Fall 2012

500 Acrylic Mixes

Paint Color Recipes for Artists
by sharon finmark

Color is fundamental to painting, and the ability to

mix and reproduce specific hues is a key skill. Color
theory can be dull and complicated, but in 500 Acrylic
Mixes experienced artist and teacher Sharon Finmark
demonstrates color mixing with acrylic paints in a
practical and easy-to-follow way. A variety of colormixing techniques are covered, including palette
mixing, impasto, and overlaying.
In addition to being an extensive visual sourcebook to
more than 500 acrylic paint color mixes, paintings are
featured throughout, each of which is accompanied by
a breakdown of the colors, mixes, and techniques used
to achieve a specific effect.
Whether youre a longtime student of the studio or
simply searching for a few perfect hues, Sharon will
show you how to create color palettes youll love.

Sharon Finmark is the author of 600 Watercolor Mixes

(2011). She trained at St. Martins College of Art and currently teaches art classes at the City Lit College in London.
She writes for The Artist magazine and has published
several books. She lives in England.

ISBN: 978-1-59668-685-4

Page Count: 176

Format: Hardcover

Trim Size: 7 7

US Price: $22.95

Release Date: August

Canada: $22.95

Season: Fall 2012

500 Acrylic Mixes

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YOUR BASIC PALETTE

Arranging your palette

PAINTING
TITLE

YOUR BASIC PALETTE

red-violet

orange

violet

gradation of the mixture between the primary and

the secondary: red-orange, yellow-orange, yellowgreen, blue-green, blue-violet and red-violet.
Although the primary colours are dissimilar to
each other, they become related by the intermediary
mixed colours. So a painting with red and blue,
which would stress the contrasting properties of
those colours, could be unified by adding the
intermediary red-violets and blue-violets.
As the complementaries (see page 48) are unlike
each other, they create a strong contrast that tends
to intensify both of them. If the complementaries are
the same saturation (strength of colour), they can
produce a very vivid effect.

yellow-orange

blue-violet

yellow

blue

yellow-green

blue-green

green

40

COLOUR RELATIONSHIPS

COLOUR RELATIONSHIPS

41

CADMIUM YELLOW
PAINTING
TITLE

NEUTRALS

Vibrant, intense colours in a painting are exciting, but they are not suitable for every
subject sometimes you will want the subtle, quiet effects that come from using
neutrals.

Mixing neutrals
Your set of paints will probably
contain some brown pigments,
known as earth colours because they
are indeed derived from types of
earth. These act as neutral colours
that are ideal for providing subtle
tones in the landscape and in
buildings made from stone or brick.
You will also want to use them for
modifying brighter colours.
However, you will gain a much
wider variety of neutral browns and
greys by mixing your own from
opposite colours on the wheel. In the
mixes shown here you can see the
difference between the warm and
cool neutrals, which have been
created by following the principle that
yellows and reds are warm while
blues, violets and greens are cool.
The warm and cool range within each
of those colours further expands your
choice.

140

The traditional way to show the colour spectrum for

artists is to organize the colours into a wheel,
showing where they sit and the relationships
between them. Understanding them in this form will
help you to use colour effectively in your paintings.
On the colour wheel, the primary colours (see
page 34) are positioned at equal distances apart, with
each secondary colour (see page 36) between the two
primaries from which it is mixed and opposite the
third primary: that is to say, violet, mixed from blue
and red, is opposite yellow; green, mixed from yellow
and blue, is opposite red; and orange, mixed from red
and yellow, is opposite blue.
Between the primary and secondary colours are
the tertiary colours (see page 38), which are a subtle

Hi Sharon, please
supply title and
caption for this
painting (talk about
colours used and
how you arranged
them in the palette)

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red-orange

The colour wheel

In a paintbox the colours

are usually arranged by
colour family, with the
ranges of reds, blues,
yellows and greens
grouped together, and so
on. Leave a bigger area
for white and black as
they will be used often.

26

red

COLOUR RELATIONSHIPS

Colours are always seen in relation to each other, never in isolation. To prove this to
yourself, put a splash of the same colour on two pieces of paper, one white and the
other tinted, and you will see immediately that they look quite different. This means
that when you want to handle several colours together you will need to have an
understanding of how they will react with each other and the effect the viewer will
perceive.

The key to learning how to handle colour well is to begin by exploring a basic range
of colours to see what you can make from various mixes and dilutions theres no
better way to gain the confidence that will allow you to paint fluently right from the
very early stages of learning. Once using those pigments becomes second nature
you can then give yourself a new challenge by extending the range with some extra
colours to see what they will contribute to your paintings.

NEUTRALS

cool blue + cool orange

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Cadmium Yellow + Lemon Yellow

Cadmium Yellow + Cadmium Orange

Cadmium Yellow + Cadmium Red

Cadmium Yellow + Alizarin Crimson

Cadmium Yellow + Violet

Cadmium Yellow + Ultramarine

Cadmium Yellow + Prussian Blue

Cadmium Yellow + Hooker's Green

Cadmium Yellow + Viridian

Cadmium Yellow + Burnt Sienna

Cadmium Yellow + Yellow Ochre

Cadmium Yellow + Vandyke Brown

Cadmium Yellow + Black

Cadmium Yellow + White

warm blue + warm orange

cool violet + cool yellow

warm violet + warm yellow

cool red + cool green

warm red + warm green

102

COLOUR MIXING

COLOUR MIXING

103