Tip of the Day: Paint Mixing

Bill Perkins Demonstrating at the workshop

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I learned a lot of things during the three days I spent painting with Bill Perkins. One very simple tip that Bill shared with us had to do with mixing just the right tint or shade of paint. Have you ever been mixing up a nice batch of the perfect color? Perfect except it needs just a touch of Thalo green or some other color to make it just right? What happens next always frustrates me. You get just a touch of Thalo on the end of your brush and mix it into your lovingly mixed color pile and WHAM, the whole thing becomes this pea green mess instead of that cool shadow flesh color you intended. You scrape your palette and begin again. Frustration. Well, never again, and I will tell you the solution that Bill gave us. DON'T mix the Thalo (or whatever) right into your batch of paint! First take a little of the tinting color and mix it with your white in a separate pile until it reaches the same value as your desired color and then mix a bit of this new color into your paint. The values are the same, so you won't risk absolutely killing the color you worked to get right in the first place. When Bill said this, I went DUH! It's amazing how you can work for so many years and still learn new techniques and concepts. The more I know, the more realize that I don't know about painting. Keep on learning!