Acrylic Painting-Your Basic Color Palette
What colors are needed when you start painting with acrylics?
So you have decided to start painting with acrylics. With so many possible colors to choose from, which ones should you choose first? We were taught in art class that it is possible to mix all colors from just 3 primary colors, red, yellow and blue, but, most of us won’t. Instead, we prefer to take the easy way out and just squeeze the color right out of the tube. Actually, some of the colors we can buy are brighter or darker than what we can mix. The following list of colors will make up a good basic palette of acrylic colors and you should be able to mix almost any color you want.
Acrylic Paint: White
Titanium white is a bright white, opaque and it has a very strong tinting ability, meaning you will only need to use small amounts for mixing. You can also purchase a “mixing white” from some manufacturers, which is also the least expensive and as the the name of the paint suggests, it is made to blend easily with other colors.
Acrylic Paint: Black
There are 2 types of black acrylic paint, mars black, which is relatively opaque and you should add it to other colors in small amounts until you have the color the way you want it. Now, the second option is ivory black, but if you decide to use this color, be aware that it is made from charred bones, just not sure what kind of bones!
Acrylic Paint: Green
Green colors can be very hard to mix unless you are very precise in your proportions and to note the colors you have used. A bright bluish green you can buy is phthalo green and you can mix it with a medium cadmium yellow to get various shades of green.
Acrylic Paint: Orange
Cadmium orange is very convienient if you use a lot of orange color, but you can make it by mixing yellow and red.
Acrylic Paint: Red
Cadmium red medium is a warm, yellowish red and is relatively opaque. You will also find a cadmium red in a light and dark.
Acrylic Paint: Brown
You will find burnt umber is a warm chocolate brown. It is very a versatile color and you will find it to be indispensable, it is also great to darken the tone of other colors. Raw umber is similar, but a little lighter and cooler.
Acrylic Paint: Blue
Phthalo blue is very intense and extremely versatile. It becomes very dark when you combine it with burnt umber. Due to its high tinting strength, you will only need to use a little mixed with white to make lighter blues. Other names for this blue color are thalo blue, monestial blue and phthalocyanine blue.
Acrylic Paint: Yellow
You can start with a tube of cadmium yellow medium and create lighter yellows by adding white. As always, if you find yourself doing this often, just buy a tube of cadmium yellow light. Keep in mind that if you need to darken yellow try to add purple instead of black, which will tend to produce an olive green rather than a deeper yellow.
Acrylic Paint: Purple
It would be wise to buy a very dark purple because you will waste a lot of paint trying to mix this color.
Other colors you may find useful is a yellow or golden ocher, which is a golden, yellowish brown. Titanium buff or raw titanium is a deep creme for mixing with burnt umber when you need to create skin tones. Finally, payne’s grey, a transparent, darkish blue-gray which is made from a mix of blue, black and usually a touch of red.
