Basic acrylic colour mixing: how to mix a perfect purple| Part 2 of 2
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2011
- www.willkempartschool.com | colour mixing with acrylic paint. Learn how to mix the perfect bright purple with acrylic paint colours with professional artist Will Kemp.
Basic colour mixing with acrylic paints to learn about complementary color, colour wheel and colour theory.
Colour used: Titanium White
Cadmium Red Light
Permanent Alizarin Crimson
Alizarin Crimson
Quinacridone Red
Ultramarine blue
Phthalo Blue (Green)
Cobalt violet (hue)
Golden Acrylics
Winsor & Newton artists acrylic paints
Will Kemp Art School Channel
/ willkempartschool
Music by Elly from Folding Stars. "Kinda sucked anyway"
www.myspace.com/foldingstars1/...
Check out her other band hello big world!
www.tumblr.com/tagged/hello+bi... 
Хобби
Lordy. This has literally changed my entire color mixing understanding.
Good one Karyn, so pleased it helped.
Cheers,
Will
I just learned why I couldn't make purple - I made that awful gray and now know why - thank you!!
Hi Will.
As a physicist I can agree with you - purple is a fantastic colour in art and science. Red (longest visible wavelength) and blue (shortest) together, make the eye see purple when they are emitted as light. Two extremes. If you zap the eye with red and green, it sees yellow. So do not underestimate the eye when mixing colour. But red acrylic paint absorbs most blue light and blue paint absorbs most red. This explains why most red + blue mixes give grey. Then we have the ink-jet scenario where you can rely on the CMY colours to behave and give you the colour you expect when you mix. It is the M of the CMY that is the clue. M, magenta, a fancy name for not green. Not green is R + B so magenta ink-jet is already half way to purple paradise. It can be nudged to the purple you need with a small additive.
You finished off here with the tube of readimix "purple" and that is the safest !
Living in S of Fr I encounter lavender a lot and I asked a few people what colour they see in lavender. I was surprised by the fact that many people said "I see grey or "I see ash. The same thing is happening in the lavender blossom as in paint, the red and blue are wiping each other out to give grey.
Back to ink-jet - they work because the inks are translucent and in the best printers, the colour dots are displaced so they dont self absorb each other, like a daub of mixed paint does.
Oh and PS, I drew up a matrix of what colours I needed for a starting palette - Lowry, Will Kemp, Whatsisname along the horizontal axis and the colour tubes (pthalo etc) along the vertical axis. I then bought the most heavily populated pigments & dyes in this matrix. I couldn't get a purple from these top price tubes - missing the right red. But then I had a brainwave. I went back to my starter kit, Amsterdam student basics and mixed their cheap primary red and cheap primary blue and a 1/3 of titanium white and voila! a decent purple. Being cheap student colours, the reds had all the hues you might ever want, as per the blues. The hues were left and right spectrally, so grey and - cometh the need, cometh the purple.
Oh, and paint has physical depth, so that layer of red pigment blocks the blue light coming off the pigment below and vice versa for top blue layer. It's all in the top layer of molecules.
My solution? Just squeeze tubes and mix till you get the colour you want and then write down how you did it in your notebook so you don't have to go through the whole rigmarole next time!
Wow. In conjunction with the video, your post tells me what I was always so curious/frustrated about in my acrylic blending. I get it now, so thanks. It's also good information about cyan, magenta and yellow. They, too appear to be a way of looking at primary colors. Thanks for your generosity.
After a very frustrating painting session with my wife the other evening, I spent this evening experimenting trying to get a good purple and just could not do it. Then I found your video and it is like night and day!
Now I'm just frustrated that the other color theory tutorial videos I've watched didn't explain this at all!
Thank you
Hey TheRawFoodMommy, thanks for your kind comments, pleased that the videos are helping you to understand the principles of colour mixing.
Thanks,
Will
Ahhh, I see. Now I know why my purple looks so muddy and nasty. Thanks so much for the info! This helped me alot😇
Wow! Now I know how to avoid colour errors when I'm painting in art class or in my own time and if I forget I just go and watch the video again to remember, thank Willkempartschool.
You are a great teacher Will! I really appreciate your informative videos. I really had no idea that mixing colors could be so complex. Makes sense why I mostly feel frustration in not getting the color I hope for. So very interesting! Thank you!
