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What happens if you mix black. What paints need to be mixed to get the desired color?

Painting any surface, be it painting tiles or a carefully puttied wall panel, requires certain shades of the color palette that are needed to realize the decorative idea, but were not at hand or in the construction supermarket. Creating color is possible by mixing different paints, but this requires some special knowledge. You don't have to have an art degree to know what happens when you mix blue and red, blue and yellow, or yellow and red.

Blue and red are among the three primary colors of the visible spectrum, which cannot be obtained by mixing any other shades. A notable feature of these three color bases is their ability, when mixed in equal proportions, to give a thick and even, so-called radical black color.

Three colors - yellow, magenta (red) and cyan (blue) cannot be obtained by merging other tones.

Shades of each color can be obtained without adding black paint. Auxiliary (substrative) orange, blue and green are synthesized by mixing the main three spectral tones. Achromatic colors do not contain any color pigment and are white, black, and all shades of gray.

Paradoxical as it may sound, the mixture of three dominants perceived in the chromatic spectrum (red, blue and yellow) gives achromatic black, and the ability, with its help, to create a second tone without color - gray and any of its shades, with the help of a second achromatin - white.

In the video: how to create the desired color using the color wheel.

An artist who begins the creative process from early childhood intuitively determines the likelihood of obtaining various options, but most of the visual experience is added with age and practice, starting with attempts to place colors side by side in a simple drawing and ending with more complex experiments with watercolors on water and alcohol gouache.

Related article: Getting brown: dark and light tones

The answer to the question, what color will you get if you mix red and blue, depends not only on the purity of the experiment, but also on what kind of paints are used, and what kind of red and blue are taken from the source.

What influences the final color?

According to the color chart, mixing red and blue produces purple. In fact, this will only happen if the empirical experience is completely pure. By mixing in an ideal space two reference colors, defined as red (simple red, without any tint variations), and the same ideal blue, you can get an ideal and reference violet.

Purple is the red-blue color obtained in airless space from some ideal raw material resource.

It remains to decide on red and blue as ideal shades that will not cause individual discrepancies in anyone. But each person has his own subjective perception of the concept of color and someone will consider red, scarlet, burgundy or bright red.

Blue can have an intensity or dullness, which is defined by the names indigo, ultramarine, azure or navy blue.

If they are artist paints, whether they are made with water, alcohol or oil will affect the mixing. Acrylics look completely different, more intense, brighter, more intolerable. It is also important what surface to apply them on - canvas, paper, cardboard, or a plastered wall.

The fusion of blue and red in the construction industry will not give very similar results to the required shades if you mix red prepared in powder with liquid blue, or factory blue in an emulsion or aqueous solution. Powder plus a color solution in oil can give a beautiful shade, but far from what was expected.

The axiom of the color table, which states that by mixing two certain colors, we will certainly get a third, turns when considering certain conditions into a subjective-substrative value that depends on certain components. Even the ambient temperature can affect the result if the paint is unstable.

Getting the result

Sometimes, in order to select the required shade of the final decorative coating, a person goes around a dozen hardware stores, but the search for the desired result is unsuccessful and the expected results are not achieved.

Thanks to modern technologies, interior designers are becoming real wizards. In the blink of an eye, they will make any room stylish and original. Recently, more and more attention has been paid to color design. The most popular are non-standard shades that can be obtained by mixing colors.

Process Basics

Manufacturers of paints and varnishes presented a fairly wide range on the market. But it’s not always possible to choose what suits the interior perfectly. Combining several shades will help save time and money.

In many specialized stores you can use the services of a specialist who will help you make the desired color. But if you know the basic rules of how to mix dyes, you can do it yourself at home.

When mixing, you need to remember one important rule: you cannot combine liquid products with a dry mixture. They have different indices, so the coloring composition may eventually curdle.

The most interesting part of the process is creating the desired shade. There are four primary colors:

By mixing them you can get any others. Here are some illustrative examples:

  1. You get brown if you combine red and green. To make a lighter shade, you can add a little white.
  2. - the result of mixing yellow and red.
  3. If you need green, you need to combine yellow and blue paints.
  4. To get it, you need to mix blue and red.
  5. Red and white will result in pink.

