Malachite green pigment is used for meadows, blending into the blue of water and in the details of clothing. These two minerals are ground to make the first colors applied to the canvas. Synthetic green and blue pigments have been found in thangkas of the 18th and 19th centuries. For the most vivid reds, thangka painters use native mercury sulfide or cinnabar. The painters also used cinnabar mined from the Hunan Province of China and in India.
Brilliant scarlet is considered the highest quality vermilion used by Tibetan artists.
It is vigorously blended with a little water in a mortar and pestle. Painters sometimes use this technique to get a pure, intense scarlet color. For orange pigment, they use minium or red lead. Synthetic miniums from Nepal are considered superior. Earth white is a mineral of high-grade chalk.