Home › Forums › The Learning Center › Color Theory and Mixing › Mixing a Transparent Dark Chocolate Brown?
- This topic has 7 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 7 months ago by t1barkode.
-
AuthorPosts
-
August 11, 2017 at 6:35 am #995246
I really need a transparent, non-granulating dark chocolate brown watercolor, but I haven’t been able to find one for sale that doesn’t contain black (which is not transparent). I tried mixing various transparent, non-granulating complementary watercolors and got all sorts of weird drab colors, but no nice dark chocolate brown. :confused: Does anyone know a color mixing recipe for dark chocolate brown?
I love mixed media!
August 11, 2017 at 7:08 am #1271812What colors do you have available? One route would be a transparent orange, red or higher-chroma brown, dulled and darkened with a bit of Phthalo Green or Blue.
Browns can be tricky to get the ‘just right’ color you want, because our eyes are very sensitive to small color variations in the ‘warm’ region of color space, but it certainly can be done.
August 12, 2017 at 5:43 am #1271815Chocolate brown is opaque color. It is unified and flat rather than transparent. And it has a little “white” into it. You might try tempera to mix it…
August 13, 2017 at 2:01 am #1271816Success! Thanks to Patrick’s tip about using a transparent orange and a green to make dark chocolate brown, I finally found a recipe for it:
W&N Perylene Green PBk31 (my darkest transparent green)
+
Daniel Smith Transparent Pyrrol Orange PO71 (my darkest transparent orange)
=
transparent non-granulating dark chocolate brown!I mixed some white in it to test and it looks like milk cocoa.
I tried using phthalo green, but it was just too easy to get too much because it is so strong.
I love mixed media!
August 14, 2017 at 6:06 am #1271813Good choice with Perylene Green – it’s much easier to use than Phthalo Greens. It’s a color I’ve always wanted to try…esp for all kinds of dark mixes. And yes – adding some white to that very dark mix will bring out the brownness.
Orange (or red) + green is perhaps my favorite way to mix a whole range of rich browns, but it’s a less common approach.
August 14, 2017 at 6:32 pm #1271817Perylene green is such a great mixing color! I also discovered that mixing it with perylene violet PV29 makes a nice transparent, non-granulating black, which will be the next custom mixture I add to my palette. I’m experimenting with iridescent watercolor ground and I’ve found that opaque watercolors mask the iridescence and granulating watercolors settle strangely into the ground texture, so transparent and non-granulating watercolors are the best for iridescent grounds.
I love mixed media!
August 20, 2017 at 11:34 pm #1271814I haven’t played around with this mix in a while, but what about transparent red oxide and anthraquinone blue?
In acrylic, I love Van Dyke brown hue. It consists of transparent red iron oxide and ivory black.
Edit: Oops, I’m sorry. . . I see you had success! Patrick is :thumbsup:
August 23, 2017 at 2:06 am #1271818I unfortunately don’t have transparent red oxide, but I do have a similar color, Quinacridone Burnt Orange (PO48), so I tried it with my Indanthrone Blue (a.k.a. anthraquinone blue PB60), and yes, I got a nice transparent dark brown. I’m happy to know multiple ways to get attractive transparent chocolate browns.
I love mixed media!
-
AuthorPosts
- The topic ‘Mixing a Transparent Dark Chocolate Brown?’ is closed to new replies.
Register For This Site
A password will be e-mailed to you.
Search