Colour Mixing for Students

Archival Series 1 has a complete mixing palette of affordable colours, which are highly pigmented and permanent and much more satisfying to use than traditional all-one-price student-grade paints.

Art Students are usually given a suggested colour list when they start out and the list usually has Cadmiums and Cobalts on it which are too expensive for beginners. Many beginners use the cheaper one-price ranges which offer ‘Cadmium Hues’ to make the list affordable.

For those who decide to use professional artist quality paints with their stronger pigments we suggest the following Archival Oil colours to best serve your budget and provide a balanced palette. The list has the bright colours: a warm and cool of each primary colour and 3 secondary colours plus some extra choices.

Mixing Palette

• Opaque
• Semi-Transparent
• Transparent
• Very Strong Coverage

Titanium White 1. Titanium White or Fast White if you want your painting to dry fast.	Arylamide Yellow Light 2. Arylamide Yellow Light (Cool Yellow). Similar shade to Cadmium Yellow Light, but stronger tinting and less opaque.	Arylamide Yellow Deep 3. Arylamide Yellow Deep (Warm Yellow). Similar to Cadmium Yellow Deep, stronger but less opaque.
Orange 4. Orange Stronger but MUCH less opaque than Cadmium Orange (Series 4). You could also consider Perinone Orange (Series 2.) which is transparent and very clean orange.	Napthol Red Light 5. Napthol Red Light Warm Red) similar to Cadmium Red Light (Scarlet) (Series 4) but stronger and less opaque.	Crimson 6. Crimson used as a cool red and also as a substitute for Alizarin (Series 4) because it is transparent and mixes cleanly towards violet and blue. This colour in mass tone can stand in for Cadmium Red Medium (Series 4) which is opaque.
Purple 7. Purple, a softer more muted purple than Dioxazine Purple (Series 2). Both are transparent. Dioxazine Purple is more vivid and harder to control.)	Pthalo Green 8. Pthalo Green, a midpoint green, sometimes referred to as ‘Viridian Green Hue’. Very strong clean and transparent. (You will notice there are other inexpensive greens eg Forest Green (Series 2), Olive Green (Series 2) and Permanent Green Light (Series 2) if you want to add more colours later.)	Cerulean Blue Hue 9. Cerulean Blue Hue, a cool blue close in colour to Cerulean Blue (Series 4).
Cobalt Blue Hue 10. Cobalt Blue Hue, a warm blue close in colour to Cobalt Blue (Series 4).	Pthalo Blue 11. Pthalo Blue or Prussian Blue (Series 1), cool blues. Prussian Blue is slightly milder, Pthalo Blue is very intense for mixing greens; either can be chosen as a main cool blue.	French Ultramarine Blue 12. French Ultramarine Blue, a warm blue and a very strong clean ultramarine.

(Note: Both 11 and 12 are necessary. 9 and 10 are useful but not vital.)

The “earth” colours, Yellow Ochre, Light Red Oxide, Burnt Sienna, the Umbers etc are all in series 1 (S.1.) and you will eventually develop your own preferences. Transparent Red Oxide is a very bright transparent modern addition to these muted colours which have a long tradition. You may also consider exploring Green Black, Red Black and Blue Black or the more traditional Paynes Grey.

Earth Colours

• Opaque
• Semi-Transparent
• Transparent
• Very Strong Coverage

Yellow Ochre	Light Red Ochre	Burnt Sienna
Burnt Umber	Raw Umber	Raw Sienna Dark
Transparent Red Oxide	Green Black	Red Black
Blue Black (Indigo)	Brown Black	Paynes Grey

There are many ways to approach colour mixing. The best policy is to follow closely whatever pathway your teacher uses until you develop your own understanding and can mix the colours you need instinctively.

Explanation of Some of the Technical Terms Used to Describe Colours

• Transparent colours are used in glazes, because when diluted they are ‘see-through’, revealing whatever lies beneath.
• Opaque colours have high ‘hiding power’ and are mainly used in ‘mass tone’ which means the ‘full strength‘. Opaque colours are not transparent when diluted.
• A strong transparent colour also has ‘hiding power’ when used in mass tone and makes strong tints when added to white and is transparent when diluted.

It is wise to add small amounts of colour to white paint until you get used to the differences in strength. Opaque and semi opaque coloursare never as strong. Semi opaque, semi transparent mean the same thing, half way between in character. If you make a sample board of the colours you are using and simply squish them with a palette knife you can see the character of the colours.