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Home » You Asked – Recipes for Mixing Acrylic Paints?

You Asked – Recipes for Mixing Acrylic Paints?

February 23, 2009 by Ralph S 8 Comments

Today’s questions comes from Pierre:

“Hi, I’m looking for a site or a person that have recipes to mix acrylic paints.

Examples: Recipe for vibrant greens, reds, blacks…etc

Thank you”

Do you have any information that may help Pierre?

Please leave your response in the comment box below.  Thank You!

Filed Under: You Asked!

Comments

  1. Yvonne says

    February 23, 2009 at 10:21 pm

    Pierre,
    what I tell my students…and is a wonderful exercise in learning color is take every red, yellow and blue that you have , plus a black and a white. Get a big piece of paper suitable for your medium…watercolor paper, acrylic pad or similar. Make a mix of every red with each yellow in varying amounts…which will give you an astonishing number of yellows to oranges to reds.. Next do the same with the yellows and the blues. Next do the same with the reds and the blues. By now you have a nice selection of every version of the 3 primary colors. THEN,,,take each mix again and do a value scale….color plus white to the lightest value and then black to the darkest value. In all that color, you will find any color you want for your art. Good luck. It takes time but is worth it. (Don’t lay out all the colors if you are working in acrylic…they will dry out. Do only about 2-3 at a time.).

  2. Deborah S says

    February 23, 2009 at 11:13 pm

    I don’t know of there being recipes for mixing colors, but experimentation and some art books certainly couldn’t hurt. I took some art classes and learned a little about mixing paints there, but I’ve found that I learn as I go. Adding black to a color makes it darker and adding white will make it lighter as a general rule and of course, red and yellow make orange, red and blue make purple, yellow and blue make green. Get a book on color and you will learn about the wheel and rules governing color. It might seem like alot of information at first, but over time, it will help you.

  3. Nancy says

    February 24, 2009 at 12:41 am

    Hello If you want more variety for greens try adding some ultra marine blue to it. and also you can add ultra marine blue to the black . Most people do not like to use plain black . If you use ultra marine blue and a deep purple instead of black it makes a nice contrast . as for a red… try adding a purple to it. or some blues. don’t be affraid to try different colors for things. experiment.
    Have fun
    Nancy

  4. Connie McCullough says

    February 24, 2009 at 8:33 am

    Color Mixing Recipes is a good basic acrylic color mixing book. It can be found at ASW (Art Supply Warehouse) online listed under Artist Acessories. ASW catalog# 290575 The price is $7.99
    It has squares of paint color with the amount of the colors needed to mix the color shown. When you have a vision of the color “green” you want but do not know which blue and yellow to mix to make that color it can be frustrating. This book will teach you see the colors that go into the colors you see.

  5. Raph Legros says

    February 25, 2009 at 5:01 pm

    Hi Pierre!
    you can get some good information from E E .com under color mixing. Also just type Ralph Legros in google and have a look at my blog named Impressionism. See if you like the colors there . If you do, just email and I will give you more information. Happy painting.
    Ralph

  6. Elizabeth says

    March 13, 2009 at 3:23 am

    HI,
    I’m a beginner and I have done as Yvonne suggested – but for a quick reference when painting I also refer to Walter Foster’s book “Color Mixing Recipes”. It gives me a quick start towards a color. I also ran across an artist’s blog for mixing greens and as she paints mostly landscapes she likes to start with Yellow and a touch of Black and then those greens can go many directions by adding white, ultramarine blue, yellow, etc out to infinity, but they are very good greens for painting foliage.
    Elizabeth

  7. Deanna Pozesny says

    April 11, 2009 at 6:17 am

    Hello Pierre,
    I have several books on color, but the one that I depend on because it is simple, small and handy, when I don’t feel like plowing through chapters of involved explanations, is called,
    “Mix Your Own Acrylics” by Jill Mirza and Nick Harris, from the
    Walter Foster Artist’s Library Series.
    This little book devotes several pages to color theory, then
    gets down to business demonstrating each primary and secondary
    color and illustrates what you create by mixing with parts of other colors. The book is only $8.95 and I probably picked it up at Michael’s Arts & Craft store, or through North Light Book Club.
    Or you may want to check “www.walterfoster.com”.
    Happy painting!
    Deanna

  8. pamela says

    January 29, 2011 at 5:21 pm

    while taking a small painting class in the next county we mixed our paint mine however did not come out the same colors as everyone else because I miss read part of the paper while mixing however I came out with a gorgeous dark green that was going underneath the rest of the paint everyone else had a black color
    its a great tool having it on paper what color to mix with what
    yellow cad med ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson will give you black or mud but if you use sparingly on each color you will come out with another color

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