My work week would start with about three hours of color mixing and matching. Using the original painting as a guide, I premixed 15-25 colors in large quantities and saved those colors in metal tins. I would then paint all week, remixing those same colors the next week, until the order had been filled. The colors had to match perfectly from week to week. It was like an oil painting assembly line but the experience I gained was invaluable.

My hope is to share both what I learned then and what I’ve learned since about matching colors below.

Reasons to Match Colors through Mixing

There are several reasons a painter might need or want to mix an exact match.

• To repair a damaged painting.
• To complete an unfinished area from a previous painting session.
• To match colors from an observed subject.
• The subject of a painting has a distinct and familiar color.

Matching Paint to Paint

The first variable to consider when matching a color is the paint itself. For example, tempera and gouache paints dry lighter in value than they appear when wet. This characteristic complicates color matching. When using these paints, I prefer to repaint passages with a fresh mixture over trying to match wet color with dry color. If that’s not possible (in the case of retouching), then expect more trial and error with theses paints. Mix slightly darker values than desired. Wait for test swatches to dry before making adjustments to the mixture.

Dry acrylic and oil paint colors more closely correlate with their wet counterparts so they are less frustrating to match. (I use oil paint in the video below.)

Choosing Pigments

Starting with the right pigments is essential to matching colors through mixing. I like to have as few colors on my palette as possible. Less colors means that I am more likely to remember or even guess what I mixed together in the past to arrive at a certain color. This improves my chances of matching a color.

What works for me is using both warm and cool primary colors. A combination of warm and cool primaries offers enough options to match nearly any color. Using primaries simplifies the process and is a key to becoming a master of color control.

The pigments I recommend are as follows:

• Warm Primaries: Cadmium red medium, Cadmium Yellow Medium and Ultramarine blue
• Cool Primaries: Alizarin Crimson, Chrome Yellow and either Cerulean Blue (for landscapes) OR Phthalo Blue

Besides these primary colors, I keep Titanium white (the whitest white) on my palette. I try to avoid using any black at all.

*PRO TIP – each color added to a mixture results in a duller mixture. If, while attempting to match a color, the mixture becomes markedly duller than the target color, then the mixture is likely a failure and the artist should start over. Attempting to “bring a color back” often results in even greater waste. It is better to waste a little than a lot.

The Color Matching Process

Step to Matching Colors with Paint

1. Identify the hue of a color from the color wheel. Each color is more or less like the 12 colors on the wheel. Even brown and grey colors lean toward a hue. Often browns lean more toward orange or red. Grays sometimes lean toward blue, green or purple. Forcing myself to name the hue that I see gives me a starting point. So if a brown leans toward orange, it is an orange in my mind. Start there.
2. Mix the hue that you see from the primaries, if it is not a primary. Don’t use both the cool and warm options of a single hue in your mixture. That is, don’t use both Cadmium Red and Alizarin Crimson in the same mixture.
3. As required, use white in your mixture to reach the approximate value of the color target.
4. Once the base hue is identified and mixed, use the complement of that hue to manage/reduce the brightness of the mixture until reaching the desired color. The ability to use complementary relationships to control color intensity is the single most important skill to learn as a colorist. Complementary pairs are red/green, blue/orange, yellow/purple.

*PRO TIP – To better judge whether two colors match, those colors need to “touch” one another, whether on the palette or the canvas. Subtle differences are revealed as soon as two colors come together.

Matching the Color of the Subject

Matching a previously mixed color is one thing, but what about matching the color of a subject; a sky, a face, a piece of fruit? The disadvantage in this case, is that the artist cannot always touch their color mixtures to their target colors.

But I have good news – it is the twenty-first century. I believe in taking advantage of technology to advance my painting. Often, I’ll photograph my subject and import it into Photoshop (or another photo editing program).  I’ll then take samples of the certain colors using the eyedropper tool. After printing these swatches, I’m then able to match my colors directly to those swatches (see the demonstration video above).

Sherwin-Williams created an app that does the same thing. The app matches the colors of a photograph to paint colors offered by Sherwin-Williams in an effort to sell their paints. To use this app and others like it with artist’s paint, just take a screenshot of the apps swatches, print the screen shot and start matching color.

The Relativity of Color

Remember, color is relative just like height. I like to stand next to shorter people to make myself look taller (I’m not tall). Similarly, the artist can manipulate a color’s appearance with its surrounding colors. If a color is matched well but looks wrong in the painting, then the problem could be the surrounding colors.

The Secret Weapon of Color Matching – Shhh!

Some opaque paints, like oils and acrylics, offer an opportunity for color correction even after the colors have dried. The technique for doing so is called glazing.

A glaze is a thinned down, transparent solution that acts as a filter over a painting. You can brighten a color by glazing over it with it’s own hue or dull a color by glazing over it with its complementary hue.

Conclusion

Color is like icing on a cake. It may add to the painting, but without it you still have a cake. Value is the cake. Without it you have nothing. So take some pressure off of yourself when it comes to color matching. Get your colors close but your values perfect.

We’ll answer these questions and maybe a few more. A working concept of oil and acrylic paints will help the reader understand the properties of water mixable oil paint. If you have never painted before, this article will still help you decide if water-mixable-oil-paints are a suitable option for you.

What is Water-Mixable Oil Paint?

In short, water mixable oil paint is oil paint that has been modified to accept water as a solvent instead of, or in addition to, more volatile organic solvents such as mineral spirits and turpentine. One way to modify the paint is to change the binder (oil) on a molecular level so the oil itself is more hydrophilic. Another way to modify oil paint is to formulate a paint mixture that includes a surfactant of some sort. A surfactant is basically soap. The paint featured in this article’s accompanying video is Winsor-Newton’s Artisan paint. It utilizes the latter method described above.

