Friday, May 22, 2009



A little page of gray-making. I seem to have the best luck with blue-orange combos (at least these appeal to me the most) ... and should stay away from yellow-violet ones! The cadmium yellow + manganese violet swatch produced a not-too-bad beige when watered down, but the aureolin + ultramarine violet swatch is frightening! well, maybe it'd do for storms at sea then.
Does anyone has a yellow-violet combination that produces a nice neutral?

4 comments:

JoAnn said...

No matter which browser I use (I have tried three), your photos of the grays are not showing up.

Barbara Muir said...

Hi Laura,

I love these studies. I have always avoided grey. It seems to me that ultramarine and burnt sienna make a good grey. It sounds like the joke "how many psychiatrists does it take to change a lightbulb?
One -- but the lightbulb has to really want to change." So how many
colours does it take to make a grey, when you aren't crazy about grey?

You are a great painter.

Take care,

Barbara

Anonymous said...

Laura, I love reading about and seeing other artists colour mix preferences and charts....Although I don't usually have any problems creating grey, (or rather mud) without any planning or forethought!!!!!
Maggie

Suzanne McDermott said...

A gazillion treys though I can't recommend any yellow and violet mix for sure so far away from my studio. However.. I'll suggest an M. Graham Azo yellow, Cobalt Blue and quinacridone Rose.

Also, you probably have this book but go to Jeannie Dobie's Making Color Sing for a great treatment on greys.