Many believe that mixing blue and red is enough to get purple paint, but if you've ever tried, you know it's not always that easy. To make the perfect purple - that is, an intense, pure, and nuance-free color - choose a red and blue with no green or yellow pigments, which can turn a beautiful purple into a mud-like brown or gray. Once you know how to get the perfect purple, tweak the hue by adding red, blue, white or even black to your mix.
Steps
Method 1 of 2: Create a Perfect Purple Paint
Step 1. Read the color labels to find the ones that contain less pigments
When trying to make purple, yellow or green pigments can be disastrous. For example, if a red paint contains yellow pigments, yellow will affect all the colors you try to achieve using that paint as a base.
Do this reasoning: when you mix yellow with purple, you get brown or gray. If there is yellow in the red or blue you have chosen to use, the same thing will happen
Step 2. Test red and blue to check their composition by mixing them with white
When a pure red (with no elements of yellow) is mixed with white, it should turn pink (and not peach). Pure blue paint that does not contain elements of green should turn sky blue when mixed with white.
When testing colors, you don't need to use a large amount of paint. Just a small drop is enough to mix two shades and observe the results
Advise:
clean your brush or palette knife with a piece of blotting paper when mixing colors, so you don't contaminate blue with red or vice versa.
Step 3. Choose paints that have no yellow or green undertones
Red paint with blue elements or a blue paint with red elements will do. By using colors that contain yellow pigments, purple will not be perfect, but it will resemble brown. Likewise, green pigments will make it look gray. Read the labels and test the colors by mixing them with white, in order to choose the right shades.
If you mix a blue paint with green pigments with a pure red, you get a dark purple that is more like gray than purple
Step 4. Use permanent pink and ultramarine to create pure purple
Mix these colors in equal parts. These two shades blend very well to create what art experts refer to as the "perfect purple". It will be the closest color to what you can get by purchasing a tube at the store. Permanent pink does not contain yellow elements, while ultramarine blue does not contain green.
You can replace permanent pink with quinacridone magenta and primary magenta
Method 2 of 2: Mix Different Shades of Violet
Step 1. Create the right shade by mixing small amounts of paint at a time
As a general rule, add small drops of the alternate shades to purple when you want to create a new color. It is easy to add more paint, while it is almost impossible to recover the original color if you overdo it.
For example, if you add white to a purple to make it lighter, don't use equal proportions of the two colors. Start with a small drop of paint, just enough to cover the tip of the palette knife, and use more as needed
Step 2. Add more blue than red
If your goal is to get a darker, richer and deeper purple, just increase the proportion of ultramarine to permanent pink. Add the blue little by little; it is easy to use more, but it is impossible to take it off once mixed.
You can also add a few drops of black to make the color even deeper. Be careful, too much black can cover up the purple
Step 3. Create a warmer shade of purple by adding more red to the mix
Once you have the perfect purple, gradually add red paint to create a lighter, warmer shade. Be careful to mix the colors evenly so that no red or blue remains.
Try adding a small amount of white paint to the mix if you want to sweeten the purple even more
Step 4. Mix permanent pink and cerulean blue to make dark purple
Always use a pure red, without yellow pigments. Cerulean blue has traces of green, but by mixing it with permanent pink you will get a purple with gray undertones.
The more cerulean blue you add, the darker the purple will be
Step 5. Mix cyan and magenta to make an electric purple
If you want a deep, vibrant purple, use cyan, which contains green elements, and magenta, a red-purple paint.
The more magenta you add, the closer the purple will be to pink
Step 6. Add white paint to purple to get a lighter shade
This is a very easy way to achieve beautiful light shades of purple, such as amethyst, lavender and pastel purple. Add a small drop of white to the end of the brush or palette knife and mix well with the purple.
If you've already made multiple shades of purple, it's fun to find out how they change when you add a little white
Step 7. Use small amounts of black paint to get darker shades of purple
You can make imperial purple, purple, heliotrope, and other shades by adding small amounts of black to various types of purple. Black can cover a color very quickly, so add it progressively in small doses until you get the hue you want.
Try this tip:
create a gradient of colors that show the various shades you get when you mix different quantities and types of paints; you can use it when you need to create a specific shade in the future.
Step 8. Modify a store-bought purple with white to create the various shades of purple
If you don't have the pure blue and red needed to get the perfect purple at home, you can use a store-bought tube and white paint to make a range of purple types. Put a few drops of purple on the palette and gradually add small amounts of white to get lighter shades.
Don't be afraid to experiment with other colors too! Although yellow makes purple brown, you can try others. You risk nothing and you will learn something
Advice
- Learn how to mix all colors for various shades for your art projects.
- Create enough purple to complete the project you are working on. It can be very difficult to replicate a color you're using from scratch, so it's better to prepare too much rather than too little.
