Dioxine Purple Ultramarine Blue Cobalt Blue Thalo Cyan Blue Turquoise transparent Green Opaque Thalo Green
Burnt Umber Real Color Wheel in Pigments CenterW Permanent Green Light
Burnt Sienna Top Space
Venetian Red Yellow Green Opaque CENTER
Yellow Oxide bottom SPACE
Naples Yellow Light Green Gold Transparent Bottom
Magenta Rembrandt Rose Cadmium Red Medium Cadmium Orange Indian Yellow Gold transparent Cadmium Yellow Medium Cadmium Yellow Pale

Real Color Wheel main page
by Donald A. Jusko
Painting on Location



A full palette with only
3 primary color transparent pigments.

The three permanent primary colors used to make this Real Color Wheel in transparent paints were:


Old Holland Indian Yellow O/s PY153, the same hue as dual-tone orange/yellow Transparent Tartrazine PY100 Clear. For watercolor and inks only, a warm orange to yellow pigment by Spectra Colors, a manufacturing pigment supplier in N.J.
Any brand or media, Thalo Blue, PB15.3
Daniel Smith or W/N Quinacridone Magenta, PR122

My RCW

We paint one of these color wheels in each class I give.
1-15-5, This RCW is painted with acrylic paint. There is no transparent PY153 at this time in tubed acrylic paint so I made one from a nickel complex dry pigment from Zecchi Fresco Supplies in Florence called Indian yellow, they restore ancient murals.
4-29-9, Today many synthetic Indian yellows are available.
10-18-10, No commercial paint manufacturing company uses Tartrazine Indian yellow to orange-brown for their Indian yellow water-color paint yet. I print my colorwheels and painting giclees with it. Tartrazine transparent is great as a water color paint. Old Holland's Classic Acrylics - New Masters, use a PY3 translucent mono-colored-cadmium yellow hue called Azo. Cooler than the opaque cadmium yellow PY:35. They have four mono-toned pigments from translucent to transparent plus two dual-toned acrylic colors. The color is close to original arsenic yellow.

Dual-toned Indian Yellows;
Acrylic, Yellow-Ocher hue to Lemon Yellow, PY150 Nickel Azo Complex (Nickel Azo Brown - Lemon by O.H.)
Oil, Orange to Yellow, PY:95 Azo Condensation w/ PR:101 Syn Iron Oxide (Indian Yellow - Brown Extra by O.H.)
Water Color, Orange to Yellow, Transparent Tartrazine PY100 Clear (warm yellow-orange by Spectra Colors)

Yellow-Green-Oxide hue to Yellow, PY:153 Org/s Dioxine Nickel Complex w/ PY:129 Azo methine copper complex is Indian Yellow-Green Lake Extra OH oil.
Yellow-Brown-Oxide hue to Yellow, PY:150 Brw/s Dioxine Nickel Complex, acry. (Zecchi Syn. Indian Yellow) dry pigment, Indian Yellow Brown Lake Extra OH oil.
Red-Brown to yellow, PY:153 Org/s Dioxine Nickel Complex w/ Yellow Oxide PY42
PY42 Iron Oxide is not dual-toned (Transparent Oxide-Yellow Lake OH)
Red-Orange to Yellow, PY:153 Org/s Dioxine Nickel Complex w/ PY:10 Isoindolin (Indian Yellow-Orange Lake Extra OH). Isoindolinone and Isoindoline and Iron Oxide are not dual-toned by themselves.
Red to Yellow, PY:153 Dioxine Nickel Complex w/ Quinacridone is Old Holland Red Gold Lake OH oil
Yellow-Ocher Gr/s hue to Yellow, PY:129 Azo methine copper complex w/ Azo Condensation PY:95 (Indian Yellow-Green Extra OH)

Dual-toned Indian Yellow-Greens;
Green to Yellow-Green, PY:150 Gr/s Nickel Azomethine w/ PG36 Y/s, Copper Complex w/ PY3 Hansa Yellow (Green Gold by Golden)
Green-Orange hue to Yellow-Green, PY:129 Azo methine copper complex, Old Holland Green Gold.
Green-Oxide hue to Yellow-Green, PY:117 Azo methine copper complex (Genuine Golden Green by Mussini)


My RCW in acrylic

10-25-04 Testimonial

msg= Hi Don, Send me a Zip of the RCW please. Yours is the first really useful colour wheel that I have found as it is good for photography as well as for paint. I'd like the zip so that it can be printed to A3 size for use as a teaching aid in a photography course in the UK.

