Friday 4 January 2013

Colour Mixing or 50 shades of Purple

My name is Janice, and I'm a Purple-holic.
I love the colour purple in all it's multitude of shades and tones. I have a habit of using it way more than any other colour throughout the crafts I enjoy. I was reminded recently how easy it is to forget that some of the processes we take for granted after many years of being creative, are not always obvious to a newcomer. Colour mixing paint is one of those.
Purple is a mix of Red and Blue, but not every mix makes a lovely vibrant purple - some mixes of red and blue make a nasty brown sludge. The secret is in the red and blue you choose. There are many different red paints and many different blues. To get purple you need to choose the right red and the right blue.
There is a whole spectrum of reds - crimson, indian, cherry etc, from reds that are closer to orange (hot reds) to reds that are closer to purple (cool reds). The same is true of blues - blues that tend towards green ( cool blues) and blues that tend towards purple ( warm blues).
To mix a great purple you need a warm blue and a cool red. The great thing is that once you get the right pair of colours, you have a whole new spectrum of colours depending on how much of each colour you put in the mix. You can also add white to make paler tones or black for darker shades.
Try it with your favourite colours - I made up a swatch for each colour combination so when ever I want a particular hue, I know exactly what to mix.

8 comments:

  1. I love purple, it's my favourite colour, in my last house I had a purple room and i am just about to move again and intend to have a purple bathroom. Thanks so much for sharing your love of purple, it's wonderful.

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    1. I have to content myself with purple accessories at home, but love the idea of a purple bathroom :)

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  2. Purple is my favorite color as well--my best friend gave me a necklace with these wonderful deep indigo-purple crystals. I love to wear purple too.

    None of the cyano-based blues will make a good purple: too much green, and much the same with cad-based reds--too much yellow. Then there's my personal favorite, the diox..something purple...deep, vibrant and a bit transparent.

    But I don't like purple as a wall color--unless it's really dark.

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    1. Exactly right with the cyano and cad colours. I like ultramarine and alizarin crimson for some real juicy purples :)

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  3. Purple is also one of my favorite colors although I don't craft with it heaps. I love all shades of it and you will find it throughout my home and wardrobe. I enjoyed reading your post about purple TFS.

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  4. Thanks for commenting and Happy crafting :)

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  5. Well, one can tell you like purple from the blog colors...I like it too. Funny story comes to mind about a gallery that told me "purple paintings don't sell"...I was puzzled by that, and sure enough later the purple painting did sell, but not at that gallery!

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  6. Hi there! I'm way behind on the UBC and trying to catch up; I posted in the thread for the day in the Facebook group, and your post was above mine.

    It's neat that your post happened to be about purple - my late mother's favorite color was purple. For her memorial service, all of us family members wore some article of clothing or accessory in purple. It proved to be a touching tribute in her memory, based on the reactions of friends who immediately recognized why we wore that color!

    Thanks for an interesting post!

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