I have put this link to colour theory in the Forum Index as I think it may help some of our budding painters who want to have a go at painting their own backscenes. If MikeC reads this I wonder if he would mind casting a quick eye over it to see if it might be helpful, in his opinion. It appears to be quite comprehensive.

Colour Theory.

  That's an excellent site, Bob. Packed with good advice.  I looked through almost all of it.

 Once you know how to use complementary colours in your mixes you can get any colour you want. It's priceless information.

 By the way, he mentions cadmium yellow and red - cadmium is highly toxic. If you want my advice you'll have nothing to do with it. Chromium is toxic too. There are good substitutes which are perfectly ok for us to use. Read the labels and avoid these heavy metals.
 Also he mentions Prussian blue - a fantastic colour with the potential to stain EVERYTHING  :shock:    Use with caution.

 Great site though.


 Mike

 

 

I'm glad the site is useful Mike. With regard to the cadmium and chromium, can you give us examples of substitutes so we know what we are looking for?

 Napthol Red and Arylamide Yellow are the ones to use instead of cadmium and chrome [chromium]  Sometimes they're named that way on the tube [napthol and arylamide]    You should check the ingredients on the label. Cheap brands won't list them - but then they won't use the more expensive cadmium and chromium, either.  I still wouldn't want to eat them, of course.

 Whenever you buy say Cadmium Red hue  as written on the tube, you're NOT buying Cadmium Red proper. You're buying a substitute, such as Napthol Red. They can't say Cadmium Red if it contains no cadmium, so in effect they're calling it Cadmium Red colour.

 I hope that's some help.

 Mike
 

Got it Mike. Thanks, now we know what to look for.

These days COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health) is a big thing, practically every substance has a Material Safety Data Sheet, like the one here for Cadmium Yellow and if you scroll down you will find it is listed as a carcinogen.

Even washing up liquid and household cleaners are subject to COSHH legislation and have MSDS's.  Have a look at the contents of supermarket own brand hairspray, it will scare the heck out of you (but is quite good for sealing flock and pastel dust in place:lol:

If anyone ever has a concern go to google, type in the product name then +MSDS, eg Dettol +MSDS will lead you to something like this

Thanks for the information, guys. Most helpful to "painting virgins" like me. I've bookmarked this for future reference. 

Mike, not only guiding our artistic talents but caring for our physical existance too, brilliant.
Thanks for the link Bob, very useful.
cheers

[user=3]Gwent Rail[/user] wrote:

Thanks for the information, guys. Most helpful to "painting virgins" like me. I've bookmarked this for future reference. 

Is that course open to everyone Jeff or just for GWR man ?:shock::shock: - if so, I'd like to have a go at painting one. :lol::lol:

Interesting link Bob - it will be very useful to all I imagine.