Cheers Robin, yes, there are a few different hidden elements when mixing paint colours but once you've got a good understanding of the basics you'll be away! really pleased you found it helpful.
Cheers,
Will
This is why making a color chart with your palette colors is a good idea and a good reference to have.
Wow! My herotofore unnoticed "Blue is Blue" mindset may have led to some muddy paintings...
+Adam Richards Hope it helps to get some fresh mixes in your paintings Adam.
Cheers,
Will
Hey Katherine,
Nice to hear from you.
The second red is Permanent Alizarin Crimson not a mix of Cadmium Red Medium and Alizarin Crimson.
I have added Cadmium Red Medium in the comment above by accident!
The Colours used: Titanium White, Cadmium Red Light, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Alizarin Crimson, Quinacridone Red
If you watch how to mix a pink video at the beginning I go through the colours used, which are the same for this video,
Sorry for the confusion,
Cheers,
Will
I learned more about color mixing in practical terms than in my color and 2-dimensional design class from college!!!! I never really understood the difference between ultramarine blue and pthalo blue! I'm getting back into painting and I've been watching your videos to understand color and painting with acrylics better. You have been a huge help!!!!!
Pleased you've been finding them helpful Stephen.
Cheers,
Will
So just yesterday I was trying to get a beautiful purple with ultramarine and cadmium red and I got a greyish poop color :P Extra helpful video, thanks so much!
@this1is1me There is a lot to remember when you first start, but the same principles pop up again and again, but it is just good fun mixing paint colours!
Thanks for this video. I never really understood why people were fussing so much about colour mixing. This video opened my eyes.
Wow! I started painting with acrylics a while ago but I never noticed the thing with the undertones! That's so amazing and I finally know what they are for!
Will Kemp is a must for beginners. My two biggest stumbling blocks in achieving great results are color mixing ( getting better) and brush techniques. These vids are indispensable and I found it is good to review them every 3-6 months because you will likely have a new Ahah! moment after practicing the idea that you thought was the one intended. Anyway that's what I found
Thanks so much James, very kind of you to say so. Keep well
Will
Even a nine yr old video is still helpful. Thanks Will.
Glad to help!
Thanks for the prompt reply Will! I love your painting tutorials since I learn so much from you compared to my painting teacher. So far, I've done all your tutorials and I hope you'll upload more in the near future. Thanks a lot and keep doing what you do! You are an inspiration! :))
so glad I stumbled upon your color mixing videos! It's been close to a decade since I last painted and this was an excellent refresher...lots of chromatic grays on my first palette which was NOT what I was going for, haha.
+skoofer pleased it helped Skoofer.
Cheers,
Will
The first WK video I ever caught, and Im back for a refreshment; this was the most eye opening, informative, impressive edu-vid I had run across, and led me to the ability to see other potential outcomes with other colors too. My college student son had begun painting. I refered him to the WKA website. Most watchable and knowledge packed.
Thanks so much for your kind comments Alaysia, much appreciated. Really glad you've been enjoying the videos, hope your son finds them helpful.
Will
Thank you, this is a great guide to understanding the colors and how they compliment each other. I'm glad I'm learning this now as a beginner.
Cheers
Pleased it helped with your colour mixing.
Cheers,
Will
NOW I finally know why I was getting muddy purples. THANKS!
Wow! I should watch all the videos so i learn a lot of different color and how to mix it. You are amazing ang fantastic teacher..
This explains why all the color I mix look "dead". Last time when I needed a purple, I ended up buying 6 different shades of purple just to get the color I need. Thank you.
kiunch You're welcome, pleased it helped.Will
Will, it is an absolute pleasure to watch and listen to your lessons. Thank You!
Kind of you to say so Karen, pleased you enjoyed it.
Will
The whole family got in on it. We did your landscape lesson. Very pleased with our outcomes.
Karen Jaggi Great that your family got involved aswell Karen.
Cheers,
Will
I'm so impressed with this phenomenonal understanding of the possibilities of mixing colours!
@IVMoMoIX
The music is by my friend Elly from Folding Stars. "Kinda sucked anyway"
If you click the show more tab above there's a link to her my space page.
