1-5-12, Media Choices
Don:
Since you use both media, you're likely in a great position to objectively describe the trade-offs between Acrylic and Oil Paints. The artists I've talked with work in one or the other, and naturally give biased opinions: Acrylic artists disparage oil for odor and drying time; Oil painters disparage Acrylic for lack of colors.  They both seem to have strong arguments for each media's strengths.

Since you use both, it would seem you can offer an objective perspective of each media's strenths and weaknesses.
Mark Nave

Good question Mark.
In the end I prefer acrylics. I beat the problem of not being able to blend with washes because they dry so fast. alcohol will soften paint. Alcohol will also bring/take oil or acrylic back to the gesso with a stiff brush or Q-tip, just blot it before it dries. This saves time when overpainting in oil and saves acrylics when a color that you have mixed has dried on your palette. Oil needs a drier to be workable the next day, driers yellow even more then oil. Acrylics never yellow, I coat them with clear gloss water based polyurethane to get around the sticky problem because I stack them. My 30 year old acrylics are still the same color as the day they were painted.

Oil and acrylics have the same pigments, just the medium changes. I can make both from my collection (from fresco painting) of pigments. I don't usually bother, tubed paint is easier. I have a complete collection of colors in both media. The only colors acrylics don't have are some of the cyan and blue tints, no biggie. Both have the three transparent primaries now so you are really not short of any color at any time. Oils do have a turp oder and it seems to be accumulative in our systems. Use a closable Silacoil jar for cleaning brushes with your best turp so you can use it to extend your paint. Use alcohol to clean your acrylic brushes.
http://www.realcolorwheel.com/3colors.htm

It took a lot of experimenting to find the perfect medium mixture for oils.  In a 2.5 oz, bottle I use 30% stand oil, 25% raw linseed, 25% sun dried linseed oil, 1/16 % wax and 4 drops of drier. Sometimes I use an extender medium in acrylics and oxgal in my W/C water. Today, May 20, 2013, they have made a slower drying acrylic tubed paint. I think most acrylic users would rather use a hair drier like with W/C.

In the end I defy anyone to tell the difference between the two. I couldn't tell if I didn't write the medium on the back. If you don't use wax in your oils (it gives a much smoother stroke, some artist don't know or care about the difference) you can use water-based polyurethane as a finish. It will never crack or turn yellow as all oil does.

White is a problem with oils, it takes longer to dry and you should use it mass from the tube. Permalba is the least yellowing brand I found, flake lead is the most painterly.

Hi Stacie,

> Hi Don:
>
> Well, you can't imagine how excited I was to find your real color wheel and
> vast amounts of information on combining opposites as opposed to using black.
> I took classes many years ago and was taught under the system of the
> classical approach to painting. The palette was severely limited to those in
> use by the 19th century Academic ateliers in France. The only green on the
> palette was Viridian. The Cadmium's were allowed, Venetian red, Naples
yellow,
> Flake white, Ivory black and the colder Umber's. I realize now the intent of
> these artists, and that they were in the studio aspiring to allegorical
> figurative work but I was quite young and inexperienced then and this made a
> great negative impression on me.

I have always liked the very classic old portrait palette of Naples Yellow, vermilion, carbon black and white.

http://www.realcolorwheel.com/myportraits.htm

> I failed to improve there and dropped out, and the experience was not a good
> one. I quit painting all together for quite some time. I have become
> interested in beginning to paint again for the sheer pleasure of it, as I am
> married now and am a housewife. I have a quiet life and love to create my
> flower gardens. I thought I might like to capture them on canvas. I rekindled
> my interest on the post-impressionists, Bonnard being one of my favorites,
> and looked more closely at the palettes they began to use as more pigments
> became available at the turn of the century.
>
> By accident, I stumbled upon your website the other day. As I studied the
> information you presented, I became more and more fascinated. I have worked
> with Photoshop and computer graphics over many years and worked in that
> industry when I was single. Your information on printing with particular
> color profiles was something I've tried to find useful information on in the
> past and this is next to impossible to find. I'm still studying your
> information and trying to assimilate it. I do understand the importance of
> saving in the RAW format and not taking the image to RGB. The problem of the
> difference in my monitor being RGB, and saving a file for print to CMYK has
> always frustrated me as I do computer graphics. It seems nowadays even a
> commercial printer many times uses RGB printers and doesn't even really
> understand the concepts of good printing.

