Color mixing Theory & tips

Color mixing is generally the first stumbling block for the novice-painting artist. It is not an exact science. Artists have different formulas and methods for mixing and applying paint if you asked 10 artists various questions about mixing colors, you will likely get many different answers. So you have to keep painting and practicing until you develop your own formulas and techniques that you are comfortable with.

It's easy to mix paints to make new colors. You can use the primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) plus black and white to get all of the colors of the rainbow

The three primary colors are red, yellow, and blue; they are the only colors that cannot be made by mixing two other colors. The three secondary colors are green, orange, and violet; they are each a mixture of two primary colors. Their hue is halfway between the two primary colors that were used to mix them

The six tertiary colors (red-orange, red-violet, yellow-green, yellow-orange, blue-green and blue-violet) are made by mixing a primary color with an adjacent secondary color.
Black, white and gray are not true colors (or hues). They are considered to be neutral, colors.

Color mixing can be fascinating, fun or frustrating, depending on your interest, knowledge or experience, so here are some color-mixing tips that will help you to achieve better color throughout your artwork
* Most color-mixing problems come from over mixing and result in muddy-looking canvas. Mix very lightly on the palette or directly on the support to prevent this, and once the color is down, leave it alone
* Add a little of the opaque color to the transparent one, rather than the other way round. The opaque color has a far greater strength or influence than a transparent color
* To lower the intensity of a color, mix it with its complement or Burnt Sienna rather than black, gray or sepia. These colors tend to deaden mixtures.
* Keep two jars of water handy when mixing watercolor. If you use one to rinse color from your brush the other will remain clear for a longer time, thus assuring clean water for mixing.
* For high-intensity mixtures avoid the third primary. The third primary is the complement of the mixture of any two other primaries and will lower the intensity of this mixture.
* Mix the colors either with a brush or palette knife, making sure you clean brush/knife between each new paint color.
* Before working with the full range of your palette, you should familiarize yourself with the possibilities of each color
* Do not become discouraged when your early attempts to mix colors correctly produce any unhappy results. The technique of color mixing is always acquired gradually.

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