Learning to draw: mixing acrylic, oil, watercolor paints. All kinds of shades from three primary colors.
Without creativity human life empty and uninteresting. Painting, like music, is learned not only in order to be realized in life, but also in order to find an outlet in life, a hobby that will bring joy and peace to life. And where there is drawing, so is mixing colors. This is exactly what this article is dedicated to. In it we will tell you how to mix and obtain new colors and shades of the most common paints in painting.
How to properly mix acrylic, oil and watercolor paints to obtain the desired color: table, proportions
Mixing acrylic paints
We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the lesson famous artist and a called teacher, author of Acrylic Painting with Lee Hammond. Lee Hammond warns that although we supposedly know from childhood that mixing red and blue will get purple, acrylic paints have a different pigmentation and most likely you will find brown on the palette.
Important: read the pigments on the packages. Have you seen on store shelves there are up to 15 types of the same shade? Do you think this is to fill a display case? No, it is the same color with different pigments. Therefore, we write down or photograph on a smartphone the color - the necessary pigment - and with this we go to the store to replenish the paints.
Also note that the pigments are transparent, translucent and dense in consistency. Therefore, you can buy completely different structures from the same paint manufacturer. This is not a defect, but the properties of the pigment.
So, in order to get an almost full range of colors, only 7 colors are enough. For beginners, it is recommended to purchase exactly these colors, and in the future, at your own discretion, purchase additional shades.
Please note that we do not specifically translate the names of the primary colors so that you can name them in the store and purchase the necessary pigments:
- Base: Cadmium Yellow Medium
- Base: Cadmium Red Medium
- Main: Prussian Blue
- Additional: Alizarin Crimson
- Additional: Burnt Umber
- Neutral: Ivory Black
- Neutral: Titanium White
We bought, prepared the canvas for the experiment and move on to the magic.
Experiment one - mix each color with white and get new, amazing pastel and delicate shades. We provide a table of strokes with a caption of what we mixed.
Well, now, from left to right, from first to bottom, let’s look at the shades that we managed to get: fawn; peach or as it is also called coral; soft pink; beige; sky blue; gray or light asphalt.
Now we try to mix all the colors with black, the result is in the table below.
And we got these colors: khaki or dark green; chestnut; plum; deep brown; dark blue.
But this is all simple, now let’s move on to a more complex version of mixing acrylic paints, but an interesting one! Mix and get all shades of green.
As we already did, we mix the two colors that are under the stroke and get exactly this shade.
Additionally we received: olive- green; a gray-green tint reminiscent of asphalt after rain reflecting the green crowns of trees; bottle green; mint.
The next step is purple and violet tones and midtones. In order to obtain such shades, you will need to have Prussian blue or alizarin pink or cadmium red in the work kit. Two examples for mixing: Prussian Blue + Cadmium red medium or Prussian Blue + Alizarin Crimson.
The colors we got were chestnut, rich warm grey, plum and a hint of lavender.
Now add white pigment and stir, add another drop to each option. Notice what a riot of color appears in your hands!
Sunny shades. This is what artists like to call shades of orange; these are wonderful uplifting tones. They are made by mixing red with complementary colors.
On this table we got: orange as it is, peach, brick, coral.
Earthy tones can be achieved by adding burnt umber (international meaning Burnt Umber). If there is a need to get pastel shades of these tones, then just add a drop of white pigment.
In this case, we got earthy shades: umber; brick; dark turquoise; dark sepia; dirty beige; pastel lilac; steel blue; Warm grey.
Mixing oil paints
IN oil paints The situation with the palette is a little simpler and one pigment is used in one color, so we will not give the main colors, but will leave only the name of the color. The rules that we remember from childhood are precisely the rules of oil paints.
