Painting - Mixing Colors By Eye For Professionals and Other Interested Parties
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Bigg_Billy
04-29-09, 06:16 PM
If there is one facet of the Painting or Scenic Artist Trade that separates the professional from the novice, it is the ability to "mix colors." Some say it is a god given gift, but I feel an interested party, who wishes to invest the time, can get to be pretty darn good, and valuable. To get started you will need a 30" x 40" Bulletin or Bainbridge Board, some low tack tape, 1" should do, and the folowing colors, either in oil or universal tint, and some white paint to play with:
Light Yellow, Medium Yellow, French Ochre or Yellow Oxide, Raw Sienna, Light Green, Medium Green, American Vermillion or Toulidine Red, Burnt Sienna, Prussian Blue, Ultramarine Blue, or Thalo Blue, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, & Lamp Black. With these 12 colors, you can make literally any color, depending on chroma. Certainly others can be added, I love Rose Lake & Vandyke Brown.
Layout your board in either direction depending on the number of colors you'd like to add, horizontally usually works fine, with a grid taped off to make 1.5" blocks, the left hand row will be labeled with each of your colors after you pull your tape off and the paint is dry. I would use the order I provided above. The left hand block will be filled in with each colorant, right out of the can. In the next block to the main color, take the colorant and put a dab in a tea spoon, with a 1/2" flat artist brush, mix in a small amount of your white paint, may be one dab but remember the amount. Mix it good and paint in the next block to the right of the main color, repeat the process across the board to the right until you reach a pastel version of the colorant in the left hand block. As you proceed from color to color, notice how some colors pastel out quicker than others, make a note for that color "weak". You'll find the reds, greens, blues, & burnt umber are weaker colors, Raw Umber, Raw Sienna, and Ochre are medium strength, and the yellows, Burn't Sienna, and Lamp Black are strong colorants. Remembering this as you mix gallons of paint will be helpful so you don't blow by a given color you are trying to mix. After your board is dry, and you are happy with the transitions from full strength to pastel, you can pull of your tape and label as necessary.
Although this may be a lot of work, it is the essential ingredient in learning about colors and their various attributes. As you look at your color board, walk around your house and notice everything with color has an ingredient on your board. Imagine your Easter tulips, and how you might mix the green stems from Light Medium Green and a little Light Yellow. Imagine that bed in a previous post, and how you might mix the stain from some Burnt Sienna and Vandyke Brown. Everything in your house will be somewhere on that board, or a version close to it. As you are mixing woodwork paint for a special wallpaper background or flower petal, look at your board for the color to start with, as you mix in more color, and you think it's not quite right, look at your board and see what might be needed, maybe a little Ochre or Raw Umber.
Practice makes perfect, the more you experiment the better you'll get. To be a Journeyman Painter or Scenic Artist this exercise is essential.
Good Luck,
Bill
Light Yellow, Medium Yellow, French Ochre or Yellow Oxide, Raw Sienna, Light Green, Medium Green, American Vermillion or Toulidine Red, Burnt Sienna, Prussian Blue, Ultramarine Blue, or Thalo Blue, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, & Lamp Black. With these 12 colors, you can make literally any color, depending on chroma. Certainly others can be added, I love Rose Lake & Vandyke Brown.
Layout your board in either direction depending on the number of colors you'd like to add, horizontally usually works fine, with a grid taped off to make 1.5" blocks, the left hand row will be labeled with each of your colors after you pull your tape off and the paint is dry. I would use the order I provided above. The left hand block will be filled in with each colorant, right out of the can. In the next block to the main color, take the colorant and put a dab in a tea spoon, with a 1/2" flat artist brush, mix in a small amount of your white paint, may be one dab but remember the amount. Mix it good and paint in the next block to the right of the main color, repeat the process across the board to the right until you reach a pastel version of the colorant in the left hand block. As you proceed from color to color, notice how some colors pastel out quicker than others, make a note for that color "weak". You'll find the reds, greens, blues, & burnt umber are weaker colors, Raw Umber, Raw Sienna, and Ochre are medium strength, and the yellows, Burn't Sienna, and Lamp Black are strong colorants. Remembering this as you mix gallons of paint will be helpful so you don't blow by a given color you are trying to mix. After your board is dry, and you are happy with the transitions from full strength to pastel, you can pull of your tape and label as necessary.
Although this may be a lot of work, it is the essential ingredient in learning about colors and their various attributes. As you look at your color board, walk around your house and notice everything with color has an ingredient on your board. Imagine your Easter tulips, and how you might mix the green stems from Light Medium Green and a little Light Yellow. Imagine that bed in a previous post, and how you might mix the stain from some Burnt Sienna and Vandyke Brown. Everything in your house will be somewhere on that board, or a version close to it. As you are mixing woodwork paint for a special wallpaper background or flower petal, look at your board for the color to start with, as you mix in more color, and you think it's not quite right, look at your board and see what might be needed, maybe a little Ochre or Raw Umber.
Practice makes perfect, the more you experiment the better you'll get. To be a Journeyman Painter or Scenic Artist this exercise is essential.
Good Luck,
Bill