What major step in the traditional painting workflow was effectively eliminated by the introduction of pre-packaged, ready-to-use metal paint tubes?
Answer
The manual grinding and mixing of dry pigments with oil
Before the invention of the metal tube, an artist's workday began with the labor-intensive process of acquiring dry powdered pigments, typically from an apothecary, and manually grinding them into a binder, usually linseed oil. This process was time-consuming, messy, and required significant effort to ensure the correct consistency. The introduction of the factory-filled paint tube removed this entire preparatory phase, allowing artists to start painting immediately by simply unscrewing a cap, which significantly increased the efficiency and available working time for artists.

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The History of Paint Tubes - YouTube
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