basic mixing method color theory

Artists use the color wheel to improvise a

specific color approximately as described below. The idea that
we are improvising is important, because it means we use the
color wheel as a compass, to point us in the right direction,
rather than as a precise color calculator.

The idea of improvising color gives you permission to plunge in

and swim the mixing process using your experience and your
eyes. Clinging to habitual color formulas only inhibits your basic
confidence. Color mixing is as easy as riding a bike — all "color
theory" concepts are just training wheels to help you learn the
trick of color balance.

First, some general comments. You may have a large palette of

paints to choose from, but almost every possible color mixture
and mixing problem can be approached using only the six paints
of the secondary palette. Many choices of six paints are
practical, but here I assume the palette consists of:

1. hansa yellow medium (PY97)

2. cadmium scarlet (PR108)
3. quinacridone rose (PV19)
4. ultramarine blue (PB29)
5. phthalocyanine blue GS (PB15:3)
6. phthalocyanine green YS (PG36).

For more discussion of these paint choices, see the section on

the secondary color wheel. For a discussion of how to use the
six paint palette to master color and color mixing, see
an intuitive color study.

If you are unsure where different colors or their matching

pigments are located on the color wheel, refer to the artist's
color wheel and the explanatory tour of the color wheel for
orientation.

Our example assumes we are trying to mix a color match for

burnt sienna, that is, a somewhat dulled, mid valued orange.
The same example is used in the sections on mixing paints in
the page on working with paints, which should be studied
along with this page.

1 Before you can start, you have to know where you are going.
Locate the color you want to mix on the artist's color
wheel, as follows:

a First, identify the approximate hue you want to mix as a point

on the circumference of the color wheel.

Think of the color wheel as a clock face, and the location of

hues as the position of the clock's minute hand around the
circle. A pale yellow is at 12 o'clock, a deep yellow is at 11
o'clock, red orange is at 10 o'clock, and a crimson red is at 9
o'clock. Identifying the hue means you must identify the minute
location of the hue around the color wheel.

Our example uses a color equivalent to the standard "burnt

sienna" (red iron oxide) paint. Burnt sienna is a dull orange hue,
so it is somewhere between the deep yellow and red orange
color points on the color wheel, or between 10 and 11 o'clock,
as shown by the arc of color samples in the illustration at right. I
decide the hue is close to 10 o'clock or red orange ("hue" in the
diagram).

b Next, identify the approximate chroma (saturation) of the

color you want to mix as its location between the circumference
and center of the wheel.

The brightest, most intense color you can obtain with your
paints is at the circumference, and a completely dull, gray or
neutral color is at the center. You must judge the proportion of
pure color vs. pure gray that seems to be in the color.

If you are unsure about the hue and chroma of the color, you
can compare the color you want to mix with paint colors you are
familiar with, then use the location of the most similar paint
color, as shown on the artist's color wheel, as your mixing
point.

Burnt sienna is a moderately saturated orange, so I guess it is

located roughly half way from the center to the circumference, a
chroma of about 50% (diagram at right).

c The location of the color you want to mix, the mixing point
(mp), is the combination of these hue and chroma judgments
on the color wheel.

The lightness or value of the color cannot be specified on a

color wheel. Instead, you must adjust the lightness of the color
mixture by (1) choosing light or dark paints to mix the color, and
(2) by diluting the color with water or white paint if it is too
dark, or diluting the color with black paint if it is too light. You
can choose paints with a similar light or dark value to the color
you want to mix by choosing a paint that most resembles this
target color, then comparing its value with the value of other
paints on the artist's value wheel.

Again: the color wheel is not geometrically precise, so you

will only be able roughly to locate the mixing point. But roughly
is good enough.

2 Next, identify all the pairs of paints that create a mixing line
passing through or near the mixing point. These lines connect
the two mixing colors that get you most or all of the way to
the color you want.

If a mixing line does not pass through the mixing point, but
inside it (closer to the center of the color wheel), then you can
approximate the hue, but at a duller chroma. The only way to
pull the mixture to a brighter color is to add a paint of the same
hue but much higher saturation or intensity. This is as illogical as
starting from black and trying to brighten the color by adding
intense paints.

