Color mixing!

[Psypomp]

.. With paint, anyway. Does anyone else sometimes have problems with this? In school today I was getting frustrated trying to mix a magenta, of all things.. and I basically got a dull brown.
What's your method, if any, for getting colors precise? I've gotten a lot of luck using lemon yellow hue to brighten up colors, but sometimes they still seem to be a bit off. I can't be the only one, right?

[DSillustration]

Some colors you can't mix.... you just need to buy them.
Like magenta for example.
Just try thinning out alizarin crimson or a rose madder.
Also, you'll notice that applying a transparent coat of alizarin that allows the white of the surface to show through, is NOT the same as mixing the alizarin with white.

BTW, my experience is in oils, though I'm sure it's pretty similar for acrylic too.

[Psypomp]

Some colors you can't mix.... you just need to buy them.
Like magenta for example.
Just try thinning out alizarin crimson or a rose madder.
Also, you'll notice that applying a transparent coat of alizarin that allows the white of the surface to show through, is NOT the same as mixing the alizarin with white.

BTW, my experience is in oils, though I'm sure it's pretty similar for acrylic too.

Thanks. I actually did use alizarin mixed with lemon yellow, but all I got was a really vibrant pink-red. I think I might try the glazing technique, but I'm still unsure it will be as vibrant as I wish it were.
I'm using oils too!

[Elwell]

The only way to get high chroma colors is to start out with high chroma colors. You won't be able to mix a red-purple that people would identify as magenta with, say, cadmium red and dioxazine violet, they're just too far apart in color space. Magenta is especially tricky because it's a non-spectral color. Alizarin is as close as you're going to get with most people's standard palette, but it looks positively dull next to the quinacridone pigments. The good news is that, unless you're a floral painter, high chroma red-purples are pretty rare.

[Elwell]

Thanks. I actually did use alizarin mixed with lemon yellow, but all I got was a really vibrant pink-red. I think I might try the glazing technique, but I'm still unsure it will be as vibrant as I wish it were.
I'm using oils too!

Yellow? You were going the wrong way around the color wheel.

[Twilight Ember]

Green. To get a good nice looking green. It seems like the easiest thing right, blue and yellow...but i can never get the right shade. IT drives me crazy.

[Blue]

The best bet is to pick up some small bottles of the more difficult colors to mix, things like Magenta, Burnt Sienna and Yellow Ocre for example. Then buy the bigger bottles of the prime colors and the most common in your palette. Something like a Terre Verte might last you a lifetime in a 21ml bottle, but Cadmium red or Payne's Gray will need to be replaced more often so a 37ml would make more sense. Exactly what colors depends on your workflow and what you utilize more.

But for sure buy a bunch of the tiny bottles to test drive them. last i looked 21ml was the smallest, but there may be smaller ones.

[Psypomp]

I'll try that, Blue, but I was hoping not to spend any more money than I have already..