| What color should you get? | What colors need to be mixed |
| Pink | Add red paints drop by drop to white paints until the desired shade is obtained. |
| Chestnut | Add red to brown and, if necessary, darken - a drop of black, lighten - white. |
| Purple red | Add blue drop by drop to red |
| Shades of red | Red with white to highlight, red with black to darken, red with yellow for purples and oranges. |
| Orange | Add red to yellow, drop by drop. |
| Gold | Into yellow add a drop of brown and red until the required shade is obtained. |
| Shades of yellow and orange | Yellow with white, yellow with black, yellow with red and brown. |
| Pastel green | Yellow with a drop of blue, yellow with a drop of blue and black. |
| Grass color | Yellow with a drop of blue and green. |
| Olive | Add yellow to dark green, drop by drop. |
| Light green | Add white drop by drop to green, and a drop of yellow for depth of color. |
| Turquoise green | Green with a drop of blue. |
| Bottle green | Mix blue with yellow. |
| Green needles | Add yellow and black drop by drop to green. |
| Light turquoise | Add green and white to blue drop by drop to lighten it. |
| Pastel blue | Gradually add white to blue. |
| Wedgwood blue | Add 5 drops of white and 1 drop of black to blue until the desired shade is obtained. |
| Royal blue | Add black and a drop of green to blue. |
| Dark blue | Add black to blue and a drop of green at the end. |
| Grey | We dilute the white with black, adding green to get an asphalt tint. |
| Pearl gray | Add white to black and a drop of blue. |
| Brown | Mix yellow, red and blue in equal proportions, diluting if necessary with white, black or green for the desired shade. |
| Brick | Red with yellow and a drop of blue, if necessary with white. |
| Brown-gold | Red with yellow, blue and a little white. Yellow is used most for expressiveness. |
| Mustard | In yellow, a drop of red and black, for a piquant color, a drop of green. |
| Beige | In brown, add a drop of white; if you need bright beige, add a drop of yellow. |
| Off white | In white there is a drop of brown and black. |
| Pinkish gray | In white, a drop of red and black. |
| Gray-blue | Add gray and blue to white. |
| Greenish gray | Add green to gray and, if necessary, white. |
| Light charcoal | Drops of white into black. |
| Citric | In white there is a drop of yellow and green, more yellow. |
| Pastel brown | Add a drop of green to yellow and mix with brown and white. |
| Fern | Green with white and a drop of black. |
| Coniferous | Mix green with black. |
| Emerald | Add yellow and a drop of white to green. |
| Bright light green | Add yellow and white to green. |
| Bright turquoise | Add green to white and a drop of black for depth of color. |
| Avocado shade | Add yellow to brown and a drop of black. |
| Royal purple | Add red and yellow to blue. |
| Dark purple | Add blue to red and a drop of black. |
| Tomato color | Dilute red with yellow and add brown. |
| Tangerine | A drop of red and brown into yellow |
| Chestnut with reddish | Dilute red with brown and a drop of black for shading. |
| Bright orange | Dilute white with orange and brown in equal proportions. |
| Marsala | Red with brown and a drop of yellow and black. |
| Crimson | Add white to blue, a little brown and red. |
| Plum | We mix blue with red and white, darken it with black. |
| Light chestnut | Red with yellow and diluted with black and white. |
| Honey | We dilute brown with white and yellow. |
| Dark brown | Red with yellow and black. |
| Gray gray | Gradually add red and white to black. |
| Eggshell color | Yellow with white and a drop of brown. |
Mixing watercolor paints
Watercolor paints are mixed according to the same principle as oil paints, except that watercolors are translucent and the shades are more muted. We recommend working through the table above first, and only then moving on to drawing on canvas.
Basic colors for mixing paints
There are only three primary colors in paint mixing. These are red, blue and yellow. White and black are considered additional. Thanks to these colors you can get absolutely all shades of the rainbow.
This article does not provide ready-made solutions, because it is impossible to squeeze out paint or smear a certain amount of milligrams; this article gives a direction in which you can work and develop. Try, experiment and you will definitely end up with a delicious creation. And painting works much better than any psychologist, relieves stress, distracts from problems and helps you see the beauty in the ordinary!
Video: How to get brown, purple, blue, red, beige, orange, pink, gray, lilac, black, turquoise, mint, green, olive, blue, lilac, pistachio, khaki, yellow, fuchsia, cherry, marsala, white when mixing paints?
When decorating the surfaces of walls, furniture and other objects with paint, the question arises of mixing them to obtain the desired color. Not always available in stores desired color or shade, so you can use the mixing table. Creating color by hand from scrap paints is also cost-effective.
