DR4lyfe:

Posted September 08, 2006 05:22 PM
I want to learn how to mix colors by only having a red, yellow, blue and white on my palette, but I am struggling.

i have titanium white, cad yellow medium, cad red medium, and ultramarine on my palette, but I am not getting very good greens. I think I need a cooler yellow. Also, maybe I should have gotten a mixing white instead of titanium, because the titanium seems to be dulling my color mixtures.

Anybody have any suggestions on what four colors I should get for this kind of mixing and painting?

Studemobile:

Hi DR,
You didn't mention your medium but check out www.handprint.com for information on palette color choices for watercolor. Much of this info is applicable for other media as well.
If you paint on a white surface, this can sometimes be used to advantage rather than mixing white into colors.
Opacity and transparency also has a part to play.
Anyway, color mixing is very important. Check out your library for books on the subject relating to your medium and happy mixing!


DR4lyfe:

Posted September 28, 2006 10:49 AM
thank you! that is a great site you recommended.

I'm working in oil.

lale:

Posted September 28, 2006 03:36 PM
Hi DR,
Naples yellow mixed with different blues is a very nice yellow to make different greens. I use Naples Yellow light in my portraits.


gowenstudios:

The white I would suggest is zinc white. If you are painting in oils Permalba white is a good brand. The titanium white is dulling your colors by graying them. I would suggest a split palette. Cool reds, yellows, and blues with warm reds, yellows and blues. Cool red that comes to mind is alizarin crimson, cool yellow is lemon yellow, and blue, I am thinking ultramarine blue.
Warm reds napthol red, I am thinking of a winsor red, and blue would be phathlo blue, warm yellow would be azo yellow. Any color that has yellow or red tint in it is warm. Cool colors will have a green or blue tint.


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try to play with difrent blues for makeing green. and green is one of the hardest colors to make so if you arnt geting it just keep trying. good luck

Hello. I think the key for the management of the colors is to know what is the shade of each one. All we know that yellow is warm and blue is cold; but is important to clarify that there are cold yellows and warm blues. And the formula is very simple: One color is cold when it contains some of blue (one yellow is cold when it shows a green tone, like the lemon yellow; the red crimson is cold, because there blue and the shade is violet). One color is warm, when it contains some of yellow (hot blues: prussian blue; hot red: vermillion). And, although it sounds strange, the black can be cold or warm; it depends of the pigment or the mix to get it.

But, what means all this? Why is important? The answer is, you can´t mix one cold color with a warm color if you want to maintain the saturation, that is to say the intensity and the force of a color. For example, if you need orange, you can´t mix lemon yellow with crimson, because you will get a break color, like a dirty brown. The correct is to mix vermillion with a warm yellow, like the medium cadmiun.
The break colors are gotten mixing the three primary colors in different quantity (or mixing the original color with white or black). Usually, when you need to dark and to low the intensity of a color, you must mix the complementary color (for example you can get a dark green for the trees mixing green with red). In some cases, you want to get a break color, but in another cases it could bring problems.

I think only a few colors are "neutral" or pures (colors without shade of another color): cadmiun yellow (or maybe ochre yellow), cadmiun red and phtalo blue. Those are the primary colors (like the inks of a printer, even though, the magenta replaces the red in this case).

Then, is important to have enough colors in your palette: cold, "neutral" and warm colors. And, of course, some break colors like siennas and umbers.