Thank you very much for your prompt and thorough response to my questions. Above is the thumbnail I painted today. I used clean dishes for each color directly from the tubes. Yesterday I used paint that had dried on the palettes and I think the Phthalo had been mixed with white acrylic for your Myths class since my white gouache had dried up. I used paint from the side of that dish. Today's clean paints look far better. Lesson learned. I will clean off my old palettes and start fresh. I labeled the blues I used today with painters tape next to each. 

I like today's crimson better. It's Winsor & Newton. On the back it says "permanance", not "permanent" so is it actually permanent? This brand does not label any level of lightfastness. I didn't know to look for it. Thanks for the news about this. Most of my paints including Phthalo blue are M. Graham brands. Otherwise I have Windsor & Newton Cottman brand for a few. Graham labels indicate lightfastness at 1, 2, or 3. Please explain the differences. I ordered Azo yellow by Graham and Manganese blue by Windsor & Newton. Having no Manganese for this lesson I used Prussian blue yesterday and today on the mountain closer to center. I used cobalt blue on the other mountain and Phthalo blue at the mountain edge and all the sky. I think I see grains still in the Phthalo on the right side of the sky. The left side looks smooth. There is a tiny pinhole leak in the tube. So I will follow your directions to remove paint from the tube and add a little water to it. I will stir it well before topping with water. Essentially, this creates a pan paint that I can use, right? I created a pan set for my field kit a long time ago and made a color chart that fits in the lid. I am updating my blue color chart for my painting table.

Another difference in the two images I posted is that the original painting was scanned and colors are off. Today I used my cell phone camera and colors are pretty much true. I need to practice photographing my work for printing. That's for another lesson later. I know how to use copy stand with my Olympus camera.

Ron, I really appreciate your help and your enthusiasm for your students and your art! I am working my way through the other lessons while I wait for my order to arrive with the paints you specify. 

 

Original questions are below.

 

Help please? I am only on skill builder 4. I don't like my alizarin crimson. This scanned image is not true to the hue and it's much darker than the actual painting. All my tubes of alizarin crimson do not say "permanent". Please explain the difference. Mine seems to sit atop the paper and not absorb into it and it doesn't play well with Phth blue in my opinion. Also the phth blue left a chunky section in the cloud and throughout it. I massaged the tube because it hasn't been used in a long long time. Should I massage it more or dump it and get new? I have a lot of tubes in different hues and I hate to start over buying new. After not being used for a couple of years can you advise me how to restore the paints, please? I like this thumbprint so I will work with it for several practices. I need to make a blues chart mixing all my blues with all my reds. Tedious but I think it will make a good references. I have a hard time telling one blue from another. I did this on Canson. Maybe Arches will take the hues differently? Thanks Ron.

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