Throughout history,
painters and authors have recommended various palettes
of colour. While some give insight to the painter's
working style, others offer a simple palette for mixing,
but typically limit colour possibilities. GOLDEN has
created a palette of eight professional acrylic colours
to provide you with the potential to mix the widest
range of colours.
The
Selection of Colours for Mixing
For this palette, the three mixing primaries are Hansa
Yellow Medium, Quinacridone Magenta and Phthalo Blue
(Green Shade). Our standard recommendation is Quinacridone
Red, but we chose Quinacridone Magenta for mixing a
broader range of violets and purples.
Naphthol Red Light
helps balance the Quinacridone Magenta. Mixtures with
Hansa Yellow Medium reveal a wider selection of intense
reds and oranges. Mixtures with Phthalo Blue (Green
Shade) allow deep reds and maroons.
Phthalo Green (Blue
Shade) assists Phthalo Blue (Green Shade). Mixtures
with Hansa Yellow Medium produce a great range of greens,
particularly subtle yellow greens. This green also helps
create a diverse range of earthtones.
Yellow Ochre, a
natural earth colour, helps "warm" the colour
mixtures and subdue the brightest colours.
Titanium White
is an opaque white for mixing pastel tones. Zinc White
is an extremely transparent white for subtle tinting
and glazing.
The
Qualities of Colour
To describe colour we need to understand three qualities:
Hue, Chroma and Value.
Hue is another
word for colour. It describes the actual colour of something.
Red, Green and Blue are hues. A cucumber and a lime
are both hues of green.
Chroma is also
known as a saturation or intensity. It describes how
brilliant or subdued the colour looks. For example,
within the hue of yellow, a lemon has more chroma than
a banana.
Value refers to
a colour's lightness or darkness as compared to white
or black. Yellow is lighter in value, or closer to white,
than dark blue. Sometimes it is difficult to determine
the value of middle toned colours like orange and green.
We easily understand value when we look at the range
of Neutral Grays on the Virtual colour Guide. Try squinting
while looking at colours to determine their value. Squinting
helps the eyes' black and white receptors make value
determinations.
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The
Qualities of Paint Colour
Pigments are the particles in paint revealing hue. Every
pigment is classified into two basic categories based
on chemical composition - Organic pigments and Inorganic
pigments.
Organic
Pigments
Organic pigments are formed from complex carbon chemistry
and are synthetically derived in laboratories.
Most organic pigments
offer high chroma, high tinting strength and exceptional
transparency. A transparent organic pigment, like a
small piece of stained glass, allows light to pass through
practically undisturbed. This characteristic allows
mixtures with relatively high brilliance and clarity.
Our mixing set includes five colours made from organic
pigments: Hansa Yellow Medium, Quinacridone Magenta,
Phthalo Blue (Green Shade), Phthalo Green (Blue Shade)
and Naphthol Red Light.
Inorganic
Pigments
Inorganic pigments are not based on carbon chemistry,
but instead are derived from natural minerals or ores.
These materials are oxides, sulfides, or various slats
of metallic elements. Examples include iron oxide, cadmium
sulfides and titanium dioxides.
Most inorganic
pigments offer relatively low chroma, low tinting strength
and a moderate to high degree of opacity. (Zinc is the
exception.) Using inorganics for blending colour yields
mixtures with low chroma, but excellent opacity. Our
mixing set includes three colours made from inorganic
pigments: Titanium White, Zinc White and Yellow Ochre.
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Other Paint Colour Terms
In order to more fully understand how to mix acrylic
colour we need to define other important attributes
of paint colour including: Masstone, Undertone and Tinting
Strength.
Masstone
The masstone, or body colour, is paint applied so it
totally covers the surface. No other colours from below
show through. For example when Phthalo Blue is thickly
applied, the masstone appears black.
Undertone
The undertone of a colour is visible when we spread
the colour very thinly over a white surface. This can
be done by scraping the colour over a surface or by
thinning the colours dramatically with acrylic medium
or water. Certain colours, such as the Cadmiums and
Cobalts, have similar masstones and undertones. With
the transparent organic colours like the Quinacridones
or Phthalos, the undertone can be quite different from
what might be expected by looking at the masstone. These
shifts in hue positions provide some of the incredible
richness and magic to working with colour.
