I just read an article by John Sanden on the website "The world of portrait painting" about pigments and shortcuts.
article by John Howard Sanden
I agree with him, that there is nothing wrong with using pigments like his pro mix colors. Others find that these pigments are shortcuts and that you should only use pigments that are on some official list.
I mixed my own set of pro mix colors and put them in tubes, John is very open and clear about what's in them (I would buy them, but they are not sold in The Netherlands as far as I know). You can call it a shortcut, but really it is just common sense, why mix a basic color every time you need it, when you know you need it so often?! It enables me to concentrate more on painting because I mix the color I need much faster.
If I tell other artists the system I use, often their first reaction is negative and they also think of it as using a shortcut, but when I explain that the colors are just a mix of existing pigments they are milder. But what is it with us artists that there seems to be a (strict) consensus about how you should, what you shouldn