How to mix grays with acrylic paints

Grays, or neutrals, are terrific tools in the artist's toolbox. Gray can be used in a variety of ways:

1. to tone down colors that are too bright or intense
2. to create shadow areas instead of adding black
3. as a color choice in and of themselves

Not all grays are created equal, however. You could think of gray as being just a mixture of black and white. As soon as you've added any amount of white to black, you begin a gray scale. However, the simple black-plus- white gray gives you a rather bland, unexciting neutral. Try mixing various colors together and use them in place of the black-plus-white gray and something exciting begins to happen in a painting.

Grays, or neutrals, mixed from colors can be created by either of these ways:

1. mixing the three primary colors together, Red plus Blue plus Yellow - this is called "primary gray"
2. mixing a primary with its complement to make a "complementary gray" [a complement is the color opposite on the color wheel. Red and Green, Yellow and Purple, Blue and Orange...or another way to explain it: it is a primary color mixed with a secondary color. An example would be Red plus Green. Red is the primary color and Green, the secondary color which is a mixture of the primary colors Blue and Yellow.]

Not a "gray" in the traditional way of thinking, a primary gray nevertheless is a great neutral to use instead of a black-plus-white mixture. Because a primary gray contains within it each of the three primary colors, it will enhance and enliven any color it is either added to or painted next to.

• An example would be painting the foliage of a tree. Greens are most often the color of choice for tree foliage. Mix up a primary gray and use it in the shading areas. The Blue and Yellow in the primary gray mix will intensify the Green of the foliage because the color Green is made from a mixture of Blue and Yellow. The Red in the primary gray will add interest because the Green used for the foliage is the complement of the color Red.

Making a primary gray is as simple as mixing, in equal parts, Red plus Blue plus Yellow. Where it gets really interesting is in choosing which Red, Blue and Yellow to use. Each paint formulation will give you a completely different result. For example:

• Cadmium Red Hue plus French Ultramarine plus Cadmium Yellow Hue will give you one result;
• Naphthol Crimson mixed with Brilliant Blue mixed with Lemon Yellow will give you a result totally different.

Try a few of these primary combinations. Mix them in equal ratio: one part each. Make a chart that shows what color formulations you chose and after you've mixed them, apply a bit next to the mixture notations so you can see what the result is. This makes a good reference chart for future painting purposes.

• Prussian Blue plus Vermillion Hue plus Cadmium Yellow Deep Hue
• Cobalt Blue plus Venetian Red plus Gamboge
• Cerulean Blue plus Permanent Rose plus Cadmium Yellow Light

Here's a color mixing hint: sometimes when mixing hues, colors, together, they can seem too dark to tell exactly what you've got. An idea: take one part, say the size of a pea, of the color you've just made, and mix it with the same size of white...this will give you a tint of the color you mixed. It is a unique and quick way to translate your mixture for you. For example, you could mix the primary colors blue, red and yellow to make a primary gray, but the mixture is rather dark. Take a pea-size amount of that and mix it with a pea-size amount of white. Using a palette knife spread some of that on a scratch piece of canvas. What you'll see is the lighter version of your primary gray. You'll get a much better clue as to which of the primary colors is dominate...once tinted it may pull more towards blue/purple or more towards red/purple or even red/orange.

When making a reference chart, it's a good idea to put this tint down next to the mixed example so you can have that translation reminder.

It gets very interesting when mixing grays made from complements. The possible combinations are many. Remember that a Complementary Gray is made from mixing, in equal parts, a primary color and its complement like Blue plus Orange. The possible combinations of just this Blue-plus-Orange gray are many. First start with the possible combinations of making Orange, mixing an equal part of each:

• Cadmium Red Medium plus Cadmium Yellow Medium
• Naphthol Crimson plus Cadmium Yellow Light
• Vermillion Hue plus Cadmium Yellow Deep
• Primary Magenta plus Lemon Yellow

This gives you four separate "oranges;" now take just Cerulean Blue and mix with each and you have four distinct Blue/Orange complementary grays. Then take Winsor Blue and mix with each of these oranges and you have yet four more different grays or neutrals. You can see how you can have a field day just coming up with combinations for mixing the color orange; and then have another day mixing those oranges with all the various Blue formulations.

• You can also mix your blues with an orange "from the tube" such as Cadmium Orange or Vivid Red Orange. However, you greatly expand your rainbow of possibilities by mixing your secondary colors yourself.

A Red and Green Complementary Gray example works the same. For this example choose Cadmium Red Medium as the Red. Now make a variety of Greens, again using an equal one-to-one ratio:

• Winsor Blue plus Primary Yellow
• Primary Cyan plus Cadmium Yellow Medium
• Phthalo Blue plus Lemon Yellow
• Azurite Hue plus Gamboge

After mixing the Greens, using the Cadmium Red Medium, add equal mixtures Red and Green to create four interesting neutrals. Now use a different Red with these same Greens; again, more choices for you as an artist.

And finally a Yellow and Purple Complementary Gray works the same way. As example choose the Cadmium Yellow Medium as the primary Yellow and make a selection of purples:

• Winsor Blue plus Cadmium Red Light
• Cerulean Blue plus Permanent Rose
• Prussian Blue plus Cadmium Red Deep
• Indanthrene Blue plus Primary Magenta

Using an equal ratio, mix your Cadmium Yellow Medium with each purple and you have four distinct neutrals. Choose a different Yellow with these same purples and you have four more.

Creativity in painting is not limited to the painting itself, it is also in the choices of colors used. And it can even be in the mixing of the colors that sit on the painter's palette.