Features when working with acrylic paints
Acrylic paints are an inexpensive material that is easy to work with and dries relatively quickly. But the disadvantage is the narrow palette of colors, so you need to create the desired shade manually. You can get burgundy, lilac, turquoise, sand, wenge, lilac, and others by mixing colors.
There are some rules when working with acrylic:
- The surface to be painted must be smooth, clean, free of oil and grease stains. It must first be cleaned of the previous finish. It is not recommended to apply a new coat of paint over an old one;
- Before painting, the walls need to be leveled with putty, and then several layers of primer must be applied. The primer is used for better adhesion of paint and for less paint consumption;
- Before use, acrylic must be diluted with water or special solvents, but it is better to do this in a separate container with a portion of paint. This is necessary in order not to spoil the entire volume at once, but to use only as much as needed.
- After use, used rollers and brushes must be rinsed thoroughly with water, otherwise they will become unsuitable for further work. You also need to wash other tools that were used. The top of the paint bucket needs to be wiped down so that the lid can be opened in the future.
- Most often, painting occurs in 2-3 stages, and for an effective result, this must be done in one direction. To simplify and speed up the work, you can take a spray bottle.
Important! Also, do not forget about precautions; before work, it is better to cover or seal all places and objects that will not be painted. You can work with the material at temperatures not lower than 5 degrees and not higher than 27 degrees.
Another main rule of application is to use paint first on a small area or a completely separate surface. When creating the desired shade, it is better to try it on a draft. You also need to wait until it dries completely, as after that the color becomes a little darker or lighter, depending on the type of paint. And if the color matches the expected desired result, then you can start painting the surface or decorating objects.
What colors should you buy?
Tinting is the name of the science that studies mixing styles and obtaining the desired shade. It is this science that helps to obtain lilac color, as well as fuchsia, ivory, sea wave or sea when mixing colors. In theory, to create many colors, it is enough to have yellow, red and blue. But in this case, you can get a narrow spectrum.
To create a wide palette, it is enough to buy the following colors:
- Red;
- Yellow;
- Brown;
- Pink;
- Blue;
- Black;
- White.
These colors are quite sufficient for applying the basic scales. For decoration Gold, silver, mother-of-pearl and other additional colors are also used for designs.
Mixing Features
You can find out how to mix correctly and get the desired shade by consulting with a specialist in the store when purchasing.
Tip: The main rule of mixing is that you cannot combine dry and liquid colors. They don't match.
There are 4 main colors - white, red, blue and green. With their help, many others can be created. For example, khaki can be obtained by mixing brown and green. And you can get a brown color by mixing from red and green. Beige – take brown and white.
Working with a table
Working with the table is to find the desired color and shade, and next to it in the line, the necessary colors for mixing will be indicated. For example, get purple when mixing acrylic paints, you can when mixing red and blue. And to make it light or dark, just add a little white or black color, respectively. The disadvantage of working from the table is that it does not indicate the amount of pigment added - the ratio. Therefore, when mixing, you need practice and color perception.
Here you can simply take and mix colors, first in the same proportion, and then add another for the desired shade. Or use specialized tables that have been developed by specialists for working with the material.
For example, to get orange When mixing acrylic paints, just mix red and yellow.
Color mixing chart for acrylic paints
|
Image |
Color name |
Required colors |
|---|---|---|
|
Grey |
White and black |
|
|
Plum |
Red, blue, black |
|
|
Light green |
Yellow, white and green |
|
|
Dark-blue |
Blue and black |
|
|
Bordeaux |
Red, brown, yellow, black |
|
|
Dark green |
Green and black |
|
|
Orange |
Red and yellow |
Working with paints is simple, the only difficulty is creating the desired shade, without proportions. But, if you understand the mixing table and practice, and also know the rules of working with acrylic, you can create a unique and inimitable interior design with your own hands and relatively cheaply.
Two color mixing tables
The color mixing table allows you to learn how to get the right one when mixing two or more colors and shades.
This table is used in various fields art - fine art, modeling, and others. Can also be used in construction when mixing paints and plasters.
