JWD Publishing Blog

I hope you are ready to create your own favorite warm shades.  It’s simple to do and you’ll find yourself creating some amazing new colors that you will love to use in your next projects. You’ll also discover which pure colors create your shade preferences. After reading today’s post, decide which pure colors you would like to explore further by doing the painting activity provided here.  If you have not painted in decades (or have never painted), do not worry. This is a very easy exercise—-and it is priceless in the color information you will uncover.

Warm shades can be truly stunning and I hope you give yourself the opportunity to explore some of these luscious shades. If you are a painter who has never made your own shade scales from your favorite warm colors, this is a great time to see how beautifully black works with pure colors to create shaded hues. If  you work in a medium that is colored before it reaches your hands, this activity will help you make confident color selections because you will better understand a shade’s pure-color roots. You should not be disappointed at how much you learn by a few hours worth of mixing paints to create warm shades.

My Painting Recommendations

Because warm pure colors can change so dramatically when they are blackened, I think it’s important to work with as many colors as possible—–particularly those that you particularly like. If you explore their shaded nature through paint, you will find yourself being able to work with shades so much easier and make better choices when selecting colors.

Seeing how pure color shaded hues change right before your eyes when black is added is  insightful. Mixing paints and making swatches is an easy activity.

I recommend you purchase no less than three  tubes of pure color acrylic paints for your paint mixing. If you select more, that’s great. Beside selecting your pure colors, you will purchase a clear, dark black, such as Mars Black. It will take you approximately two hours to set up, paint, and clean up each pure-color’s shade scale.

When selecting your paints, consider these options:

1.  I highly recommend you select yellow (cadmium yellow light) as one of your pure color paint selections. This will give you the opportunity to see how yellow transposes itself into an almost magical blend of olive greens.

2.   If you like working with rusts and browns, select a pure color paint that ranges between orange-red and yellow-orange. If you like rusts and browns that have that beautiful orangish flavor, select a brilliant pure orange.  If you prefer rusts and browns to have a hint of burntness (or redness), select an orange that veers toward red, such as an orange-red or a red-orange.  If you like browns and rusts that have a yellowish quality to them, select a pure color that leans toward a yellow-orange or an orange-yellow.

3.  If you want to see how reds change, select one of the several  pure reds.  If you want to see shades of cooler reds, select a pure red color tube that veers toward magenta or a red that has a coolness to it, such as blue-red.

4.  If you love warm greens, select a pure color that is either a chartreuse,  a yellow-green, or a spring green. Each of these pure colors will present different shades that are very enticing.

5.  If you did not get a chance to paint any cool shades when we were discussing the cooler colors, feel free to select a few cool pure colors to work with too. You will find shades from cool pure colors do not visually change as much as warm colors do.

Planning Your Painting Time

1.  Decide whether you want to paint by yourself or if you want to invite a few friends to have a painting day with you (so much fun!). By working in a small group, you can share color swatches, so each of you have samples of each other’s colors.

2.  Determine your painting day and put it on your calendar.  Commit!

3.  Choose your pure colors from the range we have been discussing—-something between a blue-red through to yellow or on to spring green.

4.  Purchase your selected pure color paints from a college book store, an independent art-supply store, a large craft chain store, or an online website. Use Liquitex paint or another brand. Purchase paints in a tube, not a jar. Besides your pure-color paint,  select a strong, clear black paint  (e.g. Mars Black).  Also purchase 2-3 inexpensive paint brushes and a couple of packages of unlined index cards. You will also need construction paper, tag board, or other stiff paper, glue stick, and scissors and ruler or rotary cutter, ruler and cutting board. (Note the paint hints at the bottom of the post.)

Painting Your Shade Swatches

Besides your pure-color paints and black paint (Mars Black), you will need a large sheet of paper to protect your table, one or more coffee stirrers, paper towels (or a cotton cloth or rag), water, paint container, and toothpicks.

1.  Place 1-2 tablespoons of one pure-color paint in your paint container. Add a few drops of water to the paint, so the paint is of good spreading consistency. Be cautious, as you do not want the paint to be watery. Paint one side of an index card completely with the pure-color paint. Clean the paint brush.

2.  Add a tiny drop of Mars Black to your pure-color paint with a toothpick or a coffee stirer. Blend thoroughly with a stirring utensil. Then paint an index card with this new color. Clean the paint brush.

3.  Continue adding black paint to the  paint mixture, painting an index card after each mixing until your paint mixture is almost black. As you paint index cards, begin increasing the amount of black added to the mix. Add enough to see a change, but not so much that the change is vast.

4.  When you think your color is so dark that it appears to be almost black, stop adding black into the paint mixture.  Next paint an index card with the  black paint.

5.  As you paint, set the painted cards aside to dry (keep in order of painting). Once dried, gather in order of painting, put in a pile, and place a heavy book on top of the pile of painted index cards.

6.  Once the cards are flattened, cut a 1/2-inch strip off of the short end of each index card, working from the pure color card to the darkest shade— and then black.

7.  With glue-stick or some other adhesive, place the colored strips in a straight line on a piece of construction paper or tag board, moving from the pure color to black. When placing the strips onto the paper, overlap them slightly, so there is no background paper showing between the strips.

The number of shades in your selected paint’s shade scale will depend on how dark or light your selected pure color is.  If your painted shades are from a light-value  pure color like yellow, golden-yellow, or chartreuse,  you’ll have a greater number of hues than if your selected pure hue is a middle-value color, such as red.  The lighter the pure color, the more shades it will have.

8.  Take a break. Then repeat the process for your other pure-color shade scales.

9.  Place the leftover portions of your painted index cards in envelopes with the name of the pure color and shade scale noted on the front of the envelope. Place these in a safe place to be used for another painting project. Keep your pure color paint tubes, as you can use them again.

Hints:  It can be hard to figure out what color is actually in a tube. You cannot always tell by the name or the colored label. If purchasing at a store, use your eyes to determine your color—not necessarily the color name.  Your selected pure color should be vibrant, rich, and clear. It should not have any graying quality to it; nor should it have any whitening or blackening in its nature. It should be as brilliant as that color can be. When selecting your paints at a store, carefully open the lid to make certain the paint color is a pure color.  If you purchase online, select paints that appear brilliant and pure.

For your information: Liquitex offers several types of paints. For our purposes, we want to use paints from the professional paints category. The specific choice for us within this category is heavy body acrylic paints or more specifically, heavy body artist acrylic paints. 

I hope you enjoy your paint exploration. It will probably take you a few weeks to purchase, schedule, and paint. Have fun.  I know you’ll really learn a lot mixing these paints. Happy painting!

Joen

Text, illustrations, and photography copyright   © Joen Wolfrom    The copyright of each artwork shown remains with its  creator.

Joen is a color enthusiast who teaches and lectures on color. She has written three color books: Color Play, Visual Coloring, and The Magical Effects of Color. Her Studio Color Wheel is used to illustrate color concepts in many of these blog posts. She is also the designer of the 3-in-1 Color Tool. Her new book Adventures in Designis now available. Joen’s newest design tool, the Magic Design-Ratio Tool is also available. All books and products are published by C & T Publishing.