This way you can mix endlessly.

Mixing acrylic-based materials

Designers love acrylic paints the most. They are very easy to work with, and the finished coating has excellent water-repellent properties. Their use has several nuances:

  1. The working surface must be perfectly flat and smooth. To do this, it needs to be sanded.
  2. It is important that the paint does not dry out.
  3. To obtain an opaque color, use undiluted paint. Conversely, you can add a little water for transparency.
  4. To be able to slowly select the desired color, it is recommended to use. Thanks to it, the product will not dry out so quickly.
  5. Use the edge of the brush to distribute the paint.
  6. Mixing is best done with a clean instrument. In this case, the colors should be directed towards each other.
  7. To make a light tone, you need to add white dye to the solution, and to get a dark one, add black. It is worth remembering that the palette of dark colors is much wider than light ones.

Here are some examples of mixing acrylic-based paints:

  1. Apricot color is obtained by mixing red, yellow, brown and white.
  2. The manufacturing recipe involves combining brown and white. If you want a bright beige, you can add a little yellow. For a light beige shade you will need more white.
  3. Gold is the result of mixing yellow and red colors.
  4. Ocher is yellow and brown. By the way, it is considered popular this season.
  5. can be done by mixing green dye with brown.
  6. To get purple you need three different colors: red, yellow and blue.

Mixing oil paints

Oil-based paints are more fluid, which necessitates more thorough mixing of the compositions if tones are mixed. The specificity and properties of oil colors provide the following advantages:

  • the tone will be the most uniform, so the paint is perfect for decorating any surface;
  • If desired, you can leave veins in the paint, which will allow you to create unusual effects on the canvas or wall.

Stirring the oil

Before work, it is important to evaluate whether it is possible to combine individual tones with each other, what will happen in the end. If you introduce a little glossy paint into matte paint, the result will be inexpressive. Adding matte paint to the shiny one helps make the latter a little more subdued.

Brown tones

Red tones

  1. The basis for this color is considered to be white. Red is added to it. The brighter the desired shade, the more red you should add.
  2. To get a rich chestnut color, you need to mix red and black.
  3. Bright red-orange color - red and a little yellow. The more of the latter, the paler the result will be.
  4. You can give the dye a purple tint by mixing a few drops of bright blue and yellow colors and red pigment.
  5. To create, according to the recipe, you need to mix bright red + white + brown + blue. The more white, the pinker the hue.

Deep green color is formed by combining yellow and blue tones. The saturation of the finished dye depends on the amount of each of them. To create shades, you need to add other colors to green:

  1. You will need white.
  2. To obtain an olive color you need green and a few drops of yellow.
  3. The shade of grass can be obtained by mixing green with blue. Yellow paint will help to even out the color.
  4. The color of the needles is the result of mixing green with black and yellow.
  5. Gradually mixing green with white and yellow, you can create an emerald tone.

Violet tones

Purple is made by mixing blue and red. You can also use blue and pink paints - the final color will be light, pastel. To darken the finished tone, artists use black paint, which is added in very small portions. Here are the nuances for creating shades of purple:

  • for light purple, you can dilute the finished color with white in the required ratio;
  • For purple, you need to add more red paint than blue.

Orange color

When creating classic orange, combine one part of yellow and red paint. But for many types of paint you have to use more yellow, otherwise the color will turn out too dark. Here are the main shades of orange and how to get them:

  • for light orange use pink and yellow, you can also add a little white paint;
  • for coral, dark orange, pink, and white are required in equal proportions;
  • for peach you need colors such as orange, yellow, pink, white;
  • for red, you need to take dark orange and a little brown.

Important rule

Many people ask the question: is it possible to mix paints and varnishes from different manufacturers? It is advisable that the dyes being mixed are manufactured by the same company. It's even better if they come from the same batch. It is not recommended to mix dyes from different companies. They often have different properties, such as density, brightness, etc. Because of this, the finished coating may curl.

If you want to take a risk, you can combine a little bit of one and the other paint and apply the resulting solution to the surface. If it thickens or clumps, the experiment is a failure.

