How to Mix Blues: Two-Colour Mixing
Blues are one of my favorite colors to mix. You can get such a rich range of colors from the vibrant hues through to the most subtle grays, especially with two-color mixing.
In this demonstration, I use a 12 color palette so that we can explore mixing shades and tints of blue fully:
- alizarin crimson
- rose madder
- cobalt violet
- dioxazine purple
- ultramarine blue
- cobalt blue
- cerulean blue
- viridian green
- emerald green (which in the end I don't need)
- cadmium orange
- cadmium yellow
I show you 9 ways to mix blues:
0:00 Intro to mixing blues
1:10 Mix 1: cerulean blue and ultramarine blue (to get cobalt blue)
1:30 Mix 2: ultramarine blue and viridian green (to get cerulean blue or cobalt blue)
2:30 Mix 3: dioxazine purple and cobalt blue
4:15 Mix 4: dioxazine purple and viridian green
6:02 Mix 5: viridian green and cobalt violet
7:13 Mix 6: viridian green and rose madder
8:20 Mix 7: viridian green and alizarin crimson
10:25 Mix 8: cadmium orange and ultramarine blue
11:57 Mix 9: cadmium yellow and ultramarine blue
My mixes start close to blue itself to show how you can control color shifts around the hues and then get darker on both sides (green-blues and purple-blues) before moving into the great range of gray-blues.
As always I use the principles of two-color mixing:
- I arrange my paints according to the 'Color Line' (see my 'Practical Color Theory' video for more detail)
- I identify where the color I want to mix sits on the Color Line
- I don't use the color itself, but pick one color from either side on the line
- I darken the color by moving further away on one side or the other - I don't use black
- I only use white to lighten a mix
- I add small amounts of paint at a time
- I keep my knife/brush clean
If you want to see how a Great Artist uses these same colors and principles, then my video on Claude Monet's 'The Beach at Trouville' is a good place to start.
I hope you enjoy this, and as always if you have any questions or observations, please drop them into the comments which I always keep an eye on. And please don't forget to like and subscribe!
Пікірлер: 17
Thanks again Ian for another fabulous video. Great help.xxjo
So good. Great Vídeo. Thank you so much
Thanks Ian for another interesting mix of colours. I will try to mix theses lovely colours.
@GreatArtistsSteal
4 жыл бұрын
Aiman Al-Nuaimi It’s a pleasure Aiman
Great demo thanks Ian
Thanks for that very helpful video I'm off to try for myself now. Best Wishes .WJ.
@GreatArtistsSteal
4 жыл бұрын
thanks for your comment WJ. I am glad you find it helpful.
Hi GAS, very nice video, thank you! I was on YT searching for a video that mixed Dioxazine Purple with Phthalo Green, to get a mixed blue, because I'm very interested in the idea of a limited palette without blue in it, but being able to mix a "good" blue still. I love blues, but i found myself disliking the paintings that i had really saturated blues, and also I didn't care for having to mix green from blue + yellow. So, my "first step" palette was based on the Zorn palette and I chose: T. White + Yellow Oxide + Pyrole Red + Carbon Black (all opaque colors). So, after much consideration, I added to that just 3 transparent colors: Transparent Oxide Red, Phthalo Green (Yellow Shade) and Dioxazine Purple. I decided on that combo of 5 colors, plus black and white, and I'm looking forward on using this palette and mixing my own blues, ranging from really green to really violet. If you have any thoughts about my strategy, please share, i'll be glad to hear. Thank you again.
@GreatArtistsSteal
3 жыл бұрын
Hi Renato I think your palette is good. Zorn when painting landscapes would also use more colours than the palette he is famous for. The palette you list is the palette he used for painting portraits. Phthalo green (yellow shade) mixed with Dioxazine Purple will give you some subtle blues. If I was using your palette I would add a blue to it so that I could increase the saturation of the subtle blue if I needed to. thanks for contacting me.
@renatobfa
3 жыл бұрын
@@GreatArtistsSteal makes sense Steal, thank you 👏👏
It helped me alot thank you so much
@GreatArtistsSteal
3 жыл бұрын
thanks for your comment. I am really pleased my ideas are helpful.
Isn't colour wonderful, lately I've been drawn to blue apparently it's a healing colour... Cezanne quote colour is the place where our brain meets the universe... I don't know if he actually said this but it's true . I love colour when I was in your class I wasn't brave enough to paint but I did in other classes and at home, thankyou for another great enjoyable tutorial...
@GreatArtistsSteal
4 жыл бұрын
Thanks for that Cezanne quote Sam. I suppose as colour is light Cezanne was right. It does not surprise me to hear about the healing properties of blue as it is a calm and relaxing colour since it is the colour we associate with the sky.
Thank you Ian, for another enlightening video, can you please do one on grays i can't seem to stop my grays looking blue no matter which black i use. best wished Keep safe Carole
@GreatArtistsSteal
4 жыл бұрын
CJ Thanks for your support Carole. Can you get Instagram? I have a mixing greys video on instagram called great_artists_steal
@ayresc4
4 жыл бұрын
Thanks Ian no I don't have social media's if its on you tube i'll find it I just can't get rid of of the blue. @@GreatArtistsSteal