Thanks in advance
Tom Merryweather


4/27/2012
Subject: RE: Join my network on LinkedIn, I joined you.
Hi Don,
Do you remember the girl from N.Y.who you made that spectacular large color wheel for? It still graces the Metropolpitan Institute of Design where I have been teaching and speaking about you and your input and guidance into my Advanced Color course that has been running for 5 years years now. You are still my favorite artist. Someday I hope to own one of your beautiful pieces. We DO paint the color wheel in that course... of course the REAL color wheel and I tell my students you told me THAT is the ONLY color wheel we should use!!! If you google the Metropolitan Institute of Design, METROPOLITAN INSTITUTE OF DESIGN, in Syosset, N.Y., and click on "Faculty" (on the left side of the screen), you will see me, a devoted fan of Don Jusko!!! http://www.met-design.com/faculty.html

I have been spreading your words for 5 years, proudly displaying your large color wheel and students have taken down your website information. Thank you for all of you help and guidance 5 years ago when I was putting the course together! Sincerely, Deborah M. Batterson :)

Hooray! My 30 grams of Sennelier's Quinacridone Red, #679, for $55 w/ship arrived. IT IS THE PERFECT TRANSPARENT MAGENTA, BAR NONE. It's Pigment Index Color Number is PR122. This is the dry pigment magenta you need for frescos and all other media. I hate it when I run out.

The perfect triad is:
Transparent Indian Yellow (warm yellow-brown) PY150
Or Transparent Indian Yellow (warm yellow-orange-) PY153
Or (for water colors) Transparent Tartrazine PY100 Clear (warm yellow-orange) by Spectra Colors.
Transparent Quinacridone Magenta, PR122
Transparent Phthalocyanine Blue (cyan) PB15.3.
Keep this list as close to your heart as I do, it took testing over $2000 worth of pigments to find these gems. At the same time I got a great fresco complete palette. I made a DVD of painting 2 frescos using the transparent primary palette. It's $35 on my order page.

Painting with a Transparent Triad Palette, 3 primary colors, makes all these colors except one ultramarine blue ball which was used to compare the mixed blue with the tube ult blue PB29.

First is transparent Indian yellow Org/s then transparent Indian yellow Br/s

transparent Yellow

Transparent Triad Colors in 6 round color chips, except for the first ball, opaque ultramarine blue PB29.
Indian yellow Org/s ball PY153. Cyan PB15.3 and Indian yellow PY153 make the green color chip sample.
Magenta and cyan made the purple ball, cyan and magenta made the blue ball, Indian yellow and magenta made the red ball.

transparent triad mixed colors

Oppositions, opaque red PR88 or cad red PR108, transparent cyan PB15.3. Using each other's color to make a neutral dark shadow color.

transparent cyan

Oppositions Transparent Magenta PR122, Transparent Green PG35, using each other's color to make a neutral dark shadow color.

transparent magenta

The black ball was made with this transparent triad.

triad black ball

Testing for black with PR122, PB15.3 and PY153 on a 14x18 panel,
making a very dark buon fresco without black pigment.

Latour Wine

Painting an apple with my transparent 3 primary color sample card. PR122, PB15.3 and PY153 in water colors, laying down yellow first, than magenta and cyan. This was painted in 2000, the paper is the palette.

3 color apple


I have my own w/c Indian yellow now for pigment and ink, it's a clear transparent yellow.
IT'S BETTER, CLEANER AND BRIGHTER THAN ANYTHING ON THE MARKET TODAY IMHO. 5-20-10



This cool 3 color primary transparent triad in oils made perfect blues, reds and greens.
Bocour Cobalt Violet, color not available anymore, it was cooler than PR122 but it bled. I think it was the first true magenta.
Grumbacher Thalo Blue
Old Holland Indian Yellow O/s

Full palette, 3 colors.

These links are to other 3 primary color paintings, the pigments are:

Dry Pigments;
Indian yellow PY153 from Zecchi, Transparent Tartrazine PY100 w/c by Spectra Colors.
Magenta PR122
Cyan PB15.3

Food Coloring
The Easter Egg Coloring 6-pack.

Oil Paints,
Old Holland Indian Yellow Orange-side and Old Holland Indian Yellow Brown-side, both make the same cadmium yellow hue when tinted or thinned out.
Many brands are now using Quinacridone Magenta PR122, 4-29-9
Grumbacher Thalo Blue, cyan PB15

Water Colors,
Daniel Smith New Gamboge PY153 (or Golden PY150) Nickel Dioxine is the best Indian Yellow O/s oil pigment. PY100 transparent Tartrazine yellow O/s for watercolors.
Daniel Smith Quinacridone Magenta PV202 is more to the cyan side so it's not perfect for my colorwheel.
Grumbacher Thalo Crimson PV19 is more to the warm side so it's not perfect for making blues.
PR122 is the perfect magenta. Also perfect is ShinHan Opera PR122 + BV10, which has a mass-tone lighter tinted hue of magenta that still mixes with Thalo Green PG37 to mix a neutral dark.
They are two different hues of the same magenta color.
ShinHan Bright Rose is also a very close match for plotter/inkjet ink magenta, Original Equipment Manufacture (OEM) magenta color.
Grumbacher Thalo Blue PB15 is the perfect transparent cyan primary color to mix and make any color in front of me as I paint oil or any media.

