How to paint a colour chart with six colours – part four

Before you start with part four of How to paint a colour chart with six colours, make sure that you have completed part one, part two and part three of the series How to paint a colour chart with six colours. Download the free template here and print it out on thick white paper that will absorb water.

You will be needing the following colours to complete part four of the series.

-Cadmium Red
-Cadmiun Yellow
-Ultramarine Blue
-Black
-White

Have some scrap paper to hand to check your colours before you apply them to your template. Use some tissue paper to dry off your brush when you clean it.

Step 1. Mix a middle orange from Cadmium Red to Cadmium Yellow. Make sure it matches the colour from your colour chart you made mixing the warm primary colours together. Paint this colour in the top two boxes. Make enough of this colour orange so that you can mix half with some black and the other half with some white.

Black and White are very powerful and change your colours considerably.

Step 2. Take some of your middle orange and mix some black into it. Paint this in the first box. Carry on down adding more black until you get to the last box, which is painted pure black. Obviously the colour you will get depends on the ratio of paint that you use. Again be careful, black and white are very powerful.

Step 3.  Start with your middle orange and now add white, ending with pure white in the last box.

Step 4. The next colour we will be mixing is the middle green which is made from the warm colours in your previous colour chart. Mix and paint this colour in the top two boxes. By mixing a small amount of black in to this colour you will see it change dramatically. Fill it in all the way down to the last box which is painted black.

Step 5. Repeat the same process now adding the white to your green mix and fill in all the boxes.

Step 6. The last row is the purple mix from your previous colour chart. Make sure you get the medium colour of Cadmium Red and Ultramarine Blue, check this on your scrap paper. Be very careful with Ultramarine Blue as it is very strong. Repeat the process ending with pure black and white in the last two boxes.

And there you have it. Three warm primary colour mixes with black and white. These can be used for shadows and highlights.

In part five of How to paint a colour chart we will be mixing the three cool primary colours with black and white. Make sure to download the template DAB-colour-chart-part-04a and print it out on thick white paper that will absorb water.