Addictive Colors
We had a chance during our technical meeting today to discuss the wonderful responses I had on this blog to the question: What sets would a professional artist find attractive, if any? We had received so many wonderful contributions that it got us all thinking how we could go about changing what we have to offer. This led us to many other discussions… as it usually does… to a topic fairly well off track but one that I suggested that I’d ask on the blog to see if I’d get any takers…
Are their any colors so addictive that you find yourself actually trying to avoid them and why?
Alternatively
Are their colors so bizarre that you are intrigued to try them out just because they are off of center and what is the quality that makes it so?
« Symposium at The Tate in Modern Materials
Comments
Comment from Anonymous
Time: May 31, 2006, 2:53 pm
Mark, the Titan buff color is produced as a result of the process of making the Titainium Dioxide Pigment. It could be the producers color mixture as may be the case for many pigment producers when the colors are slightly off spec… But, it is not our color mixture.
Regards, Mark
Comment from Greg
Time: June 2, 2006, 2:55 pm
By far the quin crimson I could not live without. I love that colort. I do lots of red paintings and that color just makes everything so rich with RED when U put all the other reds with it in a painting. And if U thin it with the glaze med! WOW what U can do with it rocks! Keep the colors coming.
I would REALLY!!!! love to see the airbrush line move forward!! There is not as many in that line and I have found that they dont mix as well as say the fluid or heavy body line. And as someone that uses the airbrush ALL the time it would be nice to have more colors. I LOVE the Airbrush medium!!! cant live without it as well. But using it with the heavybody is tricky sometimes.
So I would have to say PLEASE develop the fluid and airbrush line more PLEASE!!!! But overall I would not put another brand of paint on my work!!
Comment from Anonymous
Time: June 6, 2006, 3:20 am
I would like to know if anyone is rediscovering certain colors that they once used. I am going back to using , Chromium Green Oxide, Ultramarine Blue, Yellow Oxide Red Oxide & Raw Umber .I used to work with these colors but over time I began to use them less & less.I now find myself going back to having them on my palette rediscovering them.It is interesting working with them again. Anyone else returning cetain colors back their palette?
Comment from Anonymous
Time: June 7, 2006, 8:17 am
Greg thanks for the comments. I hope we reintroduce to airbrush colors to a wider audience. They have so many uses in watermedia that go further than we could have imagined. By simply defining them as airbrush colors they get narrowly cast by the name. I hope we are able to move to a broader definition of these colors. When we do this I believe we can then proceed to introduce a much wider range of colors. I am hopeful that we can do this… but I am concerned that if they just stay as airbrush colors, it is unlikely the colors will increase rapidly. regards, Mark
Comment from Anonymous
Time: June 8, 2006, 7:29 pm
Mark,
I am curious as to why Golden may not be able to make some of the N Greys as fluids.I knew that some of them do not sell enough to justify the cost of adding to the fluid line but I was hoping that perhaps NG # 3, 5 & 8 could be included.These three would represent a dark, mid and light value.
Comment from beagle
Time: June 30, 2006, 11:25 am
It was just the name “airbrush” that finaly has made my choose between to brands of paint and let me discover “Golden paint”
So in my opinion keep the name to attract newcommers who are looking for airbrush-ready paint.
( There are a lot of brands of co laled airbrush paint, but with 95% of them they are not airbrush -ready, you have to thinn them down. )
Comment from Anonymous
Time: July 10, 2006, 3:53 pm
Just had to drop in and say I have been a Golden “addict” since 1991-2, when you came to the Corcoran School of Art, where I was a humble sophmore, and put several small sample jars of interference paints and pumice gels into my hands. I never looked back. In fact, I hounded fellow classmates to give me their samples when I used mine up!
25 years later, I still consider Golden paints to be the gold standard, and will never forget the magical, alchemical quality I discovered in them so many years ago.
Particular faves: interference blue and green, garnet gel (coarse), black and gold mica flake gels, pumice gels…the list goes on and on…
Thank you for continuing to make products that “addict” …and inspire!
Comment from Anonymous
Time: July 14, 2006, 9:12 am
Thanks Nici, I am reminded by your comments as to why I still find this thing, after 26 years, still amazingly fascinating. Still so many new discoveries and ways to work with these materials. This blog has offered me another opportunity to hear what folks are interested in seeing and has stimulated a good deal of conversation here about what new things to look for and to make. Thank you for the inspiration to keep moving forward! Regards, Mark
Comment from Anonymous
Time: August 3, 2006, 10:56 pm
Mark U are correct the Airbrush colors have lots of uses!!! I use them in all sorts of ways and not just in the airbrush. The reason I would like to see the color line expanded is because I am not a paint MAKER like you guys. You know the business and I just use your stuff. I do not like to thin down the fluids or the heavy body line with the airbrush mediums but I find that I have to do it. I would rather spend the money and buy the colors I want in the airbrush line pre-made. That way I know I am getting a tried and true product everytime. If you guys cant expand the airbrush please at least do the fluid line of paints. The fluid line would be the most practical probably to expand. And if that is the case awesome!!! It is so much easier to thin the fluid line out for airbrushing than it is with the heavy body line. I have gotten good at mixing the airbrush meduim into both but would to not have to do it anymore.
