Learning to mix your own paint colors is a useful skill for any painter. Not only does this practice allow you to save money on paint, it can improve your art by allowing you a wider variety of colors, as well as the ability to match and customize any shade you desire. While the art of color composition can take much practice to fully master, getting started on the basics is as simple as knowing a few rules of color.
Instructions
1. Study the color wheel. The color wheel contains a graduated spectrum of every color and can be used to assess the composition of non-primary colors (all colors besides blue, yellow and red). Look to the color wheel to see which two primary colors your desired shade falls between and mix them, using proportions that reflect the distance between them (i.e., a shade of orange that's closer to red than it is to yellow will use more red than yellow).
2. Obtain good quality primary colors. When choosing artist-quality paint, it's unlikely that you'll find colors labeled simply "red" "yellow" or "blue," so you'll have to look at the sample colors and decide for yourself which colors match most closely to true primaries (this is somewhat a matter of personal taste and will vary from brand to brand). You will also need white and black paint.
3. Memorize a few basic color combinations. A few good ones to remember at all times are green (yellow and blue), orange (red and yellow) and violet (blue and red). You can also make brown shades by mixing colors opposite each other on the color wheel, such as green and red or blue and orange.
4. Mix gray by adding black paint to some white paint. With this mixture, it's very easy to overdo the black paint, since adding as much as equal parts white and black will make a very dark gray color. Use black sparingly and add a little at a time.
5. Learn to lighten and darken shades. Adding white to a color is an effective way to lighten most shades, but use caution when adding black for the sake of darkening, as it will tend to change the shade entirely, often in undesirable ways (such as turning yellow paint a shade of gray-green). For this reason, it's good to start with vividly colored primaries that won't need to be deepened.
6. Use lots of paint when mixing a new color. Once you feel you've mastered the art of color mixing, always mix a generous amount of paint for the project you're using if you are able to preserve the extra. It's difficult to precisely match a shade with a second mixing, so it's a good idea to make sure you have more than enough for the project at hand.
