Welcome!
You might find searches here more successful by starting from google. I googled “mix payne’s gray in oil paint” and got a few hits:
Making Payne’s Gray [Archive] – WetCanvas
https://www.wetcanvas.com › WetCanvas › The Learning Center › Color Theory and Mixing
Dec 17, 2001 – 7 posts – ‎3 authors
[Archive] Making Payne’s Gray Color Theory and Mixing. … or is it just trial and error? I’m thinking more on the oil paint line if that helps any.
Tell me about Payne’s Grey 6 posts Dec 29, 2013
Gray glazing recommendations 13 posts Jul 28, 2010
what’s your preferred method of greying down colors? 50 posts Nov 10, 2007
Neutral gray–What’s the target? 35 posts Feb 5, 2003
More results from https://www.wetcanvas.com

and this one
http://mariesartjourney2.blogspot.com/2009/08/why-use-paynes-gray.html
which you might find helpful. Best wishes!

The easiest, most common approach, would be black + a bit of Ultramarine Blue. By varying how much blue you add, you control the balance toward bluer or more neutral. But…if it’s a color you use often, mixing it up constantly yourself can be a chore. It’s probably best to just search until you hopefully can find a brand that’s just the right color you want.

BTW, I was recently thinking about buying Paynes Gray – what do people use it for? I guess can be used as both black, and as a very dull blue…esp mixed with yellows to make dull greens. Maybe underpainting sketching.

Hi Soupcan,

Since you’re using WN watercolour Prussian Blue, Burnt Sienna, and Yellow Ochre as your palette, Payne’s Greay seems to me a good fit. Payne’s Grey by Winsor and Newton Watercolour is a convenience mixture made from PB15+PBk6+PV19, which are as follows:

PB15 = Phthalo Blue red shade( a reddish-blue);
PBk6 = Lamp Black, (a black with slight blue undertone);
PV19 = Quinacridone Violet, (a red-violet).

Different Manufacturers use different component paints for their Payne’s Grey, and Mr Payne himself all those years ago reportedly used a mixture of Iron Blue (aka Prussian Blue), Yellow Ochre and a Crimson Lake. So he could shift his “neutral” around as he needed. As a strategy you could keep using the Payne’s Grey, and tweak it with just a touch of another paint to shift it the tiny bit to warmer or cooler.

I see your limited palette has a very tight gamut, lovely tube paints, very classic. So, in a way it probably would be relatively easy to pre-mix a neutral pool from these with practice. But Payne’s Grey also makes a great blue in a limited palette. It’s often used very dilute for stormy skies and oceans where its blue undertone becomes apparent.

But with the three tubes you are using, I think you might find it useful to include Winsor and Newton’s Permanent Rose as your red-violet ~ as this paint has a much stronger, higher colourfulness and is more “red” than the wonderful Burnt Sienna. Then you would, I think, be able to tweak your Payne’s Grey as you would wish more efficiently and easily, and also as an option be better set up to mix and manage your own neutral. So, a touch of Permanent Rose to Payne’s Gray, or a touch of Prussian Blue to your Payne’s Grey as you would need it. Cheers!

The easiest, most common approach, would be black + a bit of Ultramarine Blue. By varying how much blue you add, you control the balance toward bluer or more neutral. But…if it’s a color you use often, mixing it up constantly yourself can be a chore. It’s probably best to just search until you hopefully can find a brand that’s just the right color you want.

BTW, I was recently thinking about buying Paynes Gray – what do people use it for? I guess can be used as both black, and as a very dull blue…esp mixed with yellows to make dull greens. Maybe underpainting sketching.

I use it for black and also for a very cool gray (mixed with white, of course). DaVinci is the brand of acrylic I use

BTW, I was recently thinking about buying Paynes Gray – what do people use it for? I guess can be used as both black, and as a very dull blue…esp mixed with yellows to make dull greens. Maybe underpainting sketching.

I use it in three ways:

[*]To create a value scale whenever I feel that black or umbers aren’t ideal.
[*]Lazy shadows. By that I mean I glaze it to create shadows.
[*]Monochrome paintings. I just love the look it gives. Another convenience mixture that is great for monochrome paintings is sepia, which has almost the opposite look