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Message
Posted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd3hCBPqzYU
Not a dvd, not a book - although you can buy those from the School of Colour and learn much more - but I feel that everyone who is seriously interested in painting should watch this YouTube film of an interview with Michael Wilcox. You don't have to have a fascination with the science - but given the range of paints (and additives) now available, you do, I believe, need to choose with great care those which will enhance your work, and those which are far more likely to damage it.
Posted
I took delivery of the book yesterday and already it's helpful.
Avoiding Alizarin, Cobalt and Cadmium yellow, at the weekend I tried a cheap Crimson, Ultramarine and deep yellow. The greens that came out were sludgy, although I very much like the ultramarine over cobalt. Wilcox's first page says no to the 3 primary mix routines, and indeed there are no three primaries one could stick to forever.
Reading on...
Posted
I'd certainly avoid Alizarin Crimson - at least, mixed with white into tints, or used as a thin glaze. Willcox recommends Quinacridone Violet, instead - Quin red or magenta might also do the trick.
If you mix a deep yellow - you don't say which one - with Ultramarine, you'll get very dull greens; with genuine Cobalt Blue, probably less so; but for a clear, bright green, use a yellow or a blue that tends towards (you'll be familiar, reading the book, with the term "carries") a green - eg Cerulean with Lemon Yellow; Pthalo with any yellow, and so on.
Important to remember, concerning Cobalt and Cerulean Blue (still referred to by Daler Rowney as Coeruleum, at least in their artists' range) that the Hue colours are almost invariably various mixes of Pthalo Blue with white. The genuine Cobalts and Ceruleans are far more subtle (and obviously, more expensive).
I used a Hue colour yesterday - Manganese Blue (Hue): I'm sure it has a Pthalo Blue base, the tube is too old for me to be able to read the pigment number, assuming it was listed; but it worked well to create not only a distinctive blue, but also bright greens with my lighter yellows. Pthalo Blue (or Green) would have been brighter and stronger still, but probably a bit much for a small (8" x 8") oil. Used the Hue, because genuine Manganese Blue is either unavailable or extremely hard to find.
Posted
Bear in mind the link is 6 years old, Denise, and might not be live any more. But you can still find the Michael Willcox School of Colour. They sell oil, acrylic, watercolour, and gouache, with a range (which must be unique) of only 12 colours, including white, and excluding black.
I use the basic method and philosophy, but also cheat - if that's what it really is - by adding old favourite colours of my acquaintance (eg Cobalt Blue, Prussian Blue, Viridian, Lead whites, Pyrrole Red, Mars Violet - and most of the Mars colours, come to that). The oil paint is of good quality, my only minor complaint being that the nozzles of the tubes are wide, and it can be quite difficult to squeeze out just a small amount: an annoyance, when you're mean!
The paint brand I recommend, though, is the Michael Harding range - some of it very expensive, but his Yellow Lake, or Bright Yellow Lake, is a very good mixing yellow AND inexpensive; and his Pyrrole red, and Scarlet Lake, are both very scrumptious. We'll all have our own favourite brands, though, the the limitations of the bank account cannot but be an important consideration; and I have a particularly soft spot for Daler Rowney Artists oils - which comprised my first oil painting set all those years ago - and for D-R's excellent Cryla acrylic range.
Posted
If you mix a deep yellow - you don't say which one - with Ultramarine, you'll get very dull greens...Embarrassed to say it was from a Reeves box, which I bought online when I first started, cheap as chips. They are fairly transparent which I like, and the ultramarine split into green in spots. But still interesting. I have a Cotman small collection, but many are hues. I would like to move to the quality paints but can't afford them all, so experimenting with the cheaper brands to decide which colours I really want. I'm a slow starter :)
Posted
Norrette I have seen some wonderful work done with “cheap” paint. Don’t knock it. It’s not the cost it’s the ability of the user.
It’s all about learning a skill being observant, imaginative and experimenting Throw your books away pick up your cheapos put on some beat musi and enjoy and create. Oh forgot the G &T.
Posted
Well my current series of watercolours are all painted using W&N Cotman paints.
I’m using a 12 full-pan box set which W&N recently sent me to try out, along with their new range of synthetic brushes, which I’ve written a test report for the December issue of The Artist - absolutely nothing wrong with the Cotman series whatsoever!
I am also using the Cotman tubes alongside the pans.
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
I have quite a few Cotman tubes - alongside many others. No complaints yet. I have a Jackson's own brand watercolour tube - I think just the one, Pthalo Blue - fantastically strong!
Not a huge user of w/colour though: is there not another relatively inexpensive brand from D-R, called Aquafine? I did like the Rembrandt tubes I tried, especially the cobalt and cerulean blue,
I well remember Reeves oils and watercolours - they're still made today, and Reeves is actually one of the older art supply companies. Not sure I could unhesitatingly recommend them though, in either medium.
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