I'm going to include some links at the bottom, one of them is a CMYK palette and a CMYK RCW.
>
> Also, of great interest to me was your explanation of how important it is to
> have the chemical components of the pigments you use approach that of the
> crystal spectrum in nature. I began to study the components of the real color
> wheel and your pigments that you use on your palette. You stress the
> importance of using oil pigments which contain the proper amounts of the
> chemical elements which approach the crystal equivalent. I began to shop for
> pigments to add to my palette as I gather some new materials. I'm quite
> flummoxed though, as it seems many of those are not available. For example,
> I've found the Dioxide purple PV23, but can't find the cool version of the
> Cobalt Magenta PR122.

They stopped making it and there is no replacement. Too bad because the color was great.
I just finished sun testing Opera for 8 months in the sun, the thinest tints
moved to the PV19 side the rest are still great. I really like this color. I
just checked and watercolors I did 5 years ago are still perfect so I suggest it.
http://www.realcolorwheel.com/opera1.htm

>I did find the Quinacridone Rose PR122 in the form of a Rembrandt pigment 417.3743.

Quin Rose is PV19, Quin Rose 417 would be a new color to me, there are
a lot wrong people thinking PV19 is primary, it makes nice reds but terrible
blues. I wish I had some to try, but adding any yellow to the magenta primary would be bad for blues.
You should deffinatly paint a full color wheel with just the 3 transparent primaries.
http://www.realcolorwheel.com/3colors.htm

>I found a Cobalt Violet Deep pigment from Blockx

It's useless except for the spicific color unless is it transparent. Blockx is
best for opaques, water colors.

> which uses PV14. I can't find the Rembrandt Blue Green which to my
> understanding is Phthalo Blue and Phthalo Green mixed.

It's the same color as turquoise.

> All I seem to find is Cobalt Turquoise.

That's opaque, unless you are painting a lot of water you can just mix it
instead.

Should I just mix my own?

> Also, it appears that the Indian Yellow Orange Lake Extra sold now is not made from PY153. I can't find Indian Yellow Brown or Old Holland Yellow Green either that matches the correct element. Is there a supplier to which I might be directed?

It seems there is a effort beginning for manufactures to pick their own Pigment Color Numbers from the purchased ASTM catalog, $130 a year membership if I remember correctly.
That whole color system will go down eventually because it's becoming useless. It always was a pain. I think my color wheel system of numbers will replace it.
Yellow and red to brown and cyan and ult blue to ult blues dark.
The color Indian Yellow brn/side is made of a dioxine nickel complex and iron
oxide. That same color is also made of an azo nickel complex, both are called
PY150. That is the color that is always on my palette. For my ink jet plotter I use a transparent yellow color made by Spectra Colors, a pigment manufacture not a retailer like Senopia or Dick Blick. It's called Tartrazine and has no Pigment Number but it equals PR150.
The color Indian Yellow org/side is made of a dioxine nickel complex and
isiondolin.

I bought PY153 as a dry pigment from the most highly reguarded mural restorer about 10 years ago,
Zecchi in Florance and made my own oil and water colors from it. That was before that color was available in a tubed colors. I don't think it would be avalable today if I hadn't pushed it.
It's really up in the air what to call it using the ASTM standards which is based on the dried chip color and has nothing to do with transparency.

The color Indian Yellow grn/side is made of azomethine cu-complex and is often called green gold. The latest acrylic O.H. green gold I bought was called PY129, PG10 also fits into green gold on the yellow side. That name green gold is used for some pretty bad mixed colors by brand names. Be careful, but I know you are.

