Meaning and use

5.1 Artists can use a wide variety of art materials such as markers, colored pencils, pastels, colored inks and airbrush colors. Many of these materials are made for temporary artwork and may contain pigments and dyes that fade in a relatively short period of time. Product labels and manufacturer’s literature do not always provide the necessary information to distinguish between stable and light products. This practice makes it possible to check the general light resistance of the coloring materials used in the artwork; However, if a color measuring instrument and appropriate light resistance test equipment are available, test method D4303 is required. This practice can also be used to evaluate the light resistance of other types of colored materials.

ASTM D5383-16 Standard Practice for Artists and Art Technicians to Visually Determine the Light Fastness of Art Materials

Step 1: Scope

1.1 This practice includes methods of exposing specimens of indoor colored art materials to sunlight through closed Windows. Contains eight blue wool reference 2 cards simultaneously exposed. Blue Wool References 2, 3,6 and 7 are used as controls to determine when to remove test samples from exposure and to grade them. The test sample is evaluated by assigning to each sample the number of blue wool references showing the same amount of color variation.

1.2 This exercise can be used to represent art materials that will change color over months or years under normal indoor exposure and art materials that will remain the same over several years. Verifying materials in a home or office environment will remain insufficiently rigorous for more than 50 years. A major consideration in developing this method was to keep it simple and short so that it could be preformed without instruments in a relatively short time.

1.3 This practice should only be used to assess the light resistance of art materials if it is not possible to use test method D4303.

1.4 This practice does not apply to evaluating materials with a high oil content, such as artist’s oil, resin oil or alkyd paints.

1.5 Values expressed in SI units shall be considered standard. The values given in parentheses are for reference only.

1.6 This standard is not intended to address all safety concerns (if any) associated with its use. It is the responsibility of users of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and to determine the applicability of regulatory restrictions prior to use.