Early Thoughts On New Paint Colors

A tiny dab of Yellow Ochre has take up residence on my palette. If I use tiny bits of it when I am mixing yellows, oranges, or reds, it helps me make darker colors. My theory for this is that it is such an opaque color. Usually, I have to mix in some Titanium White, which is also very opaque, but also makes colors lighter. With Titanium White, I think I use too much, so I get opacity, but I also get too much lightness. For other colors, especially blue, I don’t think I use enough Titanium White when I need a lighter shade.

Here are some sample mixes of my new colors, Diarylide Yellow, Pyrrole Red Light and Yellow Ochre . On the bottom row on the left is the "pure" color. Next is the color mixed with some Titanium White. After that is the new color and my current palette color (eithe Hansa Yellow Opaque or Quin Magneta) for the first two colors. Since I’ve already been mixing with Yellow Ochre, I skipped this “test” for this color. In the next row up, I experimented with mixing greens using Phthalo Blue GS and purples with Phthalo Blue RS and the new color, with both a darker and lighter version. Above that, I used Ultramarine Blue in the mixes.

None of the greens or purples really speak to me. It was hard to get something which looked green on the palette. When I painted with these colors, they were on the yellow side and too light. The purples are hideous, which makes sense since Pyrrole Red Light is an orangey-red. The  most interesting mix was the mix of Pyrrole Red Light and Quin Magenta.

I am still going to experiment, since these new colors could be useful in mixing colors for shadows or landscapes. Also, branching out into new paint colors from time to time helps me understand my current palette better.