Will
Amazing video. I've only taken a few basic art classes back in middle school and high school and I wanted to get back into painting. I always thought blue + red = purple because that's what I was taught! Had no idea colours even had a bias. The whole complimenting and muting of colours is still a bit confusing to me but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it, these videos and your article on colour mixing are very helpful. Cheers.
No purple can ever be nasty! Great video ..thanks.
Thank you sooooo much. As im at home because of the corona we didnt learn how to mix colours yet. But this helped me sooo much thank you!
So pleased you enjoyed it.
Cheers,
Will
I love you man. I was about to give up with paints because I just never understood the mixing. Thank you
magickittensjuju Thanks very much, pleased you enjoyed it and found it helpful in your paint mixing
Will
I've always found it hard to mix nice purple hues, ever since kindergarten - now I understand why! I never thought about the red and blue having undertones/that it would affect the outcome of the purple.
Thank you so much! This is exactly what I was trying to discover for what I did wrong! A whole lot of other videos were stating the obvious blue+red and that's it!
Cheers Elisa, hope it helped with your colour mixing,
Will
This was super helpful, thank you so much. I couldn't get why my purple wasn't looking right!
I was always making the first purple while I wanted the second one!!!
Thank you so much--this completely explains why some of my home-mixed colors are so muted. Incredibly helpful! Thank you!
wow! it's good to see theory in application. so many things to keep in mind when mixing
wow that is incredibly helpful, even if you don't have the exact shades used.
it's been over 10 years since you uploaded ths video and you're still helping people - ty so much
You're very welcome!
Cheers, great to hear you've been inspired!
Will
This is so satisfying to watch 🤗
Pleased you enjoyed it Pixie
Brilliant stuff Monica!
Glad it helped,
Will
Hi reilpfan, it's called a 'tear off palette' and is a disposable palette of 50 tear off sheets, the paper has a waxy surface to the paint mixes easy on it, then you can throw the palette away. (it saves on washing up!)
Will
Very useful video.
Ive been having trouble with making purple and this gave me some perspective on what I was doing wrong.
Glad it helped.
Will
Your videos are very useful. Thanks for making them.
Really pleased you found them helpful
Will
very helpful and fantastic colour fusion
Thank you so much. I am a beginner with painting, and I now understand it not only matters which color you are using, but also what KIND of color you are using. The undertone colors really affect the overall vibrancy of my painting.
So glad it was helpful!
Just starting to paint and for the life of me can't mix purple. This is brilliant!
Glad it helped Jane
Will
thank you very very much willkempartshcool, I learned a lot of useful stuff here! Stay awesome! :)
I will try this one ! really interesting and clear explanation.
Thank you sooo much for sharing your information. It would be great if sometime you would make a new video with labels on each color. For people that are newer to mixing keeping the reds straight is a big job. If they had names and possibly which way the bias. Two blues is a little bit of an issue as well but 6 colors is a lot lot lot ...lol
Thanks again! Happy painting 🎨🎨🎨
Hi Debrajo, in part 1 you can see labels for the colours ruclips.net/video/lGRRj8Wn_5w/видео.html the colours are listed in the 'show more' section under the video. Hope this helps.
Will
Good one Morgan, pleased you found it helpful to your colour mixing.
Will
Wow I have really learned something useful. thanks for your time making this video!
I thought I need a purple paint before.
Now I know that what I really need is another red paint!
Thanks Will, your videos and website are fantastic!
@bostonpollypen
For the canvas you're using you don't need to apply another coat of gesso as it has been pre-primed (this means a coat of gesso has already been applied in the factory.)
You can apply a coloured ground straight onto your canvas.
If you go to my website you can read a post I've written about gesso.
Hope this helps,
Will
I wasn't getting the purple I wanted and you explained how to get the purple I want now! Thanks so much :D
Excelent explanation.... I learned soo much, and I am really grateful. Thankyou. Many blessings.
You are so welcome Alexandra
U explain soo well!! Thank you so much
That info about the undertones was so useful!
Glad it was helpful!
this is amazing i now i understand why my colors almost always goes to a kind of brown puke color there are blue and stuff in black and so on ive ben to painting classes and they never showed me these hints thanks man now i have no reason for not start painting again thumbs up your the man
I just love this video! thanks a bunch!