Computer help

You can correctly mix several colors using special computer programs. They help you see the final result and determine in percentage terms how much of a particular tone needs to be added. Such programs will help you figure out what shade you can get from the products that are available. They consist of several elements:

  1. A button that removes tones from the set.
  2. Color names.
  3. Lines of input or output to or from a calculation.
  4. Samples.
  5. A button that introduces colors into a set.
  6. Result windows.
  7. New selection window and list.
  8. Composition of the finished dye in percentage terms.

Mixing several different colors is a fairly common technique among designers. Unusual shades will help to decorate the interior favorably, make it original or even unique. You can even mix dyes at home. There are many recipes for creating one shade or another. For example, to get beige you need to combine white and brown, and to get pink you need to combine white and red.

It is recommended to always have a thinner on hand that will prevent the paint from drying out quickly. You should not mix products from different manufacturers, because the result will be a poor-quality coating. To find out the final result of mixing, you can use a special computer program.

Whatever you say, this color is magical, but it evokes dual feelings: on the one hand, it is a kind of sadness, and on the other, peace and tranquility. In this article we will look at how to get blue by mixing paints. Let's find out what shades exist and what they are called. Let's consider what percentage is needed to solve the problem set before us: how to get blue?

Blue color. Psychological perception

It is this shade that has attracted humanity since ancient times. He was always given special attention. So in Ancient Egypt, the process of sacrifice to the Gods was depicted in this color. In astrology it corresponds to the planet Venus. In esotericism it is used for meditation, concentration, and also for the process of self-knowledge. In the modern world, psychologists have an ambiguous attitude towards this tone: on the one hand, it promotes concentration to achieve a set goal, and on the other hand, it can separate a person from reality and introduces emotional coldness into the worldview.

In psychology, various color tests are used, and one of the most effective is the Luscher test, according to which the tone we describe symbolizes calmness and self-satisfaction. This test can determine a person’s stress tolerance and communication abilities. Each time the test amazes with its accuracy; like a faithful friend, it can give answers to questions that have been brewing inside for a long time.

Shades of blue

Our described tone is noble and stylish. It hides the peace of the cold sky and the raging passion of the sea. How to get blue? Mixing colors will give a large number of related tones and halftones, the percentage recipe is varied. There are many shades of it. And how beautifully they are called! Based on the names alone, you can understand how much we love this shade, how it inspires and gives strength. So, as an example, we give the following names of shades of blue: cornflower blue, dove blue, Niagara color, cyan, ultramarine, heavenly, sea wave, light blue, azure, Persian blue, royal blue, indigo, Prussian blue, sapphire, blue-black. Here are the main shades of the tone we are describing. In addition to them, many semi-shades can be distinguished, that’s how multifaceted this tone is.

Even any shade can have different characteristics: blue is frivolous and playful, because it is not for nothing that they say “blue dream”, in other words, unrealistic and unrealistic. But the shade “indigo” is identified with highly developed mental abilities. Children who are mentally gifted are often called “indigos.” It is also worth taking into account a person’s tendency in clothing and in choosing an interior in favor of the specified tone, and the first thing that can be said about him is that this person has an analytical mind. But let's return to the main question: how to get blue?

Mixing colors

After all, it is the primary color, but we can get a large number of its shades using different tones. So how do you get blue when mixing colors? Consider getting "Royal Blue". To do this, you need to use blue as the main tone, adding to it a small part of black and a drop of green. As a result of this mixing, the desired shade should be obtained. How to get blue, but a brighter shade than the previous one? To do this, we use the same colors that we described above, but in this case we need to halve the amount of black. The result of mixing should be a beautiful dark blue shade.

Now let's look at what colors to get the blue color of the sea, a shade of turquoise. To do this, it is also necessary to use the main shade of our tone, and the additional one will be a green tone, taken in a ratio of one to three. The result should be an unforgettable color of the sea, the color of a beautiful girl’s eyes, mysterious and deep, at the same time exciting and calming. Now I would like to figure out what tones are needed to get a Wedgwood blue. In this case, the peculiarity is that the main color will be used not blue, as was previously the case, but white. To the white original tone you need to add half of our described tone. Considering the amount of base color, and as a highlight or as a cherry on the cake, add a drop of black. The result should be a peaceful, calm shade of the same tone we adore.

