Dana Eker

Mixing Color

As originally seen in the Red Bluff Daily News

Color – the sensation produced on the eye by different wavelengths of light. Color is also known as hue, tint, shade, and tone. It has power to influence emotions and buying habits. No doubt you have tried to choose colors for your palette and were confused by all the choices. And who could afford to buy all the available colors? To buy a bigger palette to accommodate them all, more decisions about which ones go together. It’s a dilemma. So here’s the simplicity of it. The primary colors, red, blue and yellow can be mixed to make secondary colors: red and blue make purple; blue and yellow make green; yellow and red make orange. You may already know that.

Did you know each of those primary colors can be separated into warm and cool? That gives you a warm, cool and primary red. A warm, cool and primary blue. A warm, cool and primary yellow. That’s nine colors! On your palette you place the warm and cool colors in the color wells. I like my reds on one side, the blues together, same with yellows. Mix the warm and cool together in the mixing areas to get the primary. Many more colors are available by mixing neutrals and browns. Now you’re organized.

The warm and cool theory is especially useful for mixing the numerous colors of green. How many times have you tried to match a green without success? Any yellow and any blue won’t give you the green you’re looking for. I recommend making a chart on a surface compatible with your medium of 8 squares or circles across the surface with a pencil, leaving a space to write the colors you used underneath for future reference. This is a recipe card for mixing greens so hang onto it.

These warm and cool colors do have names. Warm colors include: CADMIUM RED LIGHT or WINSOR RED, CERULEAN BLUE, CADMIUM YELLOW MEDIUM or NEW GAMBOGE. Cool colors include: ALIZARIN CRIMSON or QUINOCRODONE VIOLET, ULTRAMARINE BLUE, AUREOLIN YELLOW. You may find other similar hues.

Keep track of what colors to use by first penciling in the names of the colors by a square or circle, and then mix each, one at a time. Wet your colors with water to start and use a dab of each color when mixing, rinsing your brush each time you change colors. Put some warm blue with the warm yellow in the mixing area for a bright spring green and transfer it to the paper in the spot reserved for that blend. Good. Now rinse the brush out and use the warm blue and the cool yellow for a grass green. Great!

Try the cool blue with the warm yellow next. Then, mix the cool blue with the cool yellow for a deep green. You should have four different greens by now. Adding some of the warm and cool reds to each of these greens will give you olive tones. Adjust the amounts of each color to find the final shade you are looking for. Remember that with watercolors, they dry shades lighter and may need a second coat to build up color.

Mixing colors in the past may have turned out grays or browns. These neutrals are very useful to shade with. Neutrals are made by mixing opposites together, a primary and a secondary such as red and green; blue and orange; and yellow and purple. Use a neutral background to make a bright color really pop out.

You might be wondering why the color white is not listed. White is used in oils and acrylics, however in watercolors, white is the paper left unpainted. This can be done by using a liquid masking fluid to cover the white paper prior to painting or carefully avoiding the area to be left white. Black is not listed either. Black paint looks unnatural so when black is mixed from other colors making it more interesting. Try different combinations of the reds with ULTRAMARINE BLUE and NEW GAMBOGE for a nice dark color to use as black.

These directions are best demonstrated with the use of a visual color wheel. However, with some experimentation you will succeed. And with so many greens found in nature you should have no problem mixing the one you want.

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Dana Eker is a watercolorist living in Red Bluff. She is a member of the Red Bluff Art Gallery, with artwork displayed around town. E-mail Dana at danaeker@hotmail.com.

This article originally ran in the Red Bluff Daily News and is reprinted with their kind permission. Click here to read more Red Bluff Daily News features and get the latest local news.

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