Making Sepia

[Deborah Robinson]

I am wondering what colors in acrylic people use to create Sepia. I use Liquitex High Viscosity Acrylics. I was thinking perhaps Raw Sienna with a bit of Raw Umber. :confused:

Blumoon
https://www.deborah-robinson.com/fine-art/
https://www.facebook.com/DeborahRobinsonArtist/
"Art is an outsider, a gypsy over the face of the earth." ~ Robert Henri

[Patrick1]

Sepia is just a very dark (blackish) brown, right? One easy way to mix it is to add a small amount of black (or ultramarine blue if you don’t have black) to burnt umber. If you don’t have burnt umber, then burnt sienna should work.

[Einion]

A good question and one I wish we would see more of for those looking to mix their own versions of common convenience colours.

As Patrick says above sepia is a very dark brown, nearly black in actual fact, and is commonly a mix of black with a brown or red earth. You can mix it to be transparent and cleaner in undercolour or opaque and duller in undercolour, depending on which you prefer, by choosing the black and the earth appropriately.

I would tend to mix this myself using Burnt Umber and Mars Black so that it is quite opaque but if you want a transparent colour for glazing use Ivory Black and a transparent red earth, but a lot depends on the colours you have in your palette of course.

Einion

Do you know if your colour is off in hue, value, chroma... or all three?

Colour Theory & Mixing forum WetCanvas Glossary Search Tips Advanced Search Acrylics forum Acrylics - Information Kiosk

[Deborah Robinson]

Thank you for your help. I was thinking after I posted this, that maybe it was a dumb question. I suppose it is a darker shade than I was picturing in my mind, so I shall take your suggestions, and do some experimenting. Thaks again for taking the time to answer.

Blumoon
https://www.deborah-robinson.com/fine-art/
https://www.facebook.com/DeborahRobinsonArtist/
"Art is an outsider, a gypsy over the face of the earth." ~ Robert Henri

[Lynxes123]

Sometimes I like to experiment just mixing up primary colors to see what I can come up with. I just mix red and green to make different shades of brown and it seems weird that you can mix yellow and purple and come up with almost black.
Lynxes123

[FONT=Book Antiqua]Lynette
if only i had the time..to PAI[/COLOR]N[/COLOR]T everything in my mind!
~ My Blog[/URL] ~ My Ebay ~

[Einion]

it seems weird that you can mix yellow and purple and come up with almost black.

That’s hardly surprising, yellow and purple are nearly complementary colours so they should mix a grey or near-black

Ain’t it wonderful what you can discover just experimenting with colour? Try purple with a dark green, I’m sure you’ll be surprised at what you get there too.

Einion

Do you know if your colour is off in hue, value, chroma... or all three?

Colour Theory & Mixing forum WetCanvas Glossary Search Tips Advanced Search Acrylics forum Acrylics - Information Kiosk

[Lynxes123]

Ain’t it wonderful what you can discover just experimenting with colour? Try purple with a dark green, I’m sure you’ll be surprised at what you get there too.

Hmmm, you just gave me a good reason to get out my paints today and do a little experimenting. It’s especially helpful to know how to mix colors from the 3 primary colors of red, yellow, and blue when you are short on money and can’t afford to buy a lot of different colors of paint (like me right now, LOL). Thanx
Lynxes123

[FONT=Book Antiqua]Lynette
if only i had the time..to PAI[/COLOR]N[/COLOR]T everything in my mind!
~ My Blog[/URL] ~ My Ebay ~

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