We see the School of Color as a combined effort between ourselves and artists. If we work closely together we will be able to bring about much needed change. To this end we very much welcome your input. The following are extracted from the many letters that we receive each day. |
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...watching the video taught me more about the theory of color in an hour and a half than I had taken in during my teaching career. Thank you!
M Gavit |
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I've enjoyed using the new palette and your paints are superb. I have just completed 6 new paintings for an exhibition and the washes are so clean and bright.
M Andrew |
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Many thanks for the book on selecting colors. I am most impressed with it and it has received much use already.
C Southcombe |
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The weather being what it is, I don't know if its late spring or early summer, but your video certainly brought a ray of sunshine, and threw a lot of light into the dark mysterious corners of color mixing. The best few shillings I've ever spent.
J.F. Charles |
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I found the course well structured, the watercolors are the best I've ever used and the design of the palette is truly brilliant.
Mrs. I.A. Good |
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Your colors have given me such a lift - I love color, my life is colorful and now I am beginning to produce beautiful colors in a beginners but very self-satisfying way.
Heather Grant |
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Our Art Society had Jeremy Ford demonstrating on Wednesday [...] The last half hour he spent showing how to color mix and of course with the large palette which I use of yours. I have been viewed as a 'beginner who doesn't really know what he is doing, and my color mixing is just good luck'. I could have stood up on my chair and cheered as their mouths dropped open, and maybe I had been VERY right all along. I do know a lot of artists are very fixed in their ways and reluctant to change for the better. I feel that I am fortunate to come in at the start of an exciting new era in painting, thanks to you.
Alastair Hagues |
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Having studied the color mixing workbook, I opened my paints today and was distressed to see that, unlike my Winsor & Newton, Cotman or Rowney paints, 3 of the principal colors have WARNING labels. Only one color is labeled as Non-Toxic. I am very disappointed, as I do not wish to use such paints, and would not have bought them had I known. I am therefore returning the 6 principal color set for a full refund.
Mrs. T. Wolffe
Answer: Thank you for your recent letter concerning the health warning labels which we apply to our paints. The reason that we do so is because all genuine Cadmiums and genuine Cerulean Blue contain pigments which are toxic.
If your Winsor & Newton or Rowney paints are of artist quality they will have exactly the same ingredients as our paints. The question that I feel you should then be asking is not why do we have a full health warning on each tube, but why do they not? In fact, you will probably find a warning somewhere in their literature as well as a seal on each tube.
Student colors such as the Cotman range usually contain imitation pigments which may or may not require a health warning. Such colors usually give inferior results as they lack strength and clarity, hence the low price.
Please find with this letter a copy of a School of Color article on safety. It will, hopefully, allay your fears as to the heath risks involved. Personally I feel that all artists should be made fully aware that a certain amount of care ought to be taken when using art materials. This should not, however, put them off painting in any way.
Although, as in this case, our honesty will reduce our sales, I feel that correct and accurate labeling is essential. We hope to bring about change by example.
Please find a full refund enclosed as per your request. Do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any further help, either in this matter or with color mixing and the selection of suitable materials.
Michael Wilcox |
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I would like to make some comments on the extra large helping of food for thought in your latest Newsletter.
I am glad that you have made a firm decision against offering water-based oil colors. Your main reason is the potential durability of such products. I can add from my experience that the new products cannot compete with 'real' oil colors for handling qualities. I have tried both Grumbacher and NorArt 'Edward Munch' colors.
The Grumbacher are very good paints and combine well with real oil colors such as your own and with the normal oil solvents and mediums, but they don't have the smooth flow of normal oils; there is a hint of pastiness about the water-based products as you squeeze from the tube and as you move them around on the picture surface.
The NorArt are worse. At the demonstration (at the AIM Exhibition) the demonstrator said they had a "slightly more buttery consistency than normal oil paints". Dead right! I wonder what brand of butter they used. Their color list includes 'Moonshine Yellow' which seems an appropriate comment on a company that pretends to base its colors on the usage of Edward Munch. Poor old Edward must be turning in his grave.
