Starter Pallete Jo Sonja

[petebali]

I got a hold of a small amount of Jo Sonjas paint through an other artist friend of mine and was able to try a little bit and I think I'm hooked. Can any one recommend some colors to start with? I have 40 dollars to spend on them and I plan on getting them from cheap joes unless any one has a cheaper site.

Thanks
Pete

 

[martynfaller]

Hi Pete

I just moved onto Jo Sonjas (acrylic gouache) and they are great, (although I hate the huge plastic tubes they come in and bought a dozen Vallejo mixing bottles - squeezing the colours into those making them easier to handle).

Anyway - I bought a set of Jo Sonja colours recently to do flesh mixes, which is working out well. Raw Sienna, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Naples Yellow. The usual suspects should be no surprises here, but then everyone has their own favourite mixes for flesh. You'll also need to add small amounts of a red and/or a green to the flesh mix to add interest. These colours are pretty much a staple in any paint system and you'll find plenty of uses for these colours not just flesh.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Martyn

 

[gordy]

Can you explain to new painters what working with them is like? Such as how to thin, the opacity what version, Jo Sonja's Artist Acrylic Sets, Jo Sonja's Mediums or Jo Sonja's Potting Shed Collection?

 

[Einion]

It's hard to really help someone pick a palette Pete mainly because one person's must-have colour wouldn't ever be bought by another painter, that's how personal colour choices are. A good example of this is artists using Alizarin Crimson - many of them will tell you they wouldn't be without it, it's a necessity, however lots of modern painters don't use it because it's not lightfast and will often use a colour of quite a different type as well... but you wouldn't know it from looking at their work. This shows clearly that the must-have nature of a paint can sometimes be entirely a matter of opinion.

Anyway, if I were buying Jo Sonjas from scratch, here are the core colours I'd get:

Titanium White
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Cadmium Scarlet
Transparent Magenta
Ultramarine Blue Deep
Yellow Oxide
Red Earth
Carbon Black

To bulk this out later I might add some or all of the following:
Burnt Umber
Phthalo Blue
Green Oxide
Phthalo Green
Diox Purple

Although they offer a fair range of convenience colours like Olive Green, Nimbus Grey, Opal and Fawn, they're all simple mixtures that you can replicate yourself.

I have 40 dollars to spend on them and I plan on getting them from cheap joes unless any one has a cheaper site.

Prices on Dick Blick can often be cheaper; they were significantly cheaper when I compared them last year, but double-check to be sure.

Neatly, the core colours I list come to just about $40 before shipping on Blick's (although some colours are currently out of stock, expected back in beginning of next month).

Einion

 

[Alex]

I use Jo Sonja's acrylics exclusively for blocking under oil paint.

Most of the paints are very fluid and they have some very nice metallics finely ground.

I got 20 tubes for something like 3$ each on sale at a local art store.

I would buy definitively more whenever required

Cheers

Alex

 

[winston]

Hi Peter
Personnaly I use Provincial beige for all my base for skin and add a little part crimson, and burnt sienna and to highlight I use Fawn, basic sinktone, unbleatched titanium and for shadow a mixed of base added of burnt sienna, brown Earth, red earth and phtalo red.

I give a pic of my last face realize with sonja, and I use airbrush to apply them :

I hope it's can help you.

 

[jbickley00]

Just wanted to say hi to Pete, who I know in the physical world, and enion, who I know from c'mon. I will say that usually I have been better able to get deals from blick than cheap joes. I would add to enions core palette a cyan, like cerulean blue, and a dye based yellow, like hansa. For mixing vibrant colors, cyan magenta and yellow are better. But it's just my opinion, enion is a better painter than I am anyway

 

[Iguazzu]

Sorry for the offtopic but, where can i buy jo sonja's paint in an online store?

