Thursday, November 5, 2020

Eight-Gray Test

Grays are anything but dull and neutral. They’re the subtle chef’s sauce, the unifying ingredient, of any color scheme. And there are many ways to make them.


Here's what I used for this array of eight swatches:
 
Top row
TB: Transparent black made from Ivory black tinted with water to a middle gray
T3: Transparent blend of Cadmium Yellow Light, Quinacridone Rose, and Phthalo Blue.
T3A: Transparent blend of Cadmium Yellow Light, Pyrrole Red, and Ultramarine Blue.
LT: Three layers of transparent color: Cadmium Yellow light, Quinacridone Rose, and Phthalo Blue. Be sure to let each layer dry before adding the next one.

Bottom row
OB: Opaque black tint, from ivory black tinted with titanium white and warmed with a little yellow and red.
O3: Opaque gray made from a blend Cadmium Yellow Light, Quinacridone Rose, and Phthalo Blue, lightened with Titanium White rather than being thinned with water.
O3A: Opaque gray made from a blend of Cadmium Yellow Light, Pyrrole Red, and Ultramarine Blue, lightened with Titanium White rather than being thinned with water.
LTA: Three separate layers of Cadmium Yellow Light, Pyrrole Red, and Ultramarine Blue. Note how the gray is more active than the others, with colors vibrating.

Try it Yourself
Make a middle-value gray swatch with black tinted with water. The goal is to match that particular note with seven other grays made with different ingredients. 
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Share your results with the free Facebook Group Color in Practice.
Learn more in my Gumroad tutorial TRIADS: Painting with Three Colors.






2 comments:

Susan Krzywicki said...

There is not a color here that is not gorgeous, and heart-warming. Thank you.

Daulat Neupane said...

You put it precisely, Greys are the subtle chef's sauces. Greys of the right temperature never look dull. It's amazing how using greys of inappropriate temperature can throw off the overall warm-cool balance of the image. In my experience, for every painting, being able to mix appropriate greys to match the temperature contrasts specific to that particular scene often produces the most coherent paintings.