Let's consider this option: how to get a blue color by mixing orange colors in a very small amount with our main tone, which in this recipe we define as the original one. The result of this operation should be a heavy shade, one might even say menacing. The result obtained is identified with a dirty and harsh sky during a wild storm, when the sea roars like a wild beast, and the wind howls and tears the sails of ships.

Blue in nature

What colors are needed to produce blue in nature, you ask? In our real world, at the level of physics, this tone is perceived by the human eye in the range of 440 - 485 nm. In other words, spectral blue color is felt under the influence of electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength whose digital value is indicated above.

Blue paint

How to get blue color artificially, you ask? As you know, natural dyes of this shade are very rare and therefore valuable. One of the dyes of the aniline series is fuchsin. Its significant drawback is that it is far from the beautiful blue tint that one would so much like to achieve; in this case, magenta gives a bluish-red tone. The result of waiting will make you disappointed.

Conclusion

In conclusion, to summarize what has been said, I would like to note that the main question of our article is how to get blue. Mixing colors in different proportions will be the answer, but do not forget that today acrylic paint of the described shade can be classified as dark blue with a purple tone. This type of shade is called "ultramarine". Moreover, the issue of mixing paints is relevant for young artists, for whom, in addition to theoretical information, practice is important. The ability to form your own style, still based on theoretical knowledge, is one of the main tasks. I would like to believe that this material will be useful and interesting.

Beginning painters and designers are often interested in how to mix paints to get the desired color. There are basic shades, when combined, a new original version can emerge. In some situations, this task arises when one paint runs out and can be replaced by mixing several options. Two or more can be used for this purpose.

How to mix paints to get different shades?

I would like to note that such a task is difficult, since some paints, after being combined with each other, provoke reactions, which ultimately have a negative effect on the result, for example, the color may become dark or even lose its tone and become gray.

Understanding what paints can be mixed, it is worth saying that it is impossible to obtain yellow, red and blue colors by combining other paints, but they are actively used in different combinations.

Let's learn how to mix paints to get some colors:

  1. Pink. To make this color come out, you need to mix red and white in equal quantities. By varying the proportion of white paint, you can obtain shades of different saturation.
  2. Green. To get this color, mix blue, cyan and yellow in equal proportions. If you want to create an olive shade, then combine green, yellow and add a small amount of brown. The light shade is obtained by mixing yellow, green and white.
  3. Orange. This beautiful color is achieved by combining red and yellow. The more red you end up with, the brighter the final shade.
  4. Violet. In this case, you need to mix the following paint colors: and blue, and in equal proportions. If you change the proportions and add white, you can get different shades.
  5. Grey. There are a huge number of options, so to get different shades, you should mix black and white in different proportions.
  6. Beige. This color is often used, for example, when painting portraits. To obtain it, you need to add white to the brown color, and then, to improve the brightness, use a little yellow.

It is worth noting that the closer the colors are to each other on the color wheel, the similar their tone, which means the result will be purer and more saturated.

Have you decided to take up painting or are you painting furniture? But don't know how to get different shades? Paint mixing charts and tips will help you do this.

Basic Concepts

Before you start studying paint mixing tables, it’s worth familiarizing yourself with some definitions that will make it easy to understand a new material. The words used in the theory and practice of mixing shades are explained below. These are not scientific encyclopedic definitions, but transcripts in a language understandable to the average beginner, without the presence of complex terminology.

Achromatic colors are all intermediate shades between black and white, that is, gray. These paints contain only a tonal component (dark - light), and there is no “color” as such. Those where it is present are called chromatic.

Primary colors are red, blue, yellow. They cannot be obtained by mixing any other colors. Those that can are compound.

Saturation is a characteristic that distinguishes it from an achromatic shade that is identical in lightness. Next, let's look at what a table for mixing paints for painting is.

Range

Paint mixing tables are usually presented as a matrix of rectangles or squares or as schemes of shade combinations with numerical values ​​or percentages of each color component.