Also is there a fast drying agent I can add to the product line? sometimes I hate waiting on the Xtra heavy gels to dry. If not maybe look into that please. That would be a great time saver for some of us out here in the field. Even a thin coat of heavy gel takes awhile to dry. And time is money!
Thanks for the paint and the blog!
Comment from Greg
Time: September 12, 2006, 1:06 am
Hey Mark I ask for the same thing a few weeks back! Looks like it might be time to have the “experimental team” start looking into a “fast drying agent” for some of us that use the heavy gels a lot. I know I use the heavy and Xtra heavy gels way mmore than i should but as an abstract painter i love what it can do for me. But like madrigle said I sometimes cant wait for the Xtra heavy to dry. But then again I have to wait and it drives me nuts!!! It sometimes limits the flow from the brain to the canvas, I lose the though train! To many paint fumes I guess!
Lets make them dry faster!!!!!!!
Comment from Anonymous
Time: September 15, 2006, 5:07 pm
Dear Aaron, Thanks so much for your comments. People either love the interference or hate them. I think that they are still being discovered… and not just for their out-front flamboyant nature but what they can do subtly for a painting. I love to see them reinvented!
Regards, Mark
Comment from Gene Black
Time: June 12, 2007, 4:54 pm
I am addicted to the more transparent colors as I work in layers and glazes. I would love to have a list of the colors with the level of transparency.
Phthalo blue and quin crimson and quin gold (or the new substitute for it) are my favorite colors.
Comment from Mark Golden
Time: June 18, 2007, 8:58 am
Dear Gene, It has taken quite a few years for artists to come around to your point of view. It seems for quite some time opacity was the only measure of quality in a paint.
I also find the transparent colors much more valuable on the palette. They are just so much more versatile. I think so many artists end up with mud on their palette because they start mixing with opaques.
We have a list of the opacity of the colors on the website. The higher the number the more opaque.
Hope this helps.
http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/color/heavybody/hblightperm.php
Regards, Mark
Comment from Anonymous
Time: May 29, 2006, 9:16 am
Greetings Matt, As a color formulator, getting to see so many new pigments, you would think I would get bored with the same old colors. I still do have a passion for certain of the old pigments. It was clear why Yves Klein got hooked on ultramarine blue. It is clearly the reddest of the blues yet in the pure pigment form or under-bound it is impossible to take your eyes off of it. When we first made our High-Load colors, although the original colors requested were the Cadmiums, the Ultramarine blue made you take a quick breath in. I still do love the brilliance of the Cads even though they probably should be removed from the environment. The Pyrroles do really fit that color nitch and they are more brilliant as well. But I don’t have anything similar to the Cadmium Primrose. I thought this color was fluorescent when we originally introduced it. In fact when artists want to make their fluorescent colors permanent… first of all they can’t!! But one way to cheat is to add some other permanent colors (like the Cad Primrose, or Quinacridones) so that when the color bleaches out of the fluorescents or turns a lovely shade of amber, a bit of the real pigment color is able to at least maintain the color space even though it loses that extra punch.
I also love the new transparent Iron Oxides. I think as a color formulator I gravitate to all the transparent colors. They just offer a much greater range of possibilities and keeps all the resulting mixtures from looking just like so much mud. I don’t think I’ve ever mixed a custom color for anyone using a Cadmium. Cads do what they do well. They make great salmon type pinks and they are as opaque and brilliant as hell, just not my favorite for mixing.
I think some of the most unusual colors remain my favorite. The nickel azo yellow, green gold are so strange as mass colors, just they are just so versatile for so many color mixtures. It was just like the Quin Gold and Quin Burnt Orange, the undertone of these colors or when thinned out they become so brilliant. I love the Quin Red Lt. because it has such a strange yellow quality for such a blue red and the old Napthamide Maroon. I haven’t yet figured out the Ultramarine Violet. You would think that the Ultra blue is so amazing that the Ultra violet would have the same quality but it doesn’t. Feels more like a Cobalt in the way it mixes.
I also agree Matt that the Titan-buff is a great mixing color simply because it isn’t white. For that matter the Zinc white is also a great mixing color, simply because it isn’t a Titanium White. As soon as you touch a color with Titanium, it becomes something very different. Great for gaining opacity in anything, but it truly overtakes almost every other color.
I realize that this could go on forever, as I realize I have a personal attachment to every color we make… so I think I’ll stop now before they take my blog away…
Warmest regards, Mark