Undertone is important
when using acrylic in a watercolour style, as the brilliance
of watercolour comes from the white paper transmitting
through the transparent layers of colour.
Tinting
Strength
The final term we need to define before we explore the
practical use of the colours is tinting strength. This
is the ability of a colour to change the character of
another colour. We determine this by adding the same
amount of Titanium White to each colour and observing
the resulting strength of the colour mixture. Weaker
tinting colours create light pastel mixtures. Stronger
tinting colours create darker mixtures.
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Colour Wheel and The Additive
Primaries
The colour wheel provides structure to the discussion
of colour and gives a reference point that allows us
to draw useful conclusions about how colours interact.
We start with Blue, Red and Green. In the natural world,
these colours exist along the electromagnetic spectrum
in a straight line, but we gain great insights into
colour mixing by plotting these primaries on an equilateral
triangle. We also plot the subtractive primarie s,
Cyan, Magenta and Yellow.
Natural white light
contains all colours. When light hits a surface, its
energy is absorbed, reflected or bent. A surface painted
Black absorbs almost all the light energy that hits
the surface. A surface painted White reflects all the
light energy back from the surface. A surface painted
Yellow absorbs Blue and reflects the Red and Green within
the white light. colours absorb certain wavelengths
of energy and reflect other light energies.
Unfortunately,
pigments are not perfect primaries. They do not create
a perfect Blue, Red or Green. They do not create Magenta,
Cyan or Yellow. We only use a colour wheel to align
colours and we use practical experience to truly understand
how they mix with one another.
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The Artist's Colour Wheel and
The Mixing Primaries
Artists are familiar with colour wheels showing Red,
Yellow and Blue as primaries and Purple, Orange and
Green as the secondaries. Secondaries result from the
mixture of two primaries, i.e. Red and Yellow make Orange.
This colour wheel
shifts colours around dramatically. It usually forces
colour choices such as Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow and
Ultramarine Blue, all of which use opaque inorganic
pigments. These colours, although beautiful in their
own right, severely limit colour mixing possibilities.
The resulting mixtures show lower values and chromas
than mixtures with organic pigments.
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Mixing
Complementary Colours
We filled the colour wheel with our colour names so
we can use it to develop an understanding of mixing
possibilities. Mixing from opposite sides of the colour
wheel will yield black or gray. This is called mixing
complements. For example, we see that Phthalo Green
and Naphthol Red Light are almost directly opposite
one another. The mixing of these two will yield a simple
black. For this reason, the mixing set does not include
black.
Adding a colour's
complement reduces the chroma of the mixture. For example,
mixing a small amount of Phthalo Green into Naphthol
Red Light reduces its intensity, however, it also changes
the value of the colour. To avoid reducing the chroma
of the mixture, use the Neutral Gray of the same value
as the colour you are trying to mix, or mix a gray from
the black produced with your Green and Red mixture with
Zinc or Titanium White.
Varying Tinting Strength of
Colours
Before we explore the blending possibilities and colour
relationships, we need to describe the colours in the
mixing set. The pigment loads are not balanced as with
"student grade" colours. With professional
"artist grade" colours, the high tinting colours
are much more powerful than lower tinting colours. The
highest tinting colours are Phthalo Blue and Phthalo
Green. Next are Naphthol Red Light and Quinacridone
Magenta. Hansa Yellow Medium has very little tinting
strength.
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Relative
Tinting Strength of Colours
To mix the colours,
use this table as a guide. For example, to mix Turquois,
mix equal parts of Phthalo Blue and Phthalo Green. To
mix Bright Green, mix 1 part Phthalo Green with 9 parts
Hansa Yellow Medium.
Tint Strength of
Hansa Yellow Medium: In order to balance the much stronger
tint strength of Phthalo pigments, try Hansa Yellow
Opaque. It provides greater opacity; however, some chroma
or intensity may be lost. To achieve some of the more
transparent colours, add transparent Gel or Polymer
Medium
Achieving
Opacity with White
If you have ever been to a paint store and had colour
mixed, you have seen the process of adding white. Each
house paint colour, to develop opacity, is mixed with
white. Most brands produce three different mixing whites;
one very strong white for pastel hues, one middle strength
white for middle colour values and one fairly weak white
for deeper tones of colour.