Color Mixing Chart 1
| Required Color | Base Color + Mixing Instructions |
| Pink | White + add a little red |
| Chestnut | Red + add black or brown |
| Royal Red | Red + add blue |
| Red | Red + White to brighten, yellow to get orange-red |
| Orange | Yellow + add red |
| Gold | Yellow + a drop of red or brown |
| Yellow | Yellow + white for lightening, red or brown for obtaining dark shade |
| Pale green | Yellow + add blue/black for depth |
| Grass green | Yellow + add blue and green |
| Olive | Green + add yellow |
| Light green | Green + add white/yellow |
| Turquoise green | Green + add blue |
| Bottle green | Yellow + add blue |
| Coniferous | Green + add yellow and black |
| Turquoise blue | Blue + add a little green |
| White-blue | White + add blue |
| Wedgwood blue | White + add blue and a drop of black |
| Royal blue | |
| Dark blue | Blue + add black and a drop of green |
| Grey | White + Add a little black |
| Pearl gray | White + Add black, a little blue |
| Medium brown | Yellow + Add red and blue, white for lightening, black for dark. |
| Red-brown | Red & yellow + Add blue and white to brighten |
| Golden brown | Yellow + Add red, blue, white. More yellow for contrast |
| Mustard | Yellow + Add red, black and a little green |
| Beige | Take brown and gradually add white until beige color. Add yellow for brightness. |
| Off white | White + Add brown or black |
| Pink gray | White + Drop of red or black |
| Gray-blue | White + Add light gray plus a drop of blue |
| Green-gray | White + Add light gray plus a drop of green |
| Gray coal | White + add black |
| Lemon yellow | Yellow + add white, a little green |
| Light brown | Yellow + add white, black, brown |
| Fern green color | White + add green, black and white |
| Forest green color | Green + add black |
| Emerald green | Yellow + add green and white |
| Light green | Yellow + add white and green |
| Celadon | White + add green and black |
| Avocado | Yellow + add brown and black |
| Royal purple | Red + add blue and yellow |
| Dark purple | Red + add blue and black |
| Tomato red | Red + add yellow and brown |
| Mandarin, orange | Yellow + add red and brown |
| Reddish chestnut | Red + add brown and black |
| Orange | White + add orange and brown |
| Burgundy red color | Red + add brown, black and yellow |
| Crimson | Blue + add white, red and brown |
| Plum | Red + add white, blue and black |
| Chestnut | |
| Honey color | White, yellow and dark brown |
| Dark brown | Yellow + red, black and white |
| Copper gray | Black + add white and red |
| Eggshell color | White + yellow, a little brown |
| Black | Black Use pitch black |
Color mixing chart 2
Mixing paints
black= brown+blue+red in equal proportions
black= brown+blue.
gray and black= blue, green, red and yellow are mixed in equal proportions, and then one or the other is added by eye. it turns out we need more blue and red
black= it turns out if you mix red, blue and brown
black=red, green and blue. You can additionally add brown.
bodily= red and yellow paint.... just a little. After kneading, if it turns yellow, add a little red, if a little yellow paint turns pink. If the color turns out to be very saturated, add a piece of white mastic and mix again
dark cherry= red + brown + a little blue (cyan)
strawberry= 3 parts pink + 1 part red
Turkiz= 6 parts sky blue + 1 part yellow
silver gray= 1 hour black + 1 hour blue
dark red= 1 part red + a little black
rust color= 8 hours orange + 2 hours red + 1 hour brown
greenish= 9 hours sky blue + a little yellow
dark green= green+a little black
lavender=5 parts pink + 1 part purple
bodily= a little copper color
nautical=5h. blue+1 hour green
peach=2h. orange + 1 tsp. dark yellow
dark pink=2h. red+1 hour brown
dark blue=1h. blue+1h. Sereneviy
avocado= 4h. yellow + 1 part green + a little black
coral=3 hours pink + 2 hours yellow
gold= 10 hours yellow + 3 hours orange + 1 hour red
plum = 1 part purple + a little red
light green= 2 hours purple + 3 hours yellow
red + yellow = orange
red + ocher + white = apricot
red + green = brown
red + blue = violet
red + blue + green = black
yellow + white + green = citric
yellow + cyan or blue = green
yellow + brown = ocher
yellow + green + white + red = tobacco
blue + green = sea wave
orange + brown = terracotta
red + white = coffee with milk
brown + white + yellow = beige
light green=green+yellow, more yellow,+white= light green
lilac=blue+red+white, more red and white, +white= light lilac
lilac= red and blue, with red predominating
Pistachio paint obtained by mixing yellow paint with a small amount of blue
Blue is one of the primary colors. Along with red and yellow, it is on the list of tones that cannot be produced at home. But artists know perfectly well how to get blue in its various shades - to do this you need to mix the classic color with other pigments, which gives amazing results.