So you limit your selection of mixing lines to those that (1)

pass outside the mixing point (along the circumference of the
color wheel), or (2) pass near the mixing point and close to the
center of the color wheel.

As you see in the diagram, our six paint palette gives us four
alternative mixing lines ...

1. hansa yellow PY97 and cadmium scarlet PR108

2. hansa yellow PY97 and quinacridone rose PV19
3. cadmium scarlet PR108 and phthalo green YS PG36
4. cadmium scarlet PR108 and phthalo blue GS PB15

While we're at it, notice that, if we wanted to mix a very intense,

bright orange of the same hue as the burnt sienna, there is
really only one mixing line available to do the job ...

1. hansa yellow PY97 and cadmium scarlet PR108

... which illustrates the universal color mixing rule that dull,
dark colors can be mixed in more ways than intense or light
valued colors.

But which of these four paint combinations gives the "best" color
mixture? That depends on the color appearance you want in
the finished color, and the mixing strategy you want to use to
get there.

As the diagram shows, all mixing pairs reach the mixing point by
one of two contrasting mixing strategies: hue shift or chroma
shift.

Choosing the hue shift strategy means you are especially

concerned to get the hue of the color correct, so you want two
mixing colors that let you adjust the hue very carefully; then
you approximate the chroma as a finishing touch. Typically you
do this because the target color is highly saturated, so to
mix it you are forced to choose two paints close to it on the
circumference of the color wheel. In the example, the mixing
pairs hansa yellow (PY97) with either cadmium scarlet (PR108)
or quinacridone rose (PV19) provide a hue shift mixing line.

Choosing the chroma shift strategy means you are especially

concerned to get the dullness of the color correct. Typically you
do this because the target color is a near neutral or specific
dark value that is shifted slightly in the direction of a red,
yellow, green or blue hue, so to mix it you are forced to choose
two paints at opposite sides of the color wheel. This gives a
mixing line that passes close to the neutral center of the color
wheel. In the example, the mixing pairs cadmium scarlet
(PR108) with either phthalo green (PG36) or phthalo blue
(PB15:3) provide a chroma shift mixing line.

Our target burnt sienna color is moderately unsaturated, so it is

somewhere in between these two extremes: both a hue shift or
chroma shift mixture would be practical to mix the color.

A second consideration is the contrasting texture or mixing

compatibility of the pigments in the two mixing colors, an
issue nicely illustrated in Jim Kosvanec's Transparent Color
Wheel. This is especially important when two paints are mixed
in roughly equal proportions, and/or when the resulting mixture
is close to a gray: the two paints play an equal role in the
finished color, so both pigment textures will be on maximum
display. If the mixture is dominated by one color, with the
second paint only used to tweak the hue a little, then your main
texture concern is choosing that dominant paint; the tweaking
color is of minor importance.

Finally, even if there is a dominant paint, the two paints can be

chosen to adjust the handling properties of the mixture. For
example, mixing a powdery pigment such as cadmium scarlet
with a synthetic organic pigment such as phthalo green can
actually increase the tendency of the cadmium pigment to
flocculate or texture in thin washes. Mixing a green color from a
synthetic organic pigment like phthalo green and a heavy
inorganic pigment like yellow ochre produces a mixture that will
readily separate in juicy washes, producing a mottled, two tone
effect.

There are many possible pigment combination effects. I want

only to alert you to their importance so that you can watch for
them and learn from your own mixing experience. And I want to
make the general point that selecting your mixing colors is
the most creative part of color mixing, and is worth special
care.

In the example palette, we can get a pretty good burnt sienna

color using just two paints — cadmium scarlet with the phthalo
green paint to dull it toward brown. Or we can use phthalo blue
to get a slightly redder mixture. But we know from mixing
experience that these mixtures will (1) result in a dark valued
sienna color, and (2) will consist primarily of the cadmium paint,
and so will appear relatively dense and dull at moderate
saturation.

Or we can start with a mixture of hansa yellow and a red paint.

We know from experience that these mixtures will (1) result in a
lighter valued orange color, (2) require the use of a third paint to
adjust the chroma and value, and (3) let us choose a greater
number of pigment alternatives in the mixture.

Let's assume, then, that we want to include some of the

powdery texture of the cadmium, but without the phthalo
dulling, so we choose cadmium scarlet (PR108) and hansa
yellow (PY97) as our mixing colors.