I had already learnt about the School of Color by that time so I was able to make short work of dismissing the commercial twaddle. I took the free samples to give them a try. I ended up giving them to my six year old neighbor (with her mothers permission) whose uninhibited free-flowing buttery style put them to some use during the long hot days of last summer in our back garden.
I am using up the Grumbacher colors (in conjunction with yours) because they are a quality product, with accurate pigment labeling, and I cannot afford to throw away quality paint. My haphazard choice of their colors, in the dark days before I had read 'Blue and Yellow ..', was not too bad: their Thalo Red Rose turned out to be Quinacridone Violet; a couple of semi-duds were Gold Ochre (Yellow Ochre had invited a couple of friend around and were passing themselves off as a Raw Sienna look-alike); Indanthrone Blue is standing in the corner looking rather sheepish - he'll have some use some time when I need to cover a large area cheaply.
A general point about oil color that needs to be asserted in the face of the current advertising blitz by the big paint companies is that, by and large, oil paint is pleasant to use. Some people may have a specific health problem with solvents (just as some people could have a problem with the dustiness of pastels) but with a well-ventilated room, use of low-odor thinners and (in my case) use of a fan when I am cleaning my brushes in white spirit at the end of a session, oil painting is a delight, and (especially in my case) gives me unlimited opportunities to cover up my mistakes. To judge by the paint companies latest efforts to share our bank accounts you would think that oil painting is a newly-discovered disease.
...it is really only with a book that you can have 'a good read'. A book is a form of technology in its own right, which responds to a human need - and always will do. This brings me to my main point - your books are a good read. They are technical but also readable because of your conversational style - including the pungent comments! Your selling point is your clear style allied with scientific accuracy.
The School of Color has done for me precisely what you say you wanted it to do - it removed at a stroke my confusion about color choice and color mixing. It has given me a clear yardstick to distinguish the gold (lots of it) from the dross (lots of that too) in the art magazines.
I am not surprised that you have received criticism (probably from vested interests). We artists are not noted for our humility and we can be cavalier about the science underpinning art (see the recent comment by the editor of the AIM magazine to the effect that artists concerned about the permanence of their work might not have much worth preserving). As an amateur artist with no obvious axe to grind and thinking myself fairly open-minded, it took some weeks after finding your advertising sample booklet in the AIM magazine before it began to dawn on me that your ideas were not just another set of personal opinions on painting technique but were something radical and essential. I think it will take the symbiotic self-serving magazines and paint companies a lot longer to catch up.
L. Hanaghan |
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...and that was the great beauty for me of 'Blue and Yellow...' It was the understanding - once you 'understand'. The whole thing gets simplified - thank you.[...] You must often find that you are knocking your head against a brick wall - keep going - brick walls can fall down! |
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Many thanks for sending me the color mixing video and the six basic color tubes of watercolor. The video is impressive and anyone failing to have complete insight into color mixing even after the first playing should stick to drawing with a black pencil.
B. Hartley |
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...in fact so many doors have opened on my approach to color that, quite apart from the reasonable price paid for the products, I'd like to say 'thank you'. In the confused world of selling and buying paint you have certainly brought logic and order; and what excellent material is the palette made of? |
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...I myself have thrown away fortunes in paint using the typical trial and error mixing system. I think that I have always understood, on some level, that artists have no workable, logical system for approaching color mixing. The colors that artists use often do not make sense, are too complicated and redundant and far too expensive. I will put your information to work right away.
D. Bareford |
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I am very favorably impressed with the palette, which arrived today. I like the surface texture, the deep wells, the practical lid, and the ease with which paint can be removed to leave absolutely no stain. Having watched the video demonstration I was already familiar with the layout, but it was not until I began using the palette today (with the aid of the booklet) that I discovered just how logical and helpful the design is. I am also well satisfied with the paints So I should be grateful if you would convey my congratulations to Michael Wilcox.
P. Bonnett |
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I sat down and listened very carefully to the video. Michael is the only person I know of that deals with the scientific aspect of color in a total way. I am so impressed. It is very hard to find such people out there. I love Michael's' work and information.