Traditional color wheel
Experts call blue, red, yellow colors“three pillars” of colorism and painting. It is on them that the widest palette of halftones of the second and third orders rests; they are combined with each other, while creation with is excluded.
All the most important colors are included in the so-called color wheel. It represents a conditional model divided into sectors. The latter are placed in an order close to their location in the visible light spectrum. The adjacent shades are called chromatic; they can be mixed together to obtain a new chromatic (color) paint. If, when mixing paints, you take opposite tones, the result will be achromatic color(grayish). That is, the further the colors are from each other, the more likely it is that their mixture will give an inexpressive, ugly tone.
Classic blue and its shades
You won’t be able to make blue at home, so to create different shades of it you need to purchase ready-made gouache, watercolor, acrylic paint or another type of dye (even plasticine). Then you can use other colors from the set, because when they are combined you can get incredible tones and halftones of blue. Artists have special tables with the names of shades and the required proportions for paints, but in practice they still have to experiment.
In regular gouache sets, blue is represented by the shade ultramarine. It is very bright, moderately dark, and has slightly purple notes. There is an important rule that you need to remember: add white to lighten the tone, black to darken it, and different colors to change the reflection of the paint.
Blue-green
Making shades of blue with green highlights is easy. The effect of a dark green tone is achieved by introducing a small amount of ready-made green paint into the blue. If it is not there, you can do it differently. Since the combination of blue and yellow gives a green color, you can add a little yellow to the blue. Next, the paint is lightened with white, the result is a third-order shade, less saturated.
Prussian blue
The azure color also contains green shades. Artists have a recipe for its preparation - you need to combine 1 part blue and the same amount of light green or bright green (grass) shade. If necessary, the tone is diluted with white.
Blue-violet
This color is considered very rich and powerful in energy; it is prepared by combining blue with red paint in equal proportions. But the finished purple must be made to turn blue, for which the blue color is added drop by drop until the right tone. Typically the final ratio does not exceed 2:1.
Royal blue
The royal color is a dark, cool tone, close to classic. Traditional royal blue is part of the HTML color scheme used in computer graphics. It is also the main tone of ink and paint for cartridges. To make this color, a drop of black and even less of green are added to ultramarine.
Blue-gray
This shade is reminiscent of a cloudy sky, as well as the color of water on a non-sunny day. You need to add a little brown to the base blue, the result will be a dark blue-gray tone. It is diluted with white to the desired degree of lightening. There is another option for creating a gray-blue tint - combining blue with orange, the result will be a grayish mass with a slightly blue tint.
Dark blue
The blue paint begins to darken with the addition of a small amount of black color. The ratio should be no more than 4:1. Creating such a shade is required if you need to “calm” a color when it is initially too bright.
Blue
Blue color is easy to make. To do this, blue of any tone is diluted with white 3:1 or more. Increasing the volume of white paint results in even greater lightening, up to a sky blue or pastel blue. To achieve an original tone, you can dilute turquoise with white.
Other shades
Wedgwood tone is obtained by combining a portion of blue, as well as a drop of white and black paint. For dark turquoise, yellow-green color is added dropwise to blue. Cornflower blue is created by mixing purple, blue, a drop of brown and the same amount of black dye.
Blue in nature
IN real world Blue is perceived by the eye in the range of 440-485 nm. This is a digital value of the electromagnetic wavelength that has a blue tone in the general spectrum of light. In nature, you can see up to 180 shades of blue - its tones are visible in the colors of the seas and oceans, the sky, twilight, moonlight, many plants, and insects.