3 If the mixing line between the two paints passes through the
mixing point, then you only need those two paints to get the
target color (and you can skip to step 4).

If the mixing line only passes close to the mixing point, then you
need three paints to mix the color — two to get the hue, and
one more to shift that chroma towards the center of the wheel,
dulling the mixture; or two to get the chroma, and one more to
shift the hue, changing the color bias.

In that case you choose a third paint that creates a triangle

enclosing the mixing point. This third paint should also be
chosen to help you get the value, texture, or handling attributes
that you want in the mixture.

The diagram shows all the possible mixing triangles based on

the four possible mixing lines described in step 2. This is just to
remind you of the creative possibilities you have available —
even with only six paints — to get a specific color mixture.

However, we've already chosen cadmium scarlet (PR108) and

hansa yellow (PY97) to produce the basic orange hue. Given the
remaining paints on the palette, we can choose between
phthalocyanine blue (PB15) or ultramarine blue (PB29) as the
third ingredient: both paints make a triangle that encloses the
mixing point.

Our mixing colors will create a powdery and smoothly mixing

color that is ideal for wash applications, but can appear dull if
applied too thickly. So let's assume we choose ultramarine blue
(PB29), because (1) its flocculating texture can accent the
powdery texture of the cadmium, (2) it harmonizes well with the
hansa yellow, and (3) its dark value will help us darken the
mixture toward the value of burnt sienna, which is quite a bit
darker than the typical orange mixture. (Compare the locations
of cadmium orange PO20 or benzimida orange PO62,
ultramarine blue PB29 and burnt sienna PBr7 on the artist's
value wheel.)

This mixing strategy illustrates the key point that artists mix
paints, not "colors". Because we are thinking in terms of
specific paint combinations, and are not stuck in the dim and
foggy world of abstract "color" mixtures, we have more control
over all the visual effects that paints can create.

4 So we end up with at most three paints to mix the target color.

The mixing colors are the two paints that define your primary
mixing line — the mixing line that passes closest to the mixing
point. These paints get you most of the way to the mixing point,
and primarily determine the texture, transparency and staining
qualities of the mixture.

The mixing colors are easiest to work with when they produce
mixtures that are more saturated than the mixing point (their
mixing line is between the mixing point and the circumference of
the wheel). This is because paints lose chroma, but shift less
in hue, as they dry, so the hue of the mixed color can be
judged accurately while the paints are still wet. Use the more
saturated mixture to get close to the correct hue, then add the
adjusting color to reduce the chroma of this mixture.

The adjusting color is usually the paint that is furthest from the
mixing point, so it will be used in the smallest quantities, and
has the least impact on the staining, transparency and texture of
the mixture.

You may have many more paints to choose from on your palette,
so you will have many more alternatives for mixing the target
color. But the logic is the same within the range of effects your
palette can offer.

5 Now we have to estimate the approximate proportions

required for the two mixing colors. This is especially helpful if
you need a large color mixture (for example, to prepare a wash
solution), but even if you are working with small quantities of
paint, it is nice to know where you are going.

a First of all, what specific hue are we aiming for with our two
mixing colors? The common novice mistake is to aim for the hue
of the mixing point, which in the example is equal to the hue
angle of the mixing point or a deep (reddish) orange. This is the
two paint mixing target as shown in the diagram.

But this neglects the effect of adding the ultramarine blue to

darken the color! What happens then? The mixture heads south
(toward ultramarine blue) from the two paint mixing target, but
misses the mixing point completely and ends up at a mixture
that is both too red and too saturated (? in the diagram).

Now what? Now the novice is completely lost. How to get back
to the mixing point? Adding more ultramarine blue only makes
the color redder, so to bring it back the novice has to add more
yellow paint — a lot more yellow paint. But the color will still be
too saturated, so the novice might try to dull it with a green
paint. Now he's juggling four paints, and faces a lot of back and
forth mixing adjustments to reach the desired color.