R. Knapp |
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As an artist I want my work to last as long as possible and using reliable pigments and acid-free materials are imperative to achieve this. Your books have helped a great deal in sorting out the muddle of paints on the market. I find it interesting when going through 'how to' books by other artists to find that they are encouraging the use of unreliable paints. It would appear that they are not aware of fugitive pigments. |
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I believe that the Wilcox books will do more for the permanency of art than anything I have come upon in all my 62 years. Thanks to him many times!
W.C.G |
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In our recent telephone conversation I mentioned my color blindness, in the Green and Brown areas of color. Since using your system and teachings my color recognition in these areas has improved, my color mixing of Greens is about 90% correct and I no longer have any worries regarding these colors. I mix paint with confidence and my color recognition continues to improve.
Ian Forsyth
Answer: I have had several letters like this Ian. I am not qualified to comment on your color recognition but I am very pleased that you have gained confidence in your color mixing. It must make a special difference to those with color blindness when the result of a mix can be predicted with absolute certainty.
Michael Wilcox
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I have learned more about watercolor paints in one week from the books than I have learned in three years of workshops etc.
D. Burnett |
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I use the system with my beginning watercolor students (at [...] College), and whatever other problems they may have, they do not make mud-colors! Thanks again. |
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I am a new watercolor painter (and an old scientist) who has greatly enjoyed reading Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green by Michael Wilcox. His exposition of a complex subject, one which has confused many other authors, is wonderfully clear and helpful.
M Reading |
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There is a strong need for this information among artists. In my college art classes I was never taught a way of mixing colors. I believe that was because none of my teachers had a real mixing system - it was hit and miss. Truly this is an undeveloped area of art and one that needs to be taught in a clear and easily applicable manner. Can we say it has been an area of vague intuitive and accidental process?
C. Soare |
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I once asked my art teacher how to mix a certain type of brown. She said, 'mix all of the colors left on your palette and hold your breath'. I can now see that there is an accurate way of working.
Comment made at one of our seminars. |
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I read with interest your latest newsletter, particularly the bit about color harmony. As a self-taught artist I always read info with an open mind and if I think it may benefit my work I will give it a try. I have been professional for the last three years and have no problem selling my work but I have felt for a while that color was the next mountain I had to scale. As I am a wildlife artist I read with interest the section on color harmony in the plant world. I decided to try your theories in my next painting and was very impressed this prompted me to buy the book on color harmony. I read the sections on nature and in my next painting I limited my colors and made the other shades and colors I needed by thinning and mixing these few colors together. I totally disregarded black and haven't used it since. I was totally shocked at how everything fell into place and looked so right. I feel that my work will move to the next level now. Thanks.
M. Demain |
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...This is very interesting to me and I have started a conversational thread on my on-line painter's list.. Those that go by the present color theory books don't look with kindness on your theory.. after posting a request for their opinions, I received only one response and that was patronizing and directed me to the standard.. 3 primary. Chiseled-in-rock-never-to-be-questioned TRUTH of red/yellow-orange; blue/yellow-green and red/blue-purple et .etc Thank you for making all this information available to those that care to look.
Mrs. J. Collins |
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...I just wanted to let you know that I recently came across your books and videos etc. on color and I feel like someone who has had a light switched on after years of groping in the dark.
As a self taught artist, with absolutely no formal training of any kind, I was always uncomfortably aware that there were gaps in my knowledge and I was always at the mercy of chance when mixing colors which made every painting a hit or miss affair. I had already realized that the 3 color system didn't work and had taken to buying large expensive sets of pre-mixed colors, thinking that the larger the box the better equipped I was. For the first time, I feel in control, color wise...and from a more practical standpoint I am delighted that my painting expenses will probably be more than halved in future.
There is also a lot to be said for the clear and concise way in which you present the information, which leaves very little room for misunderstanding or boredom, unlike the majority of books on color theory. The palette system is quite ingenious and almost too easy.
Donna K. |
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