To obtain the ideal color, you need to ensure that all ingredients are similar in chemical composition. Otherwise, the mass may separate, leaving unmixed veins. It is also important to apply quality paints, because others begin to darken and turn gray over time. Oil dyes are very susceptible to changes - it is better to first try the work on a small area and evaluate the effect after a couple of days. Artists note: the fewer colors were combined, the better the result will be, and the lower the risk of fading and peeling of the finished decor.
There can be many reasons for looking for the color green. For example, you want to paint the kitchen, draw a landscape, or make leaves for a plant out of plasticine, and buy required material no possibility. Then you have to look for the answer to the question of how to get
Color Basics
The science called coloristics studies colors, their features and combinations. Any artist, even a beginner, has an idea of how to get a particular shade by mixing paints, and, naturally, knows how to get green.
You may not believe it, but all the objects around you are painted in only 3 colors. They are called basic. These are red, yellow and blue. By mixing these colors and using black and white, thousands of shades can be created: brown, purple, pink, orange and many more. By learning these basics, future artists will also learn how to produce the color green.
The color ring is used to visually study color. It is convenient to use it to determine which color needs to be mixed with which in order to obtain more complex shades. Moreover, changing the proportions of the initial colors also changes the final one. Paints from different companies may differ slightly in color - this also needs to be taken into account when mixing.
What needs to be mixed?
We figured out that any color can be obtained by mixing red, blue and yellow. All that remains is to figure out what colors to mix to get green. For the answer, let's turn to the color ring. It clearly shows that the color we need is between yellow and blue. This means that they need to be mixed to get green. If you take paints in equal proportions, you will get a regular color, the kind you can find in a jar labeled “green.” But what happens if you change the amount of one of the colors?
Many shades
We have already talked about shades above, it remains to figure out what they are. This is what artists call colors that are very similar to the main one, but modified by adding other colors. Let's see what this looks like in practice.
We have already figured out how to get green by mixing blue and yellow in equal proportions. If the proportions change, the color will change. For example, adding blue to green will make the second “cooler”. This is the name of the shades that can be found on Adding yellow makes the color “warm”, for example light green. And if you add a lot of yellow paint, you get lemon.
How to change color correctly?
Often, artists are faced with a more difficult task - how to get a green color that is much more interesting than the standard one. To do this, you can experiment. For example, adding black - it will make the green darker, like a swamp or coniferous, but in some cases this is necessary. You need to work with black very carefully. Even the smallest drop can make the color look muddy, so add it a little at a time. And white will make the shade lighter. At the same time, the brightness will decrease - the green will appear as if in a fog. The same recommendations apply to other colors.
In pursuit of interesting shades, some begin to add all the colors in a row to green. This is not worth doing. Colors located on the other side can easily ruin everything. That is, if you mix yellow and blue, try not to add red and its shades to them. Only those who have sufficient painting skills can do this correctly.
Psychology of green
Knowing how to get green can be useful in many areas of life. But before actively using it in the interior, decide whether it suits you from a psychological point of view.
Experts have long noticed that furniture can greatly influence a person’s mood. For example, red evokes passion or aggression, soft pink is suitable for frivolous pastime, and orange adds energy and positivity.
As for green, a lot depends on its brightness and saturation. Lighter colors allow you to relax and have a pleasant rest after a hard day at work, while rich emerald shades or light green will add vigor. At the same time dark colors make the interior more serious. But all psychologists are inclined to the same opinion - green is the most relaxing and calm color of all. If this is exactly what you need, actively use green in the interior.
How to get other colors?
Whatever your goals, it's unlikely that you can get by with just one color. Green can be successfully combined with many other shades, because in nature, leaves of this color serve as the background for irises, dandelions, forget-me-nots and poppies. Moreover, it all looks very harmonious. This means that green, if desired, can be successfully combined with any shades. But how to get them?
Red, yellow and blue are the main ones, as we found out above. They are complemented by black and white. A simple table will tell you what colors you can get by mixing.
The article gives a complete and detailed answer to the question of how to get green by mixing paints. This means that now you can easily cope with this task and create many amazing shades that are not in your paint palette.