The answer here is to adjust the two paint target color to

compensate for the hue shift caused by third paint. To do
this, draw a second mixing line from ultramarine blue through
the mixing point to the mixing color mixing line: this gives the
hue you want to mix (the three paint mixing target in the
diagram). As you see, this locates a target color on the color
wheel that is closer to a deep yellow or a light (yellowish)
orange. In other words, we want to use much less cadmium
scarlet and more hansa yellow in the mixture.

b Now that you know where you're headed, take a moment to

form an explicit, conscious idea of how you intend to get there.

The novice usually has in mind a target hue, in this case a

yellow orange, and merrily jumps in to mix the color with the
"colors" on his palette. This nearly always causes him to
overshoot the color because one paint dominates the other. He's
lost control as soon as he gets started.

Instead, make an estimate of the paint proportions that will

be necessary to create the target hue.

To do this, divide the mixing line at the location of the mixing

point. This creates two line segments of different lengths. These
indicate the proportions of the two mixing colors that will be
required to approximate the hue of the mixing point, assuming
the tinting strength and lightness of the two paints are equal.

If the mixing point lies about halfway between the two mixing
colors on the color wheel, then it will divide the mixing line
between them into two equal line segments. Then each paint will
contribute 1/(1+1) = 1/2 to the total mixture. We need to mix
the paints in equal amounts.

In the diagram, the target hue is located about 2/3d's the

distance from scarlet to yellow, so the paints would be mixed in
a ratio of about 2 to 1. However, the ratios apply to each color
only after you switch their ratios. That is, the ratio of 2/(2+1)
= 2/3 applies to the hansa yellow, and 1/(2+1) = 1/3 applies to
the cadmium scarlet.

If this is unclear to you, visualize the mixing line as a

seesaw or scale, balanced at the target hue. How "heavy"
must the cadmium scarlet be to balance the cadmium yellow?
Obviously, because it is on the long side of the seesaw, it can be
much lighter to balance something sitting on the shorter end.
Because the cadmium scarlet is sitting on the short side of the
balance, it must be lighter — that is, less of it is required in the
mixture.

This 1:2 ratio is shown as the hue proportion in the diagram.

However, this assumes equal mixing strength in the two paints.
But that assumption is incorrect, for two reasons: (1) a darker
color such as scarlet will dominate a lighter paint like yellow or
white, and (2) the dense cadmium pigment has a higher tinting
strength than the hansa yellow. In combination, both factors
mean the cadmium scarlet will be much more potent in deciding
the hue of a mixture with hansa yellow.

To compensate, you must adjust your proportions accordingly by

increasing the ratio of hansa yellow to cadmium scarlet.
Experience will help you decide the actual proportions you will
need to use for specific pairs of paints. In this case, the mixing
strength proportion is probably closer to 1:4, or 20%
cadmium scarlet to 80% hansa yellow.

The purpose of this step is simply to make you aware of how

your paints are going to behave when they are combined, so
that you can anticipate their influence as you mix them. A
common novice mixing mistake is being "surprised" by the
strength of one paint in relation to the other, which throws you
off balance right at the start.

6 On your mixing tray or palette, lay out enough pure water to

cover completely the area you intend to paint. This is
especially important when you are mixing a wash: you do not
want to run out of mixture before you have completed the entire
wash area!

Remember: it is always more wasteful to botch a wash in a

painting because you run out of paint (and must stop to mix
more paint that will not match perfectly the color you mixed
before), than it is to throw away a little excess wash mixture.

Now, add the subordinate paint (the mixing color with the
weaker mixing strength) to the water until you get the
concentration (thickness) of paint you want. In the example, the
weaker color will be the hansa yellow, because it is lighter
valued. So add hansa yellow until you get the density of paint
mixture you need.

The reason you do this with the subordinate paint is because

this is typically the paint that contributes the largest quantity to
the color mixture. So it has the most impact on the paint
thickness or dilution. You also reduce the effect of the added
second or third paints because of the added quantity of water,
which makes it less likely that these paints will hijack the
mixture by being too strong.

Paint the mixture on a scrap of paper, if necessary, to check that

it is the right dilution.

7 Now you improvise! Add the dominant paint gradually, up to

the proportions you estimate will create your color. But observe
the mixture carefully, and stop when the hue is close to
correct.

Take your time with this step — don't assume you "know
how much paint to add!" It's not improvisation then, it's
brushing your teeth. Plus, you only learn by continual careful
observation, not by closing your eyes with your habits.

