Michael Wilcox School of Colour newsletter

I've just received my latest copy of this occasionally appearing newsletter - he's very interesting on the  many ways of saving money, and avoiding falling for materials suppliers' sales pitches.  Eg, why buy 'Ultramarine Violet' when you can just mix Ultramarine with Quinacridone  Violet (also known as permanent  Rose from some makers).  Why buy lapis lazuli when the colour it yields (or can yield) is perfectly well synthesized as French Ultramarine?  And don't buy those 'Cobalt violets' that don't actually contain any cobalt. The one thing I don't quite agree with him on is Mars Violet - he says you can mix it, and yes you can: but Mars Violet, aka caput mortuum, is still a useful convenience colour.  (And also quite a dangerous one, since it can get into everything almost before you're aware of it: perhaps mixing it as he suggests, with a mixed blue-green and burnt Sienna would render it less invasive - but having tried that, I think it'd lose the character of the pigment.) He's fairly damning about Daniel Smith watercolours - largely on the grounds that however good their base colours may be, the 'Tek' variants are unnecessary, and contain vanishing amounts of the minerals of which they're said to consist.  Well - I can't argue with that, I've never used Daniel Smith watercolours; but I am very suspicious of ranges of  colour which contain a hundred or more different pigments: e.g. Daniel  Smith, and Old Holland.   Michael is a man of strong opinions and not at all hesitant in expressing them; but it's important to read manufacturers' claims for their products with a degree of scepticism; and he provides the technical support for that scepticism. While on the subject, beware of painting tutors who claim the range of paints or brushes they're using is "the best in the world".  I won't name the one I have in mind, because he's a very good tutor whose work I like.  But - the fact is that he was sponsored by one company (W & N), and is now sponsored by another (Daler Rowney): call me cynical, but his enthusiasm for the former does seem to have ceded space to the latter over time.  He talks about watercolour and acrylic, and synthetic brushes; he also recommended W & N watercolour paper, and now favours The Langton (I've no problem with his choices in any of these respects: both companies make excellent watercolours and acrylics, good brushes, and reliable papers).  But watch these tutors with a strong pinch of salt to hand.   Similar reservations should apply to suppliers' claims, too.