# Today I learned a lesson



## Saloooh91 (Jun 22, 2015)

Hey everyone.
So I've been painting around a month now and enjoying every single minute while painting something new. Anyways I just wanted to share the lesson I learned today incase if I'm missing a specific color

*Color mixing*

I didn't have any purple or orange so I decided to google how to mix colors and it worked 
I really enjoyed the idea of mixing colors with tubes.
I didn't expect to get great results.
I might share my painting later on


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## leighann (May 10, 2015)

When in doubt...YouTube


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## TerryCurley (Jan 4, 2015)

Looking forward to seeing your work Salooh. Yes the only colors that can not be created by mixing are the primary colors blue, red and yellow. Mixing is fun too.


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## chanda95 (Apr 6, 2011)

leighann said:


> When in doubt...YouTube


YUP! I have found YouTube incredibly helpful on a whole lot of stuff! 

Look forward to seeing the finished work.


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## FanKi (Apr 23, 2015)

I envy you! >.<

I always made a mess when I tried to mix colors in the school xD And always finished in a kind of brown, no matter what u.u guess it's not for me hahaha

Would love to see your work!


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## TerryCurley (Jan 4, 2015)

I always thought Magenta was a mix of red and a touch of blue. If that were true then if you added yellow to magenta it would green out the blue and it would be like mixing red with a touch of green which would give you a dull down red because green is the complementary of red, but then red and yellow would brighten the red to an orangish, so it would turn the red from a dull red to a brighter red.....Don't I sound like I know what I'm talking about....well FYI I don't.

So I guess Cyan is a primary color too? 

Personally Red, Blue, and Yellow will always be primary to me....I'm over 65...I'm allowed to be stubborn weather I'm right or not.


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## TerryCurley (Jan 4, 2015)

Still don't bye it, Cyan can be created by adding blue with green, and Magenta can be created by adding blue with red. So I'll keep my firm conviction that the primary colors for mixing paint are red, blue and yellow.

Try googling how to mix cyan or how to mix magenta....both are created from the primary colors of red blue and green (yup green).

*"The color magenta, which is a primary color according to Goethe's theory of color subtraction, is produced when blue and red are combined.* This theory works on the principle that the components of white light can be subtracted by the secondary colors to create other colors. However, black color is produced when the secondary colors subtract all the components of white light.

Newton's theory of color is based on the principle of color addition, unlike Goethe's theory, which is based on the principle of color subtraction. Newton's theory led to the conclusion that blue, red and green colors are the primary colors, and are known as the additive primary colors while Goethe's theory led to the conclusion that cyan, yellow and magenta colors are the primary colors that are known as subtractive primary colors.

The application of these two theories of color is very common. In media production the sources of color that are used by the color print are based on the principle of color subtraction as the ambient light illuminates the paper. On the other hand, color sources that have an independent illumination, such as a computer monitor, are based on the principle of color addition." _quote from ASK __http://www.ask.com/science/colors-mix-produce-magenta-17d3c5c773597534_

Seems to me when mixing paint it would pretty darn hard to use the "subtraction" method. Have you ever tried to separate the yellow from the blue when dealing with green? 

AT any rate most of what I have read says the primary colors are actually red, green, and blue and I have a real problem accepting green as a primary since you can mix blue and yellow to get green. SO no matter what the theories are I know that I can mix whatever color I need with red, blue and yellow so those are primary in my book.


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## Bushcraftonfire (Apr 22, 2015)

Sorry.. I wasn't trying to start a color war.. I deeply apologize

D


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## TerryCurley (Jan 4, 2015)

I'm sorry too if I came across like I was warring.


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## Scott R Nelson (Jun 26, 2013)

I know that they taught us in school, as kids, that the primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. I wish they were able to teach what is used in the real world.

For printed material, they use the CMYK color model, which stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. The black only gets added to darken things up a bit, but the primary colors of pigment are cyan, magenta, and yellow.

On televisions and computer monitors, the primary colors are red, green and blue because light is used instead of pigment. Having worked in the area of computer graphics for a few decades, I'm very familiar with getting the colors that I want mixing those three colors. Which doesn't help a bit for watercolor.

I have a notebook where I write down all of the useful hints I can find about watercolor painting. When I read a book about watercolors, I write down the good stuff. When I attend a class or demonstration, I write down all of the good stuff. And when I get any new watercolor box sets or tubes of paint, I paint some samples in the notepad and note how those colors mix with others. I refer back to those color tests when I need a particular color.

I really like quinacridone magenta for mixing various red, orange, violet, and purple colors because it mixes so well with others.

I can mix nearly any color I want for paintings of flowers using quinacridone magenta, antwerp blue, hookers green, and quinacridone gold. There is a discussion about this here: http://www.artistforum.com/sitemap/t-12202.html

The best suggestion I have is to try mixing the colors that you want on an old sheet of watercolor paper (the back of some painting you don't like is good) to see what you can get. I want to know ahead of time what I'll be able to get for a painting before I've used the wrong colors and messed it up.

I've worked off and on with several sunflower paintings and still haven't quite found the right color to mix with yellow to make the shadows look right on the yellow petals. I've tried about two dozen different things on my test sheet and maybe I've come close enough.

Experiment and you'll eventually find the right colors to mix to get what you want.


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