Watch the color gradually grow and ripen under your brush.
Watch the texture and vibrancy change. You may revise your
original decision and decide a warmer or cooler mixture will be
more attractive.

If you are unsure of your paints, test the mixture on a piece of

paper — and let it dry for at least five minutes. There are
three different problems here. Mixtures on the palette will not
look the same as the mixture dried on the paper! The only way
to judge the mixture is to look at it on the paper. The final
drying shift takes time to develop; paint mixtures have a
surprising tendency to keep changing color even after they are
"dry." Some paint mixtures (such as a cobalt and a
quinacridone) tend to separate as they dry, producing a mottled
or "iridescent" color appearance.

If the mixture is the wrong hue, adjust toward the hue required
by adding one or the other (but not both) of the mixing colors.
Add water as needed to return to the correct concentration of
paint and water.

It's always better to come up short than go too far in this

part of the mixing improvisation. If you go too far with the
dominant color, it takes much more of the subordinate color to
bring the mixture back to where it was. You'll end up with way
too much paint or a mixture that is too concentrated.

8 When you are close to the correct hue, add the adjusting
color in very small amounts to make final shift in the mixture.

The adjusting color can modify the hue, saturation and value of
the mixture. In the diagram, adding the adjusting color,
ultramarine blue, darkens the color value, neutralizes the color
(makes it less saturated), and also shifts the hue toward red.

Watch all three color attributes carefully as you adjust the

mixture. Remember in particular that watercolors lose
saturation as they dry: the mixed paint on your palette will
look darker and more intense than it will appear on the paper.

This is the most complex and delicate part of the color mixing,
so this is where your familiarity with the paints and your
understanding of color mixing will finally become your only
guides. This is also the point where you will most often get
sucked into a fruitless mixing back and forth to find the right
color.

If this happens, your fundamental problem is that the more

paint you have mixed, the more paint you will have to add to
shift the color a noticeable amount. This quickly becomes an
accelerating waste of paint. The solution is to throw out some
of the mixture. It is always more effective to drain off some of
the mixture with a thirsty brush and continue mixing with what's
left, than to keep adding more paint to a flooding pool.

Finally, no matter how confident you are, it is always a good idea

to test the mixture one last time on scrap paper — especially if
you are mixing paint for a large wash or for a color area that
must be "just right" to get the effect you want.

The "mix on the palette" method for building a color can help
you work with mixtures made wet in wet, or by glazing.

The only trick with wet in wet mixtures is that you should begin
with the less staining paint of the two mixing colors,
regardless of mixing strength. The staining paint will get into the
wet paper first, where it isn't going to mix with anything, making
the color harder to budge by adding other paints. Thus, if you're
mixing phthalo green and ultramarine blue to get a dark
turquoise, apply the ultramarine in the right concentration, and
add the phthalo green to it.

Glazing is more complex. In general, you want to order the

glazes from light to dark, warm to cool, and opaque to
transparent. (Staining, in itself, is much less of a consideration.)
This approach produces the most homogenous final color, but it
is not always easy to rank paints using those criteria. For
example, we'd could start with hansa yellow (light valued, warm,
transparent), then add a diluted glaze of cadmium scarlet (dark
valued, warm, opaque), and finally a thin mixture of ultramarine
blue (dark valued, cool, semitransparent).

Some art tutorials, for example by Stephen Quiller or Hilary

Page, describe a color mixing procedure using four paints.

To get a burnt sienna color, the student is told to mix cadmium

scarlet and hansa yellow to get an orange hue (as before), then
to mix ultramarine with phthalo blue to get exactly the
complementary shade of middle blue hue, and finally to mix the
orange and blue together to get the dull sienna color.

This method is needlessly complicated and almost always

wasteful.

Anything you can do with four paints you can do just as

well with three. Only two paints are needed to establish the
hue, and the third to adjust the saturation and value (and
sometimes also to adjust the texture or handling attributes).

Like a table, the four paint method often wobbles around the
mixing point because the exact balance is hard to find. The three
paint method, like a three legged stool, is a rock solid method to
get to the mixing point with minimum effort or guesswork.

Last revised 08.I.2015 • © 2015 Bruce MacEvoy