Tables for mixing paints. Mixing of watercolors: table

Have you decided to paint or paint furniture? But do not know how to get different shades? Color mixing tables and tips will help you do this.

Basic concepts

Before you start to study the tables of mixing paints, it is worth reading some definitions that will allow you to easily understand the new material for yourself. Below, the words used in the theory and practice of mixing shades are explained. These are not scientific encyclopedic definitions, but decodings in a language understandable to the ordinary beginner, without the presence of complex terminology.

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

The main colors are red, blue, yellow. They can not be obtained by mixing any other colors. Those that are possible are compound.

Saturation is a characteristic that distinguishes a chromatic color from an achromatic shade identical in lightness. Next, let's look at what the paint mixing table for drawing is.

Range

Tables for mixing paints are usually represented as a matrix of rectangles or squares or in the form of combinations of shades with numerical values or percentage of each color component.

The fundamental table is the spectrum. It can be depicted in the form of a strip or a circle. The second option is more convenient, intuitive and understandable. In fact, the spectrum is a schematic depiction of the light scattered into color components, in other words, the rainbow.

In this table there are both basic and compound colors. The more sectors in this circle, the greater the number of intermediate shades. In the figure above there are also gradations of light. Each ring corresponds to a certain tone.

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

How to mix achromatic colors

There is such a technique of painting as grisaille. It involves creating a picture using gradations of exceptionally achromatic colors. Sometimes a brown or other shade is added. Below is a table of color mixing for paints when working in this way.

Please note that when working with gouache, oil, acrylic, a more gray tint is created by not only reducing the amount of black, but also adding whitewash. In the watercolor, professionals do not use this paint, but dilute the color with water.

How to mix with white and black

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

In sets there are different amounts of finished colors, so compare what you have with the desired shade. When you add white, you will get the so-called pastel tones.

Below is shown how the 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: glazing or single-layer painting. The difference is that in the first variant the final shade is obtained by visual connection of different tones superimposed one on another. The second method involves the mechanical creation of the desired color by combining the pigments on the palette.

As it is done, it is easy to understand on an example of the first line with violet tones from the figure above. Layer-by-layer execution is done like this:

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

When working in the technique of scaffold painting, it is worth remembering that it is better to mix different colors in not more than five layers. The previous must necessarily be well dried.

In the event that the desired color is prepared immediately on the palette, the sequence of work with the same purple gradation will be:

1. Hover colors, taking a wet paint brush. Apply on the first rectangle.
2. Add the pigment, fill the second element.
3. Lower the brush back into the paint and make the third cell.

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

Gouache and oil

The techniques of 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 previously diluted with water to the desired consistency. In any set there is always white. They are usually consumed faster than others, so they are sold in separate jars or tubes.

Mixing oil paints (the table below), like gouache, is a simple task. The advantage of these techniques is that the subsequent layer completely overlaps the previous one. If you made a mistake and after drying the shade you did not like, make a new one and put it on top. The previous one does not appear if you work with thick colors, without diluting them with liquid (water for gouache, solvent for oil).

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

The proportions of the mixed colors and the necessary colors for obtaining the desired shade are shown in the previous table diagram. It is worth saying that it is enough to have in the set only three basic colors (red, yellow and blue), as well as black and white. Of these, in a different combination, all other shades are obtained. The main thing is that the colors in the bank are precisely the main spectral tones, that is, for example, not pink or crimson, namely red.

Work with acrylic

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

Acrylic paints are also used for painting on fabric (batik) , but they are sold in jars of a liquid consistency and are similar to ink for the printer. In this case, the colors are mixed according to the principle of watercolor on the palette with the addition of water, and not white.

If you understand how to use paint mixing tables, you can easily get an unlimited number of shades, working with watercolor, oil or acrylic.