Adding Titanium
White to any of your colours will increase the coverage
of your colour. This is especially true for the more
transparent colours. It is also a general rule that
the lighter the original value of a colour, the less
dramatic the value shift when you add Titanium White.
Adding Zinc White to transparent colours will not dramatically
increase your opacity. It can be used to create subtle,
tinted glazes. Keep in mind the resulting mixes will
not provide good coverage.
If you choose to
increase opacity, but do not want to change your colour
value, then you must first mix a gray of the same colour
value. As before, this will reduce your chroma, but
will allow you to maintain your balance of light to
dark while increasing your opacity.
Mixing
Earth Colours
A good deal of
painting requires the use of the earth colour palette.
With high chroma colours, it seems almost impossible
to mix colours like Burnt Sienna, Red Oxide or Raw Umber.
Mixing medium greens through
lime greens with orange-reds through orange-yellows
offers an incredible array of earth colours. When you
mix organic pigments, you maintain excellent clarity
of colour.
Mixing Muted Colours
The colour blends achievable with the five mixing primaries,
plus the two whites, is enormous. Yet, you may need
to reduce the intensity of the colour for a more subtle
quality. Yellow Ochre offers a warming of colours with
a subdued glow. Used with Titanium White to tint colours,
Yellow Ochre furnishes an opaque alternative to the
bright white used to create the pastel range. Used with
Zinc White, Yellow Ochre is transparent enough to create
a glazing mixture, or deeper warmer tones within the
more brilliant colours. Some artists suggest using Yellow
Ochre instead of Hansa Yellow Medium to create a different
palette of colours.
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Using
Artist Acrylic Products
A glass palette offers a great surface for working with
acrylic colours. Its smooth, nonporous surface makes
mixing colours quite easy. Acrylics
dry by the process of evaporation. As the water releases
from the paint, the acrylic polymer spheres come in
greater contact with one another and eventually fuse
to form a continuous film. To extend the working time
of acrylic, you can add GOLDEN Retarder to the paint.
GOLDEN Acrylic Glazing Liquid can be added to create
glazes and will also keep the paint wet longer. To keep
the palette fresh, we recommend lightly misting the
colours on the palette with water every few minutes.
A plant mister works well.
The acrylic used
with all professional artist colours is an emulsion
product. It is created by chaining together hundreds
of thousands of acrylic molecules (monomers) within
a water base. The process to make acrylic compatible
with water requires a surfactant. A surfactant acts
like a bridge allowing water and acrylic to work together.
This procedure
of mixing acrylic with water creates a milky emulsion.
While you are working with the paint, the acrylic emulsion
is quite white. The wet emulsion "tints" the
colour; however, when the water evaporates, the acrylic
shows its exceptional clarity. This causes a large shift
in value in very transparent colours such as Phthalo
Blue. The shift in value is not noticeable in colours
with light values such as Hansa Yellow Medium so, be
aware of the possible shifts in value of acrylic colours.
It can be disappointing to mix a colour exactly the
way you want, and to have it dry to a much deeper colour.
It is helpful to lay down a little of your transparent
colour and let it dry to see if it is still the colour
you desire. Another way to compensate for this value
shift is to add a small amount of Zinc White to the
colour. To achieve glazes
(very thin, transparent films), add Polymer Medium (Gloss)
to the colour. To reduce gloss, add Matte Medium.
GOLDEN produces
over 20 Gel Mediums to create a tremendous range of
textures, finishes and working properties for acrylic
paint. Because of their unusual strength, most colours
can be diluted substantially with Gels or Mediums and
still retain much of their colour strength.
Acrylics clean
with soap and water. Keep tools wet to assist cleaning.
If paints dry on the palette, simply run a wet sponge
over the surface and wait about 1 minute. The acrylic
will easily peel off. Avoid getting paint on clothing.
It will hold quite well!
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