> Could you give me
> a list of substitute oil pigments for those no longer available, which I can
> purchase as I put together my new palette? Perhaps I'm being overly
> particular, but I wanted to try to approach your suggested standards. Also, I have some trouble with seeing color value correctly and am looking for a good visual aid.

I see color value as the color moving into the distance. Color or hue describes the color itself. Which are you referring to?

> I see they sell a red filter that purports to cut the color.

Forget that, a black mirror would be best for that job. Just spray paint a
sheet of glass on one side.

>Are you aware of a good product out there or a recipe for something someone can
> make to help in this area? I enjoyed reading your recipe for Maroger. Quite a
> labor of love!! I noticed Dick Blick sells a product pre-mixed in a tube.

I like painting with Maroger, but the fact that most colors are off the lead
standard kind of defeates the Maroger principle.

> I've used Copal in the past but never Maroger. I might be afraid it would
> blow up in my kitchen if I attempted to cook it myself.

I like copal too, a lot.

>
> Thanks for all the research, information, and beautiful renderings you've
> given us.

My pleasure, a labor of love to be sure.
I like your questions and statements so much I am going to post this email in my color forum and make you a member to ask fauther questions.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Stacie

These 3 words that mean the same thing should do it, compatible, complementary and opposite colors. They all are a combination of colors directly across from one another on this color wheel.

Matching light and pigments have always been at odds with each other, mainly because we had been using the wrong primary colors since Newton. Nature has made the connection for us. The colored 22 elements (pigments) make crystals that we can see through (light). The way this color wheels colors get darker is the same way those crystals get darker. Yellow, orange and red get darker by way of brown. Cyan, cobalt blue and ult. blue have a similar transition, they all get darker through ult. blue. Cyan darkens to ult. blue just like the polarizing Iceland spar crystal. Brown and ult. blue mix to neutral black. All opposition colors mix to this neutral black (meaning they will tint to a neutral gray) on the Real Color Wheel. Shadow colors are mixed oppositions before they get to black. Mix the red of a tomato with its opposite color cyan to get its shadow color. You never need it have black pigment on your palette.

Getting back to Newton. We have all heard of this theory of how all colors mixed together make white, the prism will make a rainbow and like the Electromagnetic spectrum there is no magenta color. Well if you rotate the prism you will see not the rainbow spectrum but instead yellow, magenta and cyan.
http://www.realcolorwheel.com/1color.htm#INTERNAL
Newton never mentions this but you can see the three primary colors in any prism.

The way to mix any color you see with only the primary colors is, ta ta! Use transparent colors! PR:122, PY:153 and PB:15.3 are the ones I found work best.
http://www.realcolorwheel.com/3colors.htm

Hi Jennie,

ixchel wrote:

> Dear Mr. Jusko,
>  
> I am saddened to hear about how you were treated by wetcanvas.com mentors.

It's "monitors", individuals used to read each separate topic and keep the arguments down.
This guy is protecting his side of the color theory argument, he's the champion of the red, yellow and blue color theory. The revised 8 color Munsell colorwheel that has no place in it for cyan, against my colorwheel that uses cyan as a primary. (Just a note: Cyan gets dark to a royal or ultramarine hue, just like the polarized Iceland Spar crystal of the copper element.) He is not out to question current positions in the art/education world. Protecting schools teaching the red, yellow and blue theory by the Schools State Standards decree in every state in the union, except N.Y.

He's his own judge and jury (with like-thinking minions). In his mind he is out to protect color theory from me on their forum.

> It is supposed to be a free forum for people to share ideas... and techniques..
> It is disappointing that there is such censorship in what is supposed to be a creative field where you can push the boundaries to the limit.
> The first digital painting that I did of a nude male demon, was praised by a few, got massive OMG's because it was an erotic piece.. and I did not cover his thingy with a fig leaf.  I got completely bashed by some male... who clearly had thingy envy... , the next piece I submitted was sedate.. and got a bunch of wow's..  but since I tend to like to do erotic work and do not think any part of the human body should be censored... I don't submit much work online anymore.  I think people still view the body as pornographic.. unless the most beautiful parts are covered up.  I still go online and view the tutorials and such.. and try to learn as much as I can.  I am self taught.. but am now going back to school as an adult taking digital game design classes, and animation..

