[Guy]

did you do a search for that stuff online? im sure there must be someting. i dont know of any books at all. what do you need to know exactly? just how to mix colours to get other colours?

[Bugscratch]

Right, mixing colours to get a specific other colour, and maybe a little bit on overall colour design, like lighting of a setting and such.
I know I could just buy some stuff at amazon, but I'd like some recommendations from folks here in the forum first....

-bugscratch

[Guy]

well ill tell you what i can. save your money

well do you know the primary and secondary colours? ill just assume you dont and tell you now. your primary colours for paint and pencil crayon and all that type of stuff is Red, Yellow and Blue. now these are the 3 most important colours. basicaly these are the only colours you need. these colours will give you your secondary colours when mixed. so if you mix red and yellow you get orange. when you mix yellow and blue you get green and finaly. when you mix blue and red you get violet(or purple. whatever you wish to call it). but if you mix 2 seconday colours you get a muddy colour. but if you mix a primary and a secondary you get something called an intermediate colour. like if you mix yellow and orange. you get an yellow-orange. pretty stright forward.

something you could do to help yourself remember all these is to make a colour wheel. so for something quick, just make 6 boxes that form a circle sorta, doesnt have to be perfect or anything. then in the top box just paint a pure red into it. then skip one box and paint a yellow in that one, then skip another box and paint a blue into that one. following so far? good ... now take some red and yellow paint and mix it together and now paint that into the box in between the red and yellow one. then after that mix some yellow and blue and paint that in between the yellow and blue boxes and same for the blue and red. hope that made sence and i hope this is what you were wanting to know

[This message has been edited by Guy (edited January 07, 2001).]

[Bugscratch]

Well, I already picked up that much in school. The main problem that I was fighting with was that I was trying to paint an area in a slightly blue, light green. But all I managed to acchieve were different tones of blue greys and blue....

-bugscratch

[Guy]

oh ok hehe. thought you might have known that much already, just making sure though

hmm well i dont know, just keep adding more yellow. i dont know

here are some links i quickly searched. i dont know if there is really anything of value in them www.writer2001.com/inxcolor.htm
www.tinmangallery.com/WcolourTheory.html
www.curtin.edu.au/curtin/dept/art/theory/theory.html

[This message has been edited by Guy (edited January 07, 2001).]

[Bugscratch]

Thanks for the advice and the links. Those really help a lot. This inability to mix colours is really bugging me, since I need to do some colour stuff for my university application.
Thanks again,

-bugscratch

[Ben Barker]

You can also check out some stuff on Eni Oken's website. She writes a lot of articles and has written several ebooks on color.
Plus her stuff kicks ass.
http://www.oken3d.com

[Bugscratch]

Yes, I love Okens work. She's one of my favorite 3D artists.

[Bugscratch]

Painting an acrylics painting for my parents a few weeks ago I noticed just how bad I suck at mixing colours. It turned out pretty nice, but far from what I was trying to acchieve.
So can anyone recommend any good books on colour theory, mixing colours and learning how to draw in colour. Nothing that talks for endless hours on the subject, but nothing too basic either.

Thanks a lot,

-bugscratch

[waylon]

I found a lovely little book called "Keys to Successful Color" by Foster Caddell. It mostly deals with color in landscape paintings, but it can still be applied to a lot of situations.

Dear lord! I just looked on amazon.com, and that book is really freaking expensive new! See if you can find it at a used bookstore, or at your local library. It's a good book, but not worth $100!

[Quinnbeast]

The problem you have with not being able to mix the right tones/colours you want is partly down to the acryilcs themselves. Some colours just don't mix as well as they should, due to the man made pigment used to produce them.

If you were to try making a purple by mixing a basic blue and red together..and then compair it to a mid purple staright out of a tube, you'll see what I mean. Now this can be said of any media, but it's far more obvious with acrylic paint. Depending on cash, the only real way around it is to buy extra colours as and when you need them. The bigger the collection of paints, the more accurately you'll be able to mix them.

I personally try and use my oils whenever I can, because the colours mix far better and give a richer finish that the acrylics (bit of triva for you there)

[quaternius]

For Acrylics you want to take a look at Stephan Quiller's books, esp. "Acrylic Painting Techniques". He's created a color wheel based on pigments and how they actually work, rather than simply color theory. Great stuff.

Seems like I provided someone with some tips on acrylics before, you might check under "quaternius" in the archives. Something in there may be of help, or not.

What pigments/colors are you using? Maybe that's part of the problem, as mentioned by others.

Q

[quaternius]

Hmm.. when I was asking about colors/pigments you used I meant your actual color selections, like cadmium yellow pale, etc. Sorry for not being clearer.

I'll put some info. up on my Tripod site in another week or so and you can check back.

Q

[Bugscratch]

Yes, I guess I'll have to take a look at oil paints in the near future.....I like the oil "finish" better as well, but I never used oil paints because they dry out so slowly.

quaternius, I'm using mostly Daler-Rowney system3 / cryla paints, and some Schmincke paints I have left.

And thanks for the book recommendations everyone, I'll be sure to check those out.

-bugscratch

[Bugscratch]

I'm sorry, I was wondering whether you meant the pigments or the companies, but I decided on the companies
So here are the pigments I have lying around:
(In no particular order)

Burnt Umber
Mars Black
Titanium White
Cadmium green tone
Zinc White
Cadmium Red Light
Raw Umber
Phtalo Blue
Process Yellow
Phtalo Green
Cadmium Red Deep
Permanent Lemon Yellow
Ultramarine

Hope that's what you meant.

-bugscratch

[quaternius]

I just put a few things up on my Tripod site that might be of some help. Look in the tutorials section.
good luck.

Q

------------------
-Quaternius
http://quaternius.tripod.com/Forum
[email protected]

[Bugscratch]

Hmm.... I get a 404 error

-bugscratch

[quaternius]

Hmmm... I wonder what's going on. I just went in to check and it came up fine for me. http://quaternius.tripod.com/Forum/

If it doesn't work for you I give up. It may be just one more thing in an ongoing series of problems with Tripod. I think I'll just move everything over to the Geocities account in a few weeks.

Q

------------------
-Quaternius
http://quaternius.tripod.com/Forum
[email protected]

[quaternius]

Woah! You can get to my Tripod site by clicking on the link I provided, but when you try to cut and paste or just type in the URL in your address line Tripod won't let you in. That really sucks.

I'm movin' stuff over to my geocities account this weekend!

Q

[Bugscratch]

Works now, and is definitely going to help. Thanks a lot.

all the best,
-bugscratch