This list of bright, pure, permanent and safe colors are as near to the spectrum colors as currently available. Plus we add white and black. Your colors are: Titanium White • Cadmium Yellow Pale • Cadmium Yellow • Cadmium Orange • Cadmium Scarlet • Cadmium Red • Quinacridone Rose • Dioxazine Violet • French Ultramarine • Thalo Blue • Thalo Green • Cadmium Green • Cadmium Green Pale • Mars Black. I recommend Winsor & Newton Artists’ Oil Colors because their quality is higher than their price.

White: Use TITANIUM WHITE, an opaque non-yellowing white. Most brands contain some zinc white to aid in mixing. Pure titanium white is chalky and hard to mix. Pure zinc white is a little too transparent for most uses. Don’t use Lead White, Flake White or Cremnitz White, all of which contain toxic lead.

(Each of the following examples is the pure color and then that color with an equal amount of white.)

Yellow: Use CADMIUM YELLOW PALE or CADMIUM YELLOW LIGHT. Opaque.

Yellow-Orange: Use Cadmium Yellow sometimes called Cadmium Yellow Medium. Opaque.

Orange: Use CADMIUM ORANGE. Opaque.

Red-Orange: Use CADMIUM SCARLET. Opaque.

Red: Use CADMIUM RED sometimes called CADMIUM RED LIGHT. Opaque. Cadmium Red when mixed with blue it makes a very dull Violet.

Red-Violet: Use QUINACRIDONE ROSE (Permanent Rose in Winsor Newton paints). Transparent.

Violet: Use DIOXAZINE VIOLET (Winsor Violet in Winsor Newton paints)

Blue-Violet: There is no satisfactory “out of the tube” Blue-Violet. Mix DIOXAZINE VIOLET with ULTRAMARINE BLUE when this color is needed.

Blue: Use French Ultramarine Blue and Thalo Blue. The closest to a true blue is a mixture of French Ultramarine Blue and Thalo Blue (3 parts Ultramarine to 1 part Thalo), Transparent. Use French Ultramarine Blue for most instances, but put both blues on your

Blue-Green: Use THALO GREEN (also called Winsor Green, Grumbacher Green). Transparent

Green: Use CADMIUM GREEN. It is suitable for most situations but is slightly to the yellow side. When a pure spectrum green is needed mix six parts Cadmium Green to one part Thalo Green. Opaque.

Yellow-Green: Use CADMIUM GREEN PALE. Opaque

Black: Use MARS BLACK. Opaque. Or use IVORY BLACK. Transparent.

The Difference Between Transparent and Opaque Colors

Oil paints are mixtures of dry pigments and a drying oil like linseed oil. Pigments are powdered natural minerals, dyed minerals and occasionally vegetable matter. The powdered minerals, such as cadmium and titanium, when mixed with oil make opaque colors. Pigments made from dyed minerals, (Quinacridone or Dioxazine), or vegetable matter, when mixed with oil make transparent colors. Transparent colors are useful for glazing. When a transparent color is mixed with an opaque color the mixture becomes opaque.

drawing by: Mohsen Irani

Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork – particularly paintings and sculptures – which are clearly derived from real object sources, and are therefore by definition representational. The term figurative art is often taken to mean art which represents the human figure, or even an animal figure, and, though this is often the case, it is not necessarily so: “ Since the arrival of abstract art the term figurative has been used to refer to any form of modern art that retains strong references to the real world.” Painting and sculpture can therefore be divided into the categories of figurative, representational and abstract, although, strictly speaking, abstract art is derived (or abstracted) from a figurative or other natural source. However, the term is sometimes used as a synonym for non-representational art and non-objective art, i.e. art which has no derivation from figures or objects.