I'll sign you into my forum, it has an anime topic. I want to do some figure drawing for animation.
http://www.realcolorwheel.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Ani;action=display;num...

> I am in a color theory class right now and I posted your URL to the class.  Everyone was really interested and the instructor said it was great for painting but to not throw out traditional methods entirely..   I have been writing freelance reviews and articles since 1999.  I am self-taught there as well.

To him you say, from me. "This color wheel does not effect any technique, or pigment, or any material item relating to painting. It effects how you can mix today's modern pigments to match the color you see, without black pigments. It's a stand alone item." If you instructor is teaching using black pigment in a painting shadows, drop him. You don't need bad habits.

> I am starting a new series of work soon, and plan to use colored pencils as the primary medium.  Do your color wheel pigments line up with any of the brands of pencils on the market today?

Yes and no, the colors match but the colored pencil industry is worst with color names than the art paint industry. (I remember the Peacock Blue pencil was a good cyan.)
2012, I made a RCW colored pencil chart and a blank chart to print out.
[url]http://www.realcolorwheel.com/pencils.htm[url]

What we need is for color to be named according to it's position on the element color wheel, the crystal color wheel the Real Color Wheel. I matched 36 colors to surround the Real Color Wheel, and matched them to pigment colors you can buy today. Today you buy colors by their Color Index Number, it's on every tube of paint.

That system also must be changed from the red, yellow and blue primary color charting.  I mean, red is not part of magenta, magenta is without yellow. Magenta is the primary, not red. So calling magenta a Pigment Red 122 (PR:122) is just wrong. But that's so prevalent today that you can rely of the designation for buying colors. It could all be changed in one year with proper momentum. Like taking a cancer out with a scalpel. Mixing black in CMYK printing is a problem also (as well as printing using opaque yellow instead of transparent yellow.

>  
> sincerely, Jennie


I'm making your CD today, I just updated the rcwplotter.htm file.

I have my information on Wet Canvas. I get a lot of hits from there. But it's hard for people. All my emails and urls point to my old ISP and they won't change them or let me change them, or take my posts out of their system. The monitor of the Color Theory section banned me for life for my color theory. He likes like the red, yellow blue theory. This is the post that banned me. I know, the biggest guns draw the biggest fire.

"8-26-8
Congratulations Golden Acrylics.
It has taken awhile but Golden Acrylics is the first to include all three of the transparent primary colors I have been using in my Real Color Wheel since 1996.

to: Golden Acrylics

Thank you for your samples and inclosed chip chart, sent 6-6-6.

I'm looking forward to your transparent ultramarine blue sample. It seems your Prussian Blue Hue is closer to ultramarine blue transparent than to cyan which the original  Prussian Blue (Blue Boy) was used as. It was the cleanest artificial cyan up to that time.

Your Indian Yellow Golden compound is excellent in my opinion.
Indian Yellow Golden Hue, Arylide Yellow PY7, Nickel Complex Azo PY150 and Quinacridone PR206, Transparent

Similar hue to Old Holland's copy of the original Indian yellow Oil Paint. Their legacy our good fortune.
Indian Yellow-Orange Lake Extra, Dioxine Nickel Complex, Isoindoline, PY153, PR260, Transparent.

Both are excellent and so is your cool Indian yellow hue called Nickel Azo Yellow.

Golden Primaries,
Nickel Complex Azo PY150, good Indian yellow Brown/side
Indian yellow hue, Arylide yellow PY73, Nickel Complex PY150, Quinacridone PR206, good Indian yellow Orange/side.
(Watch for Quinacridone/Nickel Azo Gold in stores later this fall 2006. Samples of the new color are available upon request through Customer Service. For questions or assistance on specific projects, please contact Tech Support at techsupport@goldenpaints.com or 800-959-6543 / 607-847-6154 Mon. – Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. EST.)

