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Darker shades of cadmium yellow
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Message
Posted
I was doing a portrait yesterday and decided to give the sitter (me) a bright yellow shirt because it was a good contrast with the other colours on the canvas. What's the best way of mixing cadmium yellow with another colour so that it becomes darker in tone?
Mixing it with black gives me a mucky green. Adding a brown (burnt sienna) doesn't make much difference. I've tried a red violet (quinacridone rose) and it gave me a muted orange.
Has any one any suggestions please?
Posted
Well, don't use black - the usual solution is to add a blue- or red-inclining violet; quin rose is probably a bit too near to red - should give you a lovely colour, but not the one you want! I can't do better than the suggestions above - ultramarine violet, dioxazine violet, cobalt violet if you're in the money .... they will tone the yellow at least. You could try Burnt Umber or Burnt Sienna (why have I switched to capitals all of a sudden....?) - bearing mind that the redder the pigment, the more it'll turn Cad Yellow to an orange.
In theory you could just use a darker yellow, but what darker yellow? Yellow is by definition not dark.... the violet should do it: remember of course that violet is blue and red; so by increasing the amount of blue, you should be able to get stronger darks... without producing green (we hope).
You had to go and choose yellow, though, didn't you? I meantersay, of all the colours you could have gone for, it had to be the most difficult to darken......... Some people make rods, I say some people make rods, for their own backs!
Posted
Permanent rose normally (but not always) is a form of quinacridone rose/red/violet - so I doubt that it would make much difference to use one rather than the other; adding blue might; thing about Ultramarine though is that it's a reddish blue.... I really must try some of these mixes out, but in theory you might do better with one of the green-inclining blues (just about all of them are). Do you have Cobalt Blue? It's usually a gentle blue, and might suit you ..... I'll have a play later! I've been meaning to take a break from other things and get the paints out again....
Posted
Um. Well, I tried a few mixes with Violet, and while they can be manipulated a bit, all of them turned a bit to the brown side. For what it's worth, I'll try to show them.
From top left - Cad Yellow plus Cobalt Violet; to its right, plus Cobalt Violet Dark; 2nd row, plus Permanent Mauve; to its right, plus Winsor Violet (dioxezine); bottom left, Mars Violet Deep. I don't have plain Mars Violet, but I think it would also produce a brownish look - more so that the others. From choice, I'd go with the Cobalt Violet, perhaps modified by a bit of Cobalt Blue.
From top left - Cad Yellow plus Cobalt Violet; to its right, plus Cobalt Violet Dark; 2nd row, plus Permanent Mauve; to its right, plus Winsor Violet (dioxezine); bottom left, Mars Violet Deep. I don't have plain Mars Violet, but I think it would also produce a brownish look - more so that the others. From choice, I'd go with the Cobalt Violet, perhaps modified by a bit of Cobalt Blue.
Posted
Agree about adding white. Intrigued by 'mixing white' - the only white I've encountered which is described as mixing white contains a quantity of zinc - which can throw up problems later. Most makers don't offer a mixing white (although it's extremely useful in acrylic, eg wonderful for painting elderly flesh .... not that I've done this often). Is the one you use a zinc white/titanium mix? Who makes it?
You could use Titanium White, carefully because it's so opaque, to blend the yellows and violets together - my examples were just crude attempts to show the density of tone that could be got: in practice, yes, you'd model the cloth with touches of white, blending, even giving it a rub with the finger - or you could mix your own violets .... all sorts of variations are possible, mine are just 'starters'!
Posted
Just to dot the i's and cross the t's - Sylvia referred in this thread to System 3, which is of course an acrylic, not oil. And for the avoidance of any confusion at all - zinc is perfectly fine for use with acrylics: it can be a problem with oil, more especially when used in full strength in under-layers.
Just so's we all know what we're talking about - and Sylvia is still right about adding a bit of white to the mixes above; but ever cautious, I didn't want anyone to think that the issues in oil and acrylic are the same.