The science of colour mixing
I learnt a lot about colour at my recent Newlyn School of Art course. I love colour and use it widely in my Powertex creations but there’s always something new to take in and explore! I felt like a beginner artist again at times during the course and it reminded me that mixing colours can be quite confusing.
Whether you paint with acrylics, watercolours, oils or inks, mixing colours to get exactly what you want is an art form in itself! Here, I’ve brought together some of the basic skills and some tips that I’ve picked up along the way:
Primary, secondary and tertiary colours
Most people know that red, blue and yellow are primary colours that can’t be made by mixing other colours and from these three (plus white), all other colours can be created.
Secondary colours are made by mixing two primary colours: purple (mix red and blue), orange (mix red and yellow) and green (mix blue and yellow). The different shades of primary colours give a wide range of secondary colours. A mix of all three primary colours creates black, but it’s more cost effective to buy black rather than mixing the primary colours each time.
Tertiary colours are created by mixing a primary and a secondary colour or two secondary colours. They are more natural in tone so are great for depicting nature. Tertiary colours are blue-purple, yellow-green, green-blue, orange-yellow, red-orange and purple-red. The basic rule of tertiary colours is that the more different the colours mixed are, the muddier the result.
Complementary colours
In the science of colour, every colour has a complementary colour that is the colour that wasn’t used in it’s production. The complementary colour for green is red, for orange it’s blue and for violet it’s yellow. Complementary colours are great to use to create contrast in artwork.
Warm and cool colours
Certain colours, like red and yellow are seen as warm and blue is seen as cool. If you mix two warm colours, you’re likely to get a warm colour but when you mix a warm and a cool colour together you get a more neutral colour tone. You can use warm and cool colours to give depth to a piece of artwork because the eye sees cool colours as being further away than warm colours.
High intensity colours
Lighter colours stand out more if they are put next to a neutral colour and darker colours will have a more intense look if they are next to a lighter colour. To darken a light colour you only need to add a little of a darker colour but to lighten a dark colour, you’ll need to use a larger amount of a light colour or white.
And finally…
For a more natural result, don’t mix the colours too thoroughly so there are tiny differences within the mixed colour. And always test your mixed colour on a piece of paper or canvas as it can look different depending on the base you’re using.
A lot of the science of colour is fairly logical and drilled into us from an early age but as you delve deeper, like I did at my ‘Exploring Colour’ Newlyn course, you realise there is so much still to learn!
To find an amazing rainbow of amazing colour acrylic inks & paints, pigments and bisters for your Powertex or other artwork, check out my art supplies at https://www.artisticretreats.co.uk/index.php/art-supplies