Compare Golden, Liquitex and D.S. Magenta, PR122. All the same, all good.

Compare Golden Phthalo blue PB15.4,  Liquitex PB15 (they look the same) and..
Hyplar Manganese Blue PB15 (made of phthalocyan and phthalocyan chlorinated copper) is closer to the pure cyan color but the RGB image doesn't show any difference.

Don Jusko
djusko@realcolorwheel.com

_________________________________________________________________________
Then I got this email from WC. This post and my post were deleted and I was banned with no recourse.
*** NOTE: THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE - PLEASE DON'T REPLY! ***

Hello donjusko,

FriendCarol has just replied to a thread you have subscribed to entitled - Other Color Wheel - in the Color Theory/Mixing forum of WetCanvas!.

This thread is located at:
http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62640&goto=newpost

Here is the message that has just been posted:
***************
I've been using the new W/N Transparent yellow PY 150 (watercolor). I like it a lot, but I'm hanging onto the older PY 97, too, because the new one doesn't do everything the old one does. It doesn't raise the chroma of PR 209, and doesn't seem to have the same versatility in mixes (with PG 7, etc.).

Hi Friend Carol,
PY97 isn't transparent enough to make a dark as dark as PY153, PY150 or PY10
Don

But, it is very liftable (non-staining), makes liftable mixes even, has extremely high chroma at ideal dilution, makes nice spring greens. I've also been using it with PV 19 for figure sessions; works really nicely for that.   "
***************

(That's it.. the last contact I was allowed at WC)


ixchel wrote:

> Perhaps you need to start with colleges, and send a flier or samples to the head of each art department.  If you start educating the teachers.. that will trickle down and educate the students and future educators of children. If you are getting that many hits per month and Princeton asked for information on your techniques, you definitely are doing something right.  Another great art site that has artists/ art professors all over the world, that is attached to a college is wetcanvas.com.  It might be a great place to start telling people about your system.  There are many great professional artists that make their home there.
>  
> Jennie
>
> Don Jusko <donjusko@realcolorwheel.com> wrote:
>
>     Hi Jennie,
>
>     Thank you.
>     I really don't want to make money on the information, I just want the schools to use it.
>     Currently my site is getting 1.5 million hits per month. Many important people ask for my free color wheel download. The first school to request my color theory CD was the International Middle School of Geneva Switzerland. Southern Kentucky University, Princeton just got it last month. All I request is the printing rights.
>
>     I guess its a publicity secretary that I need. That is out of my league, I'm just a one trick pony.
>     I nave no ad campaign to sell my product, perhaps I'm doing it wrong.
>     It would be nice to get a grant to manufacture a correct set of primary colors to distribute to schools. Those and a short flier could get every kid in school off to the right start in art. Teaching art has been on the wrong foot since 1900, teaching red, yellow and blue as the primary colors is just wrong.
>
>     I could even make up 20 sets at my own cost and send them to a school, it's easy to give away things. Perhaps just a flier to each superintendent of schools with the price list of a product they could use would do it.  But what does the superintendent know about color, he was taught wrong also.
>     Thanks for letting me rant
>
>     Don
>
>     ixchel wrote:
>
>>     Dear Mr. Jusko,
>>      
>>     I will have to think about how to reach school children as far as public schools.
>>     I do know that each year the superintendent of schools has to approve new curriculum for each school.

I lost the rest of this thread when I upgraded this forum.

shannon currier wrote:

> hello,
> i have a few questions for you. i am an artist and recently i have been interested in cave paintings. i would really like to make some of my own. what would some good pigmets be to use that can handle wheather and how and where could i obtain these materials?  Your web page is very useful! Do you have it in book form?
>
> thank you
> shannon

Hi Shannon,
Use the earth pigments, they were common back then. From black to amberg yellow in the brown range  and burnt umber to red oxide. Get the whole dry set of them, they are cheap and can be bought from most all paint suppliers. As for what medium would be good for your new painting style. Skim milk would be great.
Don

Hi Angie,

I consider painting a learning experience and nature is the best teacher.
I learn more every painting and it is very satisfying.

