Mixing questions

[A. Joseph]

Hi,

I discovered this great mixing tutorial on your site:

http://paintbasket.com/studios/blog/2011/07/18/mixing-paint-with-the-6-colour-colour-wheel/

However, I have a question. It says to make a shade, that you mix the complement with it. However, how does this work with Violet-Yellow combinations? Every time I try to make the shade of Violet by adding a little of the yellow complement, it comes out lighter? This rule doesn't seem to work well with yellow-violet.

Thank you!

[nolan]

to the Paint Basket family, we are glad you found us.

What You want to do when mixing shadows is first darken the colour as that is often all that is required. If that doesn't get you dark and dull enough, then start adding the opposite colour.

To me it sounds like a classic case of the violet not being dark / strong enough so the yellow instantly becomes the dominant colour in the mix.

Give it a try and let me know how that goes

[A. Joseph]

What You want to do when mixing shadows is first darken the colour as that is often all that is required.

Ok, but does that mean just mix in black? In the original post, it said to use the complement to mix a shade. Not black.

[nolan]

technically you could just add black, but in reality I have found that the black paints are too strong so they overpower the colour you are trying to shadow which means you do not have the fine control that darkening and adding the compliment has

[linley.plester]

A timid suggestion... maybe you should try mixing a dark violet using a dark blue and dark red, then try various yellows with this dark mixture?