Color Mixing Techniques
Color mixing is one of the basic things you will be doing as an artist on a regular basis. Knowing how to mix different colors is essential for a painter. This knowledge will increase the number of available colors you have and so you will have more versatility. You will be able to create a diverse range of colors and work with them effectively.
Color mixing is not a difficult task. The following article will help you find out as to how you can easily get started.
Remember the Fundamentals
The fundamentals of color mixing are necessary and they should be kept in mind whenever you are working on an artwork. First, you should know that the primary colors can never be derived from the other colors. The primary colors are red, blue and yellow. They can be mixed together to give a vast range of colors but you cannot derive them from the others. With the help of the primary colors, you can have plenty of the basic colors.
You get a secondary color when you mix two primary colors. When you mix red and yellow you get orange, with red and blue you will get purple and with blue and yellow you will produce the green color. If you will mix all of the three primary colors, you will have the black color as the product. The shade of the secondary color depends considerably on the shade of the primary colors. That means, if you used a light red with dark yellow, you will have a yellowish orange. This way, you can have a large range of colors produced just with the primary colors.
Apart from the shade, the proportion of the color also has a major impact on the product. You can experiment with the different colors to produce different products. However, you should remember to note down your findings of each experiment. This will help you in the future when you will want a desired shade.
I would also recommend you to get familiar with The Color Wheel and Color Combinations page, where you can dig deeper into shades, tones, hue and saturation.
Advanced color mixing and results
You can also get tertiary colors. Which are the product of two secondary colors or a primary color and a secondary color. The tertiary colors are of two varieties. When you mix two secondary colors, you can get different greys, blacks and browns. The tertiary colors derived from a primary color and a secondary color are advanced colors and are named as blue-green, purple-red, yellow-green, etc.
Remember to always a dark color to the light color. That is so because it takes a large amount of the light color to have an effect on the dark color. Nevertheless the dark color will have a huge impact with a minute quantity. The same goes for opaque and transparent colors.
If it is too difficult
You can get pre-mixed colors if you find it too difficult. Keep practicing however, to elevate your skills.
Conclusion
Color mixing is not difficult. In fact, with a little practice, you will become adept at deriving different colors with ease.