Posts Tagged ‘neutrals’

Artists orefer to make their own color mixes

I don’t consider myself a great artist but one that is an artist by avocation, in other words it is a hobby. I have always enjoyed dabbling in the arts as a relaxing pastime and an avenue of exploring my creative tendencies.

I have often been asked about what the difference is between artists’ colors and those used by the paint manufacturers that tint interior and exterior paint products. Are the pigments themselves different or the way they are combined unique? Do artists think about color combinations in much the same way an interior designer or house painter might? The answer is yes and no, there are similarities but also many differences. 

Artists’ colors are made for their end use just like architectural paint is. Watercolors are usually non opaque as the paper serves as an influence on the color. White pigment is not used by strict water colorists; they use the white of the paper to convey the appearance of white. Light colors are made with transparent washes rather than with the addition of white. Oil paint and acrylic paints are more like architectural pigments in the sense that they are opaque and they use white pigment to make lighter colors. However watercolors, acrylics and oils have a much broader range of choices for pigments based on their appearance and they rarely are a mix of pigments but are a single pigment composition. Artists prefer to make their own color mixes for their own end result and are not concerned with repeatability or a formula. 

One the biggest difference between architectural pigments and artists colors is the way colors are mixed. Artists often make neutrals by mixing complementary colors such as blue and orange to make a brown or red and green to make a gray. Black is used by artists but not as often to make grays or neutrals. Architectural paint manufacturers shun away from this practice of mixing complements as it is hard to control the end result and use black to neutralize colors. A slight mistint in a complementary mix shifts the color in hue rather than in chroma or intensity. Colors are not just a little grayer but can be too much of the two colorful ingredients, for example too red or too green. 

Some paint manufacturers that make their own colorants use a combination of pigments for their colors. When a colorant contains more than one pigment and is mixed with another colorant with more than one pigment then the end result is often much grayer or neutral as the combination of more than four colors commonly will result in a combination that may contain complements. These popular neutrals with unique undertones are also often difficult to match by companies using single color colorants, especially when the matching programs try to do it using a maximum of three colorants. 

Color can be enjoyed for its end result and not so much for its method of achieving that end result. The old adage that beauty is in the eye of the beholder is as true for a work of art as it is for a new wall color, how it was achieved may be different but what you see is what counts.

-Pat Verlodt

Life is but a stage...

The more things change the more they are alike. Color movements have been fast at times and slow as snails others but they are interesting just the same.

The most stable of colors are the neutrals and they remain so, after all, that is what they are meant to do. They are evolving into grayer tones as we move into 2010. They are the forgotten cast of characters that serve as the background for the stars of the show, the bright lights and the dramatic jewel tones. And warm neutrals will still dominate the palette with yellow cast beiges being the VIP’s.

Consumers are looking at ways to get a longer shelf life out of their major purchases, such as carpets and appliances by using neutrals and in doing so they leave the stage open for the crisper, more enlightening colors in the palette. These include the diva red that has become as common as the neutrals in the group. Crisp greens and ocean blues are the only cool stars in the play with the warm hearted golds, yellows and oranges as supporting players.

The ingénue is the lavender lady with the gray cloud surrounding her. She is a mysterious character only too willing to support the golden hues that sparkle in the palette. A spicy orange offers to upstage her with its brilliant flair and exciting talent.

Coming attractions include the real stars, the ones that shine in the sky. Photos from outer space give us a glimpse of their beauty and surprising combinations. Brilliant turquoise, sparkling gold, fiery orange and amazing purples dot the galaxy and remind us of our small part in the universe.

Amazing Galactic Colors