What would I get from making an image up? A nice painting.. ? I get that already.
Someone else's idea that they would buy? I have already proved anything I paint will sell.

Painting by Inspiration.. now that's a nice word, it has a religious ring to it, not a word to go against. As it is, nature inspires me, when I see it, that's what I paint.

Intuitive painting, That's what art teachers in the lower grades push. That's why they don't concern themselves with proper colors or accurate drawings. That type of painting has been holding back our youngest students for 100 years. That type of painting breeds Pacassos, lots of them, eek there all over the place.

I'm not interested in seeing these types of paintings, or talking about them, or giving them any credit for being.

First you must have an excellent understanding of how to paint correctly. From that point you can make up anything you wish for any reason. The most logical reasons are money or pressure. I would hate to give in to either.

>Hi Don:
>
>Thank  for the colors, I recieved them yesterday.  The colors are dark
>shades of red, yellow, and blue.
>

That'a a dark hue of magenta, which tints to pink.
The ocher brown hue tints to bright yellow.
The blue hue looks like dark blue because the sky cyan shows up as a tint. Cyan darkens to blue and yellow darkens to brown.

> It looks like you mixed each color
>with its opposite to get them so dark.  Did you?  
>

no, those are the tube mass-colors.

>Beside the mural, did
>you add anything new to the DVD?
>

The final fresco was made on 2-5-5 with a total of 3 frescos.

>
>I guess after getting the black hue, I would have to use white to get
>close to the steel hue that I'm looking for.
>

That's the way you would do it in oil and acrylic, with w/c you just add water. Keep your paper clean.

> I'll try this on Sunday,
>also, I will try to duplicate the colors that you sent me. I'll let you
>know of the outcome.
>
>  Thanks once again.  Now the temperature in NY is
>beginning to feel like Maui.  I'm no longer jealous of you.  You lucky
>guy.
>
>Trevor

Tanate@uct.co.th wrote:

>
> Dear Mr.Don
>
> Thank you for your last help.
> My name is Tanate. I'm 23 years old. I stay in Thailand.
> I just to interest in green shade color because I'd like to select with best green color in my product concept.
> My concept about "Green color shade that give for relax, fresh and comfortable after working".
> So, I want to know about overall green color shade that give for fresh feeling.
> Can you help me Mr.Don? (For RCW is OK but I'd like to know other format, isn't ?)
> I'm not artist and don't have any knowledge about color shade.
> I'm looking  forward to see your good news.

Use a cool green toward the blue side instead of a yellow green. That color will look calm even when adding white.
Don

--
NEW Buon Fresco DVD movie, 2 hours, $35. http://www.realcolorwheel.com/orderpage.htm
http://www.realcolorwheel.com/newcolorwheel.htm
http://www.realcolorwheel.com/sitetree.htm

BirdManofOss@aol.com wrote:

>Hello:
>
>  This may seem like a silly question, but I'm having a heck of a time here...
>
>  Got two colors on a piece of paper (acrylic), exactly what steps would one
>use, what is the technique, for getting a strip of swatches of different
>blends of the two colors??
>
The first  color is base, the second color is white (if this is a tinting strip).
10:2 swatch
10:5
10:10
5:10
2:10

If it's a shade strip the first is base color again.
10:2 (the 2 would be the complement color on the RCW)
10:5
10:10 this one should make a dark gray or black.
5:10 now you are moving toward the complement color.
2:10

Do this with yellow, orange, red, magenta, cyan and green for a very expensive full set of color swatches, called chip in the trade.

>
>Thanks in advance...
>
>Greg Yoykon
>Ossining, NY
>