Yuval Solomon Pleased you enjoyed it Yuval,
Cheers,
Will
I actually sat all afternoon to paint the still life cherry challenge :) came out OK, but i still haven't figured out the glazing technique. maybe it's because i didn't use the exact crimson (I used cadmium red light to mix with a bit of burnt amber to get the crimson effect) - it was too opaque.
Thanks!
Yuval
Pleased to hear it, glad the video helped your colour mixing!
Cheers,
Will
Great video. Thank you for your time to help us become better at painting.
+Anthoni Bennett Thanks Anthoni, really pleased you found it helpful.
Cheers,
Will
Fantastic to see this, very useful, thank you so much!
Glad it helped Laura
honestly this helped a lot! I now know what I was doing wrong to get the bright purple I was looking for , Thank you! :)
This helped me a lot though I am mixing colored clay to achieve the purple shade I want. :) - Heidi
Hey Howard,
Brilliant stuff! Glad the video was useful,
Cheers,
Will
This is definitely very helpful. Thank you!
And they are ALL beautiful wonderful colors. :)
SO interesting and helpful! Always love your indie background music, and your voice. Relaxing and truly a pleasure to watch. I took a college level painting (acrylic) class at a small school in the states, and never learned this much about mixing color. Seems like essential information for any beginning painter. Why buy Cobalt Violet when you can mix Quin Red, UltraMarine Blue and white, right? Many thanks.
I just love the brightness of quinacridone
Thanks a lot.It helped me sooooo much
This video really helped me understand the purples here in Appalachia
everything cleared! thanks!
thanks for the video :) i couldn't make a nice purple before and this really explained quite nicely ^^
Good one! really glad it's helped.
Will
now I know why I kept making a muddy color instead of purple thank you
No wonder I get this weird grey. Thank you so much for sharing 💞💞💞💞💞
My pleasure Naya
love the song and the info is good too
lucinda sara
This was so helpful and your accent is so nice to listen to! Thank you so much :)
Ruthy Stiles Thanks Ruthy, great to hear you enjoyed it.
Will
Woooooow thank u soo much finally I understand the since behind mixing and no more wasting color
Good one Tasnim, glad it helped.
Will
I just spent an hour trying to mix a vibrant purple without any luck so I thought I would punch in my problem on Google
and guess what ? you came to my rescue. Many thanks.
Howard
Can you help my confusions on white? I have read that to use white to mix it should be 'mixing'white? Thank you for all your very helpful videos.
It depends what you're trying to mix and how you paint, mixing white is less opaque so can be good for subtle shifts in colour, titanium white gives you more opacity if you're painting clean colours on top of each other. You might find this white paint tutorial of interest:ruclips.net/video/KrNDGgphn1c/видео.html
Cheers,
Will
Hi Rawfoodmummy,
Sorry I thought you meant Glaze, as in thin veil of colour rather than a glaze medium, something that you mix in with Acrylic paint.
I use water for 80% of the time in all my acrylic mixes, I do use a glaze medium but just when I want to blend colours towards the end of a painting.
Thanks,
Will
Hi Vinny, I haven't got a downloadable colour wheel at the moment but it's a great idea, i'll look to putting one on the site. If you google 'blank color wheel template' there is a range you can download,
Will
This was fascinating to watch!
elizabetch1 Good to hear you enjoyed it Elizabeth.
Cheers,
Will
Hi Will,
Your channel is amazing and helpful. You are a brilliant!! artist. Thank you for sharing.
best wishes kev :))
This helped so much! I just used the red and blue to make that nice bright purple for my painting =)
Awesome. Soooo helpful! Thank you!
Pleased it helped Uschi lou!
I was struggling for months now... Thank you for this
Great video, thanks a lot!
+Noemi Kovari You're welcome Noemi.
Cheers,
Will
Thank you so much. I was trying to make purple but it turned grey but after watching your video I got the purple I want….thank you
Fresht O That's brilliant to hear.
Cheers,
Will
Hey calin,
Yes if you look at the video at 5.43 you'll see me introduce Cobalt Violet which contains Dioxazine Purple, which is more saturated.
You can get very close by just using a limited palette and understand how colours work,
Thanks,
Will
Thanks teacher Kemp!
This really helped me a lot! Thanks~
Cheers Kevan,
Pleased the videos are helping,
Will
Thank you so much it's so helpful ❤️
Hi efarzaneh, if you click the 'show more' tab above all the colours are listed there,
Thanks,
Will