They’ll sell you thousands of greens. Veronese green and emerald green and cadmium green and any sort of green you like; but that particular green, never.
-Pablo Picasso
Mixing color is probably the hardest thing in painting because of the subjective nature inherent to color. Color is personal and very emotional. Getting that right shade of a hue can be a daunting task. Color choice, along with subject, film and paper type, are components of what will ultimately define your style. My goal for this article is to make you aware of how to get the color you envisioned every time.
One of the most important things that you must do is to learn the properties of the colors in your paint box. One way of doing this is getting a scrap photograph or a plain piece of white photo paper and putting a sampling of each color down ranging from very light to very dark. If you have a darkroom you can just put the unexposed photo paper in some fixer for a minute and wash. Canvas inkjet is a quick and readily available if you don’t have darkroom to work in. Don’t forget that all colors will appear differently on a white tone verses a dark tone.
Pure neutral hues only exist in theories. There are very few truly neutral pigments available in tubes. Commercially available hues have a bias; they either lean toward the warm side or the cool side. Blue, Green, and Violet are considered cool while Yellow, Orange and Red are considered warm. However, if you look around you will notice many cool Yellows and warm Greens.
It is important to note that in order achieve clearer color mixtures; you should use colors that are the same color temperature. For example: warm red and a warm blue will yield a clearer, vibrant violet while a warm red mixed with a cool blue will yield a duller, softer and sometimes muddy, violet. This is important to remember when you are choosing a color for an object. You may not necessarily want a bright, vibrant color; your image (as you envision it) may require a soft, muted hue.
Blue and yellow do not always make green; sometimes you get mud. Some color mixtures will give you muddy colors. Carmine and Cadmium Orange will yield a muddy red-orange, while Cheek and Cadmium Orange will yield a clearer red-orange.
Another factor in color mixing is the relative tonality of the object or image. In order to get a really deep rich red you must start with a darker (but not black) tone. The relative shade of gray will determine the amount of color reflected back through the film of paint. Final colors will be determined by, tone of the area, color applied, thickness of paint. There are three primary tones in an image, shadow, mid-tone and highlight and of course all the grays in between.
Vermillion Regular on a light tone, thinly applied will yield a Pink
Vermillion XS on a darker tone, thickly applied will yield a vibrant Red.
Mixing Colors
Start with the lightest or dominant color. I recommend this order for two reasons. Primarily, because Photo oils require so little paint, and I find that you will waste less paint. In addition, by using small amounts of paint you are less likely to ìover-shootî the color mixture that you desire.
Mix a tiny amount of the second color until you have achieved the desired color. Use a palette knife to mix colors, not the paintbrush or cotton swabs or cotton balls.
For example, if you want a barn red, start with Vermillion and add a very small amount of Verona Brown until you have reached the desired shade. A very small amount of brown will quickly alter the red.
Please note that some color mixtures appear different on the palette than on the print. Sometimes they look, ugly. One example of an ugly on the palette but beautiful on the print is: Vermillion mixed with Verona Brown, a warm red mixed with a warm brown. Before you add more paint, test out the mixture in a tiny area that you are painting or on a scrap of the same tonality.
Mixing Neutrals
Grays and browns are considered Neutral colors. Mixing any Primary color with its complement will produce a different neutral. It’s the proportion of the mixture that will determine the end color. If you only add a tiny bit of a complementary color you will soften that color but when you add a higher proportion you will get a neutral. Two examples of browns are a mixture of Cadmium Orange + Ultrablue and Cobalt Violet + Cadmium Yellow.
Mixing more than two colors will yield dull neutrals. The most colorful neutrals are made with colors opposite on the color wheel. Stick with hues of the same color temperature for clearer neutrals. Most colors will muddy when mixed with black. While adding Neutral Tint to any color will darken that color and make it a bit grayer it may also become duller.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir would mix blue and red to create a dark (purple) neutral. Renoir was one of the first (Impressionist) to exploit warm-cool color contrasts. He mixed hues near each other on the color wheel as neutrals.
Color Problem Solving
If the color is too chalky, the problem is the color is probably too light, the layer is too thin or the tonal value of area is too dark. A few possible solutions are to use a darker color or try applying another layer of color. You can add several thin layers to build up the color or try using the Heavy Oils technique.
If the color is too dark, use Extender to reduce the paints. If the color is too light, you have two options. You can use the Marshall’s Extra Strong colors or try layering the color.
If your color is too bright, then add its complement. For example, if you are using Viridian on a tree and it is too harsh of a (warm) blue-green, add a little bit of (warm) Vermillion to tone it down. This is especially helpful when you are trying to represent colors in reality.
If your color is too dull or too muddy, just start over using only two colors. Mixing with too many colors will always mix muddy colors. Avoid over mixing colors, too many colors will result in a dark muddy hue.
Always use caution when using White or Black. While Marshall’s are more transparent than artist’s oils they are more opaque than the colors and too much will obscure the details in the photograph. Black and White paints are especially helpful when masking out unwanted elements and details.
Some colors present additional challenges. Many Reds tend to run. You can minimize this by adding reds over a dry lighter area and clean over runs immediately.
Color Wheel & Marshall Oils Equivalents
The colors on the color wheel can be translated to the following Marshall colors:
Color Wheel Marshall Oil
Yellow = Cadmium Yellow
Yellow-Green = 3 parts Cad Yellow + 1 Part Oxide Green
Green = Oxide Green
Blue-Green = Viridian
Blue = Ultra Blue
Blue-Violet = 1 Part Ultra Blue + 1 part Cobalt Violet
Violet = Cobalt Violet
Red-Violet = 1 part Cobalt Violet + 1 part Carmine
Red = Carmine
Red-Orange = Cheek or Vermillion
Orange = Cadmium Orange
Yellow-Orange = Cadmium Yellow Deep
Additional reading:
Blue and Yellow Don’t Make Green. By Michael Wilcox
ISBN: 0967962870
What Every Artist Should Know About Paints and Colors. By David Pyle
ISBN: 0-87341-831-X
Interested in using this article in your publication, newsletter or web site? Contact Rosemary at: rosemary@handpaintedphotography.com