The fundamental table is the spectrum. It can be depicted as a stripe or a circle. The second option turns out to be more convenient, visual and understandable. In fact, the spectrum is a schematic image of a ray of light decomposed into color components, in other words, a rainbow.

This table contains both primary and secondary colors. The more sectors in this circle, the greater the number of intermediate shades. In the picture above there are also gradations of lightness. Each ring corresponds to a specific tone.

The shade of each sector is obtained by mixing neighboring colors along the ring.

How to mix achromatic colors

There is such a painting technique as grisaille. It involves creating a painting using gradations of exclusively achromatic colors. Sometimes brown or another shade is added. Below is a table of mixing colors for paints when working using this method.

Please note that when working with gouache, oil, or acrylic, a grayer shade is created by not only reducing the amount of black, but also adding white. In watercolors, professionals do not use this paint, but dilute it

How to mix with white and black

In order to get a darker or lighter shade of the pigment that you have in your set, you need to mix it with achromatic colors. This is how you work with gouache and mix acrylic paints. The table located further is suitable for working with any material.

There are different numbers of ready-made colors in the kits, so compare what you have with the desired shade. When you add white, you will get what are called pastel colors.

Below is shown how a gradation of several complex colors is obtained from the lightest, almost white, to very dark.

Mixing watercolor paints

The table below can be used for both painting methods: glaze or single layer. The difference is that in the first version, the final shade is obtained by visually combining different tones superimposed on one another. The second method involves mechanically creating the desired color by combining pigments on a palette.

How this is done is easy to understand using the example of the first line with purple tones from the picture above. Layer-by-layer execution is done like this:

  1. Fill all the squares with a light tone, which can be achieved by using a small amount of paint and enough water.
  2. After drying, apply the same color to the second and third elements.
  3. Repeat the steps as many times as necessary. In this version there are only three color transition cells, but there may be more.

When working using the glaze painting technique, it is worth remembering that it is better to mix different colors in no more than five layers. The previous one must be well dried.

In the event that you prepare the required color immediately on the palette, the sequence of working with the same purple gradation will be as follows:

  1. Apply color by taking a little paint on a wet brush. Apply to the first rectangle.
  2. Add pigment, fill the second element.
  3. Dip the brush further into the paint and make a third cell.

When working in one layer, you must first mix all the colors on the palette. This means that in the first method the final shade is obtained by optical mixing, and in the second - mechanical.

Gouache and oil

The techniques for working with these materials are similar, since the pigments are always presented in the form of a creamy mass. If the gouache has dried, it is first diluted with water to the desired consistency. Any set always contains white. They are usually used up faster than others, so they are sold in separate jars or tubes.

Mixing (table below), like gouache, is not a difficult task. The advantage of these techniques is that the next layer completely covers the previous one. If you make a mistake and after drying you don’t like the resulting shade, make a new one and apply it on top. The previous one will not show through if you work with thick colors, without diluting them with liquid (water for gouache, solvent for oil).

Paintings using this painting technique can even be textured, when a thick mass is applied impasto, that is, in a thick layer. Often a special tool is used for this - a palette knife, which is a metal spatula on a handle.

The proportions of mixed paints and the necessary colors to obtain the desired shade are shown in the previous table diagram. It is worth saying that it is enough to have only three primary colors in the set (red, yellow and blue), as well as black and white. From them, in different combinations, all other shades are obtained. The main thing is that the paints in the jar should be exactly the main spectral tones, that is, for example, not pink or crimson, but red.

Working with acrylic

Most often, these paints are used on wood, cardboard, glass, stone, making decorative crafts. In this case, the process is the same as when using gouache or oil. If the surface has been pre-primed and the paints are suitable for it, obtaining the desired shade will not be difficult. Below are examples of mixing shades with acrylic.

For (batik) they are also used, but they are sold in jars of liquid consistency and are similar to printer ink. In this case, the colors are mixed according to the watercolor principle on a palette with the addition of water, rather than white.

Once you understand how to use paint mixing charts, you can easily create an unlimited number of shades using watercolor, oil, or acrylic.



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