during the Renaissance, the subtle shade finds permanent placement in picturesque panoramas from the humbling expanse of an ancient canyon to waves of terracotta roof tiles backed by endless expanses of sparkling Cerulean sea.
Indeed, Burnt Sienna forms the visual foundation for a stunning array of æsthetic treats including NASA's mighty External Tank that enabled early spacecraft to “slip the surly bonds of Earth and touch the face of God,” and now you see why I am obsessed with this color.
Burnt Sienna may not be your favorite color, but it’s certainly someone’s so I’m glad we showed it a little love today. Join us next Friday as our coloful series continues with that signature shade of dangerous days at sea: the crayon known worldwide as Cadet Blue.
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