 

[damkid2]

Here's some of the colors I use.
Burgundy, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Carbon Black, Prussian Hue, Unbleached Titanium, Warm White, Permanent Alizarine, Titanium White, Cadmium Scarlet, Metallic Rich Gold, Metallic Silver, Naples Yellow Hue, Plum Pink, Fawn, Hooker's Green, Jaune Brillant, Provincial Beige and Brown Earth.
From Dick Blick at http://www.dickblick.com/ Prices start at $2.49 a tube.
Liquitex Flow-Aid Fluid Additive and Liquitex Gloss and Matte Mediums with distilled water to thin the paints works very well. They can also be used with any acrylic brand of paints. I keep a mix of Matt Medium, Flow-Aid and Distilled water (1:1:1) in a spare dropper bottle to use as I need it.

 

[Iguazzu]

Sorry for continuing the off topic, but, what about the finish? are they matt or slighly satin?

DickBlick looks a nice opition. They aren't easy to find in Europe, I guess

 

[Pepperpot]

It would be great if someone would know a brand that might be an equivalent to these colors but which are aavailable in europe/ germany . Reading about them make me quite curious

 

[damkid2]

The finish is dead flat. Jo Sonja is a tole and decorative painter from California. No I know of nothing else like them.
http://josonja.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=100001

 

[Einion]

It would be great if someone would know a brand that might be an equivalent to these colors but which are aavailable in europe/ germany . Reading about them make me quite curious

You can order them from the US fairly easily and there are one or two suppliers in Europe I think, they are available in the UK I know. If you'd like to try ordering from a source closer to you here's the stockists page on the Chroma website:
http://www.chromaonline.com/stockists

There are some approximate equivalents to these paints. Probably the commonest is Flasche from Lefranc & Bourgeois which is somewhat similar but a bit coarser; I've used them a bit myself and they're usable but the finish won't be as fine.

The closest paints might be even harder to get than the Jo Sonjas I'm afraid. The first is Turner Acryl Gouache (note: can be quite a bit more expensive). Vallejo also make artists paints and their AV Acrylic Gouache is another option, but I've only ever seen it for sale online, never in a store and I don't know any stockists on the Continent.

Einion

 

[Pepperpot]

Thank you for the information Einion. I will do some research to find one or the other

 

[bagelman1952]

Well after reading all the information on these particular paints I took the plunge and ordered a batch from Blicks. I hope they are as good as they sound.

Ken

 

[damkid2]

Well after reading all the information on these particular paints I took the plunge and ordered a batch from Blicks. I hope they are as good as they sound.

Ken

I hope you will. I like them best for the under painting of oils and glazing. The pigments are very dense work well as glazes. I have used them for painting a color of choice on a figure, like dark blue (Storm Blue or Sapphire layered with glazes of Prussian Hue) is one example. Jo Sonjas paint is my first choice for whites (Titanium White,Unbleached Titanium, Warm White). Keep them thinned out (distilled water) use them in layers (glazes). For a tutorial on the technique of glazing these two videos are a good place to start.
, and
.
They are also great for "dry brush" techniques and painting for ground work.

 

[bagelman1952]

OK took delivery of my paints today and re-started a bust that I had stripped four times. I have to say I am well impressed. Used the flow medium and found them very easy to work with.

Ken

 

[jcichon]

I would like to know the difference between the gauche and regular acrylic paint. I got some Turner acryl gauche and find them tough to work with and tend to dry chalky even when I thin the crap out of them

 

[Einion]

I would like to know the difference between the gauche and regular acrylic paint.

Technically they are acrylics (or vinyl paints, which are practically the same thing). It's really just the matt finish that distinguishes them from a regular type of artists' acrylic.

I got some Turner acryl gauche and find them tough to work with and tend to dry chalky even when I thin the crap out of them

'Chalky' means different things to different people I'm afraid. Sometimes that's just how very matt paint looks. Depending on the specific issue(s) you're having there are some prior threads I can point you to that might help.

Einion

 

[jcichon]

Yea please do!