Acrylics
7-1-6, Golden primary set.
Golden Acrylics, Indian Yellow Hue golden/side transparent. Nickel Complex Azo PY150, with Quinacridone PR206 and Arylide yellow PY73. and Brown/side Golden Acrylic Nickel Complex Azo PY150. None of them make a pure yellow.
Golden Acrylics Magenta PR122
Golden Acrylics Phthalo Blue PB15.4 (a little on the magenta side, Hyplar had an acrylic phthalocyanine chlorinated copper that was perfect, they called it PB15. It is the same hue as Grumbacher's perfect oil color Thalo blue.)

Children painting with Food Coloring Colors   First Grade learning the transparent 3 primary colors.
Children painting with Pre-made Water Colors   Third Grade learning the transparent 3 primary colors 2010.
Adult artist workshop 1 on Maui   Adults using only the primary colors.
Adult artist workshop 2 on Maui   Adult pros making and using only the primary colors.
3 color examples   Mixing the three transparent primary colors.
Lime Water Media   75 sq. foot buon fresco in 3 colors.
Lime Water Medium   buon fresco #1 in 3 colors.
Lime Water Medium   buon fresco #2 in 3 colors.
Maroger Medium   Hana Paintings with Maroger's Medium in 3 primary colors.
Maroger Medium   The Kaupo Hearts, Black Oil painting in 3 primary colors.
Egg Tempera Medium   Still Life with the transparent 3 primary colors.
Water Color Painting with 3 primary colors.   Night Painting
Copal Medium with the RCW 3 Primary Color Wheel   Anna's Bouquet

Transparent Yellow

I have been working with a chemical company called Spectra Colors Corp. in my home State, N.J., 4-2-6, to provide my clear transparent yellow color. PY100, Spectracid Tartrazine 170 / Acid Yellow 23 / Azo / C.A.S#: 1934.21.0 / H:1 F:0 R:0 P:D / APR 25,2006 / Lot # T14976 / Scc Order # : 63305, is my choice. This is it, a clear Indian Yellow for plotters and w/c artists. It is very permanent, never changing at all after 2 months in the hot Lahaina Sun, the ball point writing is gone. Ethylene Glycol added to the pigment made it waterproof ink when dry. To use this pigment as a water-color add gum arabic and a little honey. The amount of water added to the pigment to print a cadmium yellow light is 1:9. In this image there is 1 cup of the 1:9 mixture, the pigment and dilution I'm printing with is 1:29.

Printing with full strength (1:1 with water) the ink printed a cadmium yellow medium hue color. 1:29 is what the plotter needs to bring it down to cad yellow light hue. All colors with yellow included in them are rich.

Transparent yellow printing

The yellow ink for printers/plotters is opaque today, and I found it prints weakly as a tint. Yes, the plotter spray printing industry can use an upgrade.. Their standard Cyan is too magenta (I think), so could our National Color Index, it's lacking because it's based on calling red, yellow and blue the primary colors.

Imagine saying red (which is made of yellow and magenta), is the primary color and giving magenta a code like PR:122. That's Pigment Red #122 to the artist trade. We all know that's wrong. Or should know it's wrong.

Yes, the 3 transparent colors, Yellow, Cyan, Magenta color wheel is accurate,
not the red, yellow, blue colour wheel.
Compare them here.

My color wheel adds to that, giving the ability to mix all opposite secondary colors to a neutral black hue or shade colors.

This is a big problem today, because all of our State's School Standards are commanded to teaching the Red, Yellow and Blue as primary colors. Very sad.

11-20-8, The day before yesterday I ran out of the color MediaStreet calls G-7 cyan in my plotter. I have two bottles on hand so it was no problem. Instead of just refilling my homemade bulk ink system I decided now was the time to work on my Spectra cyan. Spectra had sent me cyan in two forms, dry pigment and liquid.
This is how I tested and compared the different products. An eye dropper will give equal amounts per drop if the viscosity is the same. For each color ink I made a chip color of 1 ink to 0 water = 1:0, the full ink color. And 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, 1:5, 1:6 all the way up to 1:24.
Spectramine Blue FBLK LIQ, Direct Blue 199 is the only color matching the Grumbacher Thalo blue oil paint that I love and promote. Spectra Colors Corp. is a pigment manufacturer. They make that transparent color in dry pigment and water ink concentrate.

As far as the different ink colors for different plotters is concerned, this is what I found. MediaStreet G-6 cyan for the 4 and 6 color plotters reaches the same value by diluting the Specta "cyan" like this, 1 Spectra (cyan) : 2 water : 1/4 ethylene glycol. I use the addition of ethylene glycol as a slower drying lubricant for my plotter's heads. TIP: For cleaning purposes, ammonia dissolves dried ink, it breaks it up which is good for cleaning printing heads. Alcohol is not good for cleaning heads.

This final color was still too dark for print my opinion. The cyan it prints on my color wheel looks too blue. Remember, cyan changes to blue as it gets darker.
For my plotter I settled on 2:5:1/2, two spectra liquid, five water and 1/2 ethylene glycol.
4-29-9, Media Street abruptly stopped selling inks. :(

For a more in-depth discussion on printing inks for plotters,
Go here, http://www.realcolorwheel.com/rcwplotter.htm


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