colour mixing

Splosh - now I know who you are Linda, I've seen you WIP in the gallery and commented that it looked fine to me but probably the more knowledgeable people on here will have some tips for you.

I think Syd has answered a lot of those questions - my practice varies a little (I don't use Sap Green very much, for instance) but on the whole agree with him. I'll have a go at answering too, though. 1. Darkening a tone lighter - I no longer even notice this; I must be making instinctive allowance for it. In the acrylics I use - Chromacolour, Daler Rowney Cryla, and Winsor & Newton - I believe the tonal shift is minimized, particularly when working on canvas board rather than paper. If you're using watercolour paper, it may help to give it a coat of white acrylic gesso, which should stop it sinking in, which may be part of the problem. 2. Red and blue covers a lot of choices - you'll get your purple with a crimson and ultramarine; scarlet or Cad Red even with Ultramarine will give you a brownish colour (which can still be useful). This is because crimson contains blue, and ultramarine contains red - this means they'll give the purple when mixed: what you don't want in there is yellow, which is contained in Cad Red. 3. Use a stay-wet palette - if the paint is sitting on a moist underlayer, it'll mix better. Heavy-bodied acrylics (like Cryla) need a firmer touch with the palette knife if you're after a uniform colour than liquid ones, like Chromacolour in pots. 4. Dark greens - VERY dark greens - can be mixed with a dark, green-inclining blue, like Pthalo or Prussian, and an earth red like Burnt Sienna, or even with Burnt Umber. If you want something a little livelier, use Lemon Yellow or Cad Yellow Light rather than the red, although a spot of red can darken it further. Or you could use Pthalo Green, and mix a red into it. And you CAN use black, though I should do so only with great caution as it can deaden the colour. 5. Blending - if the paint is wet enough, you can blend it - again, this is where the stay-wet palette comes in. But I agree that once you've got the paint on the paper, blending with wet paint is hard work or impossible - try scumbling it, glazing it, or just work fresh paint into the now dried paint (paint that is semi-dry is best left to dry properly - if you try blending into it, you can lift it). But because acrylic dries very flat, it's quite easy to modify a layer of paint with a subsequent one to give the appearance of blending. (This is the sort of thing it's much easier to demonstrate than explain.) 6. I agree with Syd - the exotic colours should be used with discretion: some of them don't mix too well, and are best employed heightened with white or as glazes. I use much the same palette in acrylic as I would in oil - mind you, define "exotic"? Remember than an exotic colour is meant to be seen on its own - it's already a mix, and very hard to predict what it will do when mixed with something else again. Incidentally, while I sometimes use a glaze medium, I rarely use anything else, other than water; and I don't use retarder - they make the paint more fluid than I normally like. The concern is that paint diluted with just water will be under-bound, ie not able to stick to the canvas, but a) I've never found that an actual problem with Cryla, Chromacolour or W & N, b) it will depend on how much water we're talking about - the paint is actually quite strong, c) if it is a problem, it's likely to be more of one on canvas or board than on paper. There is a quite separate issue that has nothing to do with the paint, by the way - some cheaper canvas boards imported from the Far East and India are treated with a fungicide which repels even the best-bound paint. If a glittering sheen can be viewed in the weave of your canvas or board when you hold it under a raking light, wash it with slightly warm water and a brush until you get it all out. It's beyond time that some of the companies which sell "own-brand" boards addressed this issue - I don't buy them any more, and stick to W & N, Daler Rowney, Loxley, and the Ampersand boards, plus an Italian one by Belle Arti. I didn't know that Terry Harrison's ready-made greens are available in acrylic as well as watercolour, and personally I wouldn't use them - but it's entirely a matter of opinion. The reason I wouldn't use them is that I don't know what goes into them, and if I don't know that I've no way of working out how to modify them if necessary - and certainly don't want a standard green, even courtesy of El Tel. However, your painting, your choice - give them a try and see how you get on with them. http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk

You never know what you're getting with viridian - I don't think (we're running entirely on memory here so I might be wrong) that genuine viridian is compatible with acrylic resins (neither is genuine Alizarin Crimson) so what you'll have instead is a form of Pthalo Green. I like viridian in oil; less entranced by it in watercolour, and in either case it's not much use on its own, but is a great mixer with other colours - I probably use it where Syd would use his Sap Green: we all get to manipulate, mix and adapt our favourite colours in our own way. Pthalo Green though - disguised in its many forms: Winsor Green, Monestial/Monastral Green, Thalo/Pthalocyanine Green - is a colour I can well understand anyone avoiding: the pthalos can get into everything, they're VERY powerful, but I think I've got their number now, and can work with them. Even so, I don't use Pthalo Green in acrylic, whether it's disguised as Viridian or not - it's not easy to get subtle colour in acrylic (but certainly isn't impossible) and Pthalo Green wouldn't help with that, because whatever it is, subtle it ain't. I have much more time for the blue, either very much diluted or mixed with something else (a little Cadmium Red can take the vicious edge off it - see Arnold Lowrey's videos). Green IS slightly problematic in acrylic, more so than it is in other media - so maybe Terry Harrison is missing a trick if indeed his greens aren't available in it. http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk

Many thanks Syd and Robert for your tips and information. I really appreciate it. I've been using a stay wet palette, but find that the paint gets quite thin with the extra water. I will soldier on with mixing sap green with ultramarine, as well as your other tips. If all else fails I will resort to oils! Many thanks once again for your considered replies. Linda

You don't need to add too much water to the stay-wet palette: it shouldn't noticeably thin the paint; just ensure the sponge is damp, not sopping wet - you shouldn't see any surface water on the membrane that sits on the sponge. http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk

Hi Robert, Interesting that you describe a "sponge" in your stay wet palette. Mine is more like blotting paper and the "membrane" is equivalent to greaseproof paper. Is mine a cheap versions that could be improved upon? Linda