Mixing Colors

These are some of my color swatches that I am mixing to create the 48 color Color Wheel for class. We are mixing the primary, secondary and tertiary colors, to get a total of 12, then adding white to make 12 tints, adding black to make 12 shades, adding the compliment to create 12 neutrals. What strikes me about mixing paints vs. dyes (which I have done a lot of in the past), is that the measuring is much more precise in my dyeing methods, and easier to reproduce the results. I suppose if I were mixing larger quantities of paints, I could figure out some formulas much like I do with my dyes, but for making the color swatches for this class, that won't really work.

Above, is a page out of my Dye Notebook, where I keep track of my dye formulas and fabric swatches. A few years ago, I did the 12 step color wheel with dyes, plus 12 tints and 12 shades, but I haven't done fabric samples using the compliment--which would be a fun experiment to do. The next time I get the dyes stuff out, I will have to try it.

New Year, New Class, New Blog

After being out of school for almost 18 years, I have decided to go back to school to pursue an Art Degree! I am currently enrolled in Art Practices I at CNM, and this is a secondary blog that I will be using to post my class work. My previous blog, www.enchanted-art.blogspot.com has been sadly under used for the past couple of years due to life drama, but I am also hoping to be making updates to that blog as well. It feels good to make art a more important focus on my life now, and I am enjoying the learning process in a classroom setting again. So far, we are focusing on mixing colors. Making a 12 step color wheel using acrylic paints, and then another 12 tints, 12 shades, and 12 with the complimentary of each of the original 12 colors. What has struck me so far, is the difference between mixing paints and mixing dyes for fabric dyeing (which I have done A LOT of over the past several years). When mixing dyes, I use a measured formula for each color--cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, etc. For mixing paints, it is more like adding a dab of this, and a drop of that.....Taking a little more time to get just the right mixture of the color to match the Master Color Wheel. But a great learning exercise. I will post pics soon of my progress thus far, but wanted to get the ball rolling with the blog today.