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  • Writer's pictureMichael Skalka

Complementary Colors

Summary: Primary pigments used to make complementary colors need to be selected with care to avoid hue biases that can thwart making as neutral a grey color as possible.


One of the most popular exercises when learning to mix colors is the concept of complementary colors. When arranged properly, hues on the opposite side of a color wheel display which colors when combined will neutralize each other and display a “grey” appearance. 


Primary Pigments Mixed to Make Complementary Colors


Some instructors label this exercise as “making mud.”  The final result of all the mixing yields a dull, dirty grey-brown hue.  Ironically, we are also told to avoid making mud since the outcome of making mud creates a dead-looking painting. But it is not all that simple. In many instances, colors need to be muted to some extent to address values and fidelity to what is being depicted.


Pigments straight out of the tube lean toward high vibrancy (chroma).  If our painting style has a foundation in high chroma colors, we embrace the fact that many pigments are vibrant. However, as plein air painters, high chroma is a force that can fight against the notion of a realistic depiction of nature.  High chroma zooms along at 100 miles per hour while in plein air, the pace is akin to a stroll.  


When ramping down or greying color is a tool that an artist uses often, the related concept of color bias comes into play that makes complementary mixing easier to accomplish.  Without considering color bias, making grey out of complementary colors becomes a fight with a lot of energy expended making color bend to our will.

Experimenting with s variety of complementary color mixes reveals some interesting results. If an artist selects certain mixing complements, the task of making neutral grey hues is easier and far more satisfying. 


After examining a number of websites that discuss and illustrate complementary colors, the results I achieved in my own testing were very similar. Like any website search, crowd-sourced information provides several well-thought-out arguments and a host of wacky ways that color mixing is understood and manifested.


Ultramarine Blue and Cadmium Orange: Mixing these two pigments creates a range of warm or cool grey hues.  The mixing is simple and without surprises. Adding white brings out the grey tones and allows the color to be altered to one's taste.  Cadmium Orange has sufficient “redness” to provide warmth to a mixture. Ultramarine Blue has both enough of a green component and red (warmth) to amplify the neutrality of mixtures.  (See the Syntax of Color section on the spectra of all of the complementary mixes discussed in this essay.  Click here to get to the section.)


Cadmium Red and Emerald Green: Mixing these two pigments provides the greyest and coolest “mud” mixture. Nothing on a spectral level is dominant in the mixture of these two pigments. The bit of higher green bias in the Emerald Green can be overcome by the well-known strength of Cadmium Red to yield a grey mixture.  Interestingly, a warm grey is harder to achieve with these two pigments.


Cadmium Yellow Light and Violet: The problem child is Cadmium Yellow Light and most any other violet pigment that is available to artists.  My first trial was with Cadmium Yellow Light and Manganese Violet. The Manganese Violet is so warm that any mixture yields a light beige-brown hue. The same test was done using Cobalt Violet, Dioxazine Violet, and Quinacridone Violet. Cobalt Violet created a greenish-grey. Dioxazine Violet and Quinacridone Violet displayed a similar light beige to light brown hue.  The issue occurring “behind” the scene spectrally is that all the violet pigments are biased toward red so that when mixed with yellow they tend to lean toward orange. The final result when mixed with white is warm light orange-brown rather than a warn grey.


A blue violet hue would be even worse.  It would be biased toward making green-grey mixtures. However, with a bit more effort, Dioxazine and Cobalt Violet one can learn to manipulate these two pigments to make some wonderful warm grey colors.


Also, note that the same violet pigments were used with Cadmium Yellow Medium and Cadmium Yellow Dark. The outcome was similar in all cases. Cadmium Lemon did not perform any better.


One of the “cheats” available to artists is to incorporate a bit of grey colored paints that are made by several color makers. A touch of them can dull down a mixture if a warm or cool grey with some depth and richness is required.  Everyone has their own strategy for mixing colors. Awareness of some of the underlying spectral differences in pigments can make the task a bit easier.


The Syntax of Color.

 

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