The Florence Academy of Art was founded in 1991 by Daniel Graves to provide the highest level of instruction in classical drawing, painting and sculpture. Graves’ vision of the Academy is its potential to train a select group of highly skilled Realist painters and sculptors.
http://www.florenceacademyofart.com

Greek figurative sculptors idealized the male human body and the resulting work was unrealistically perfect. The description and adoration of human body in general has been the subject of almost all known forms of art from ancient times to contemporary times. The ripping muscles and the strength of the human body have inspired generations of artists and shall continue to do so until mankind ceases to exist. Sinewy muscles and curvaceous female figures have enchanted artists and has been the ambrosia for modern media’s depiction of human body. Human body has been held sacred by most cultures for it denotes an identity, a unique identity that sets mankind apart from animals. It represents a border which separates the furry and feathered species from the benevolent and smooth bodied human beings. The human body is not only held sacred but muscles and flesh have been the content of human eroticism and aesthetic imagery that have been longed for. However, what lies within this showcase of muscles and strength are dying cells, blood and human waste. Flesh, bones and blood have always been something that man has never found appealing, for that reminds him of his similarity with animals.

Mohsen Irani is a Persian painter who has been deeply influenced by figurative art movements. In fact, he is one of the better known Persian figurative painters today and he teaches and lives in Tehran, Iran. He studied painting and drawing at the Icarus Art Studio and got his B.A. from the University of Architecture and Art, Tehran. He continued to pursue his M.A. in painting at the Soureh University of Fine Arts. He was recognized for his talent and awarded with Certificate of Merit in Karaj Contemporary Drawing Competition and Niavaran Cultural complex in 2005 and 2006. He has taken part in several group and solo exhibitions. His paintings explore the weakness and vulnerability which hide behind muscles and strength. He exposes the terrible experience of existence which lurks under human physical beauty. His paintings tell the tales of human beings that strive to convince themselves and others of their physical beauty and strength. Man needs the shield of strength and beauty in order to protect himself from the external aggressors. However, behind this facade of strength lies a vulnerable and weak soul that seeks out for help and mercy. The screams only get louder as the person continues to look physically stronger. Physical strength and beauty are but illusions that protect the self and others from the existential risk of revealing ones weakness and vulnerability and the similarity of the human body’s innards with the innards of an animal in the forest. In fact it is this very fear of realization of being an animal that drives human beings towards art and aesthetics, for animals are assumed to not have the capacity appreciate art. When the shield of strength and beauty breaks down, man is exposed to the state of being an animal; an animal that hunts and is hunted. Once hunted, the innards are revealed and the exterior muscles are of no use, but provide nourishment to the hunter. Mohsen reduces muscles into some thing undesirable from being something so desirable. He represents muscles as being just that, shapeless lumps of flesh and muscles that are neither visually appealing nor stand as testimony to the assumed strength of human body. Mohsen’s muscles border between being grotesque and being beautiful. The idea of human beauty is juxtaposed with the vulnerability, weakness and painfulness of being a human. Man’s world comes crashing down when this façade is brought down, and that is exactly what Mohsen Irani tries to convey. He uses objects from reality, human body and muscles to figuratively recreate a sense of revulsion towards one’s own vanity and self love. The bundle of masses in one of his paintings bends down submissively and the hairless and smooth body is no different from that of a new born deer in the wild surrounded by a million predators. The once cherished and admired muscles are reduced to symbol of weakness and vulnerability that tugs at the human ego. His figurative sketches include men in various vulnerable situations like sleeping, pondering over something unaware to the attacker nearby and dreaming wistfully while not realizing being watched over. The owners of the strong sinews are left exposed to existential dangers which are almost mortal. Mohsen’s paintings do not seek out the abstract, but represent the human figure as it is. He paints human beings and their weaknesses and falsehoods. He paints and exposes their vulnerability and their vanity. While doing so, he reduces muscles and human physical prowess to mangled pieces of flesh, bones, blood, innards and organs. Yet, he depicts humans as being beautiful and tragic at the same time. Mohsen Irani stands as an example to the growing culture of figurativism in Europe and Persia while expressionist ideas continue to mould painters like him.

Lucian Freud

David Hockney

Mohsen Irani

Maya Kulenovic

Mojgan Najafi

Scott Burdick

Siavash Mahvis

Vania Comoretti

Vahid Chamani

Valentin Serov

Kathe Kollwitz

Kent Williams

Olga Boznanska

Reza Hedayat

Cong Hua Lu

John Sargent

Jordan Wolfson

Jeffrey T. Larson

Jennifer Anderson

Davoud Emdadian

Dan Thompson

Qiang Huang

Yue Minjun