How Does Water Mixable Oil Paint Compare to Other Artist Paints?

Throughout the Middle Ages, Western artists used egg tempera paint. Egg tempera is water mixable but not as deep and rich in color as oil paint. Oil paint came into being during the early Renaissance, giving artists an opportunity to create a wider range of value and intensity, resulting in more realistic representations. From that time onward, oil paint has been the “king of artist’s paints”. Today, watercolor and acrylic paint are also popular paint media.

Watercolor is entirely transparent and does not compare to oil paints. Acrylic paint, developed in the mid 20th century, was meant as an alternative to oil paint. Like oil paint, acrylic paint is opaque but can be thinned to create translucent glazes. The similarities end there. Oil paint dries slowly. Acrylic paint dries fast. Oil paint is thick and buttery. Acrylic paint is less dense. Oil paint generally looks the same whether wet or dry. Acrylic paint shrinks a bit when it dries, causing impasto strokes to flatten out.

After making a painting with water mixable oil paint for the first time, I believe that it is the best alternative to traditional oil paint. To be sure, acrylic paint has some special properties that make it a worthy paint medium unto itself. However, if one is looking for a traditional oil paint substitute, then water mixable oil paint is the way to go.

Usage

The techniques used to create this article’s accompanying image include direct painting, wet-into-wet, scumbling and glazing. I found that water mixable oil paint worked and felt like traditional oil paint from start to finish. Some oil painters use a medium to control the viscosity of their paints. Water mixable mediums are available in addition to the paints. Both a medium and water will thin water mixable oil paint.

Water mixable oil paint also mixes well with traditional oil paints and mediums, but the water solubility of the paint is reduced as a greater ratio of traditional materials are introduced.

PROS and CONS

The pros and cons of using water mixable oil paint are subjective. The characteristics below are a determining factor for some artists.

We’ll begin with the pros:

Less fumes – I have never been bothered by the smells and fumes associated with traditional oil paint. Quite the opposite in fact. However, many people are either highly sensitive to the fumes of traditional solvents or they don’t have a place to paint with adequate ventilation. In either case, water mixable oil paint is a great alternative. Water mixable oil paint is particularly appropriate to use in a class/school setting. When an entire room full of painters have open jars of turpentine and traditional mediums, the fumes are overpowering.

Dries Slowly – This characteristic of water mixable oil paint is the most subjective. Artists that prefer to use many layers in a single painting session want paint that dries quickly. These artists may find that they prefer acrylics. Generally speaking, water mixable oil paint is dry to the touch in about 4-8 hours and is fully dry in about two days depending on thickness, temperature and humidity.

For artists that feel like acrylics dry too quickly and oil paint dries too slowly, water mixable oil paint is a dream come true.

Cleans-up with water – Perhaps the most attractive feature of water mixable oil paint is that it cleans up with only water. This is advantageous for reasons other than fume management.

Painting on location – Since the Impressionist period, oil painters have enjoyed painting outside, often referred to as plein air painting. Carrying oil painting materials up trails and over hills is cumbersome. By not having to carry special solvents the artist can lighten his or her load. Just one container can carry the water needed for painting, cleaning brushes and even drinking. Water is everywhere, often available in the field, lightening the load even more.

Disposal of chemicals – Not all artist follow best practices when it comes to chemical disposal. Waste chemicals should be collected in special chemical containers, then taken to designated disposal centers. Chemically soiled rags should be disposed of at those same facilities. Medium to large cities have such facilities but a rural location may not. Transporting chemical waste to the proper disposal facilities is time consuming. Additionally, rags saturated in traditional solvents present a fire hazard. Water is a safer, time saving alternative in this respect.

Brush preservation – Strong solvents like mineral spirits and turpentine are harder on brushes than water. For that reason, many artists wash their oil paint brushed in a traditional solvent first, then have to wash away the solvent with soap and water to keep the bristles supple.

Time and money – Water from the tap is nearly free, unlike turpentine. Some specialty solvents found exclusively in art stores are even more expensive.

And now for the cons:

The most obvious draw back to water mixable oil paint is speculative and may prove to be a non-issue. Will water mixable oil paint stand the test of time? Who knows for certain? Traditional oil paintings from four hundred years ago still retain their aesthetic qualities. Most problems with cracking are usually a result of an artist’s technique.

Acrylic paint is a plastic, which is extremely durable. The oldest acrylic paintings have only been around since the mid-twentieth century but they still look as strong as the day they were painted.

Only time will prove water mixable if oil paint is durable or not. I have no reason to doubt that water mixable oil paint is not any less permanent than traditional oils.

Conclusion

Why not give water mixable oil paint a try? If, after purchasing water mixable oil paint, you decide that thinning them out with water is not for you, just use them with your traditional solvents and paint and you’ve lost nothing while gaining experience along the way.

With any art making process, the surface plays an important role. It seems that many times, we get so obsessed with the process or the medium that we overlook the importance of the surface.

When it comes to painting, canvas stretched tightly over a light wooden frame is the most popular material, but it is not the only option. Wooden panels, common during both the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, are experiencing a resurgence.

A few years ago, I embarked on a personal quest – to paint like the “old masters”. At the time, I was painting on stretched canvas with heavy, impasto strokes in an impressionistic style. On my journey, I embraced Renaissance and Late Middle Ages techniques which included painting on wooden panels with smooth, thin layers of paint. I haven’t looked back since.

In the beginning, I purchased wood from hardware stores and prepared it for painting over the course of a few hours (most of that time is spent waiting for layers of primer to dry). After a couple of years preparing panels this way I started seeing factory-made wooden panels for sale at both the “big box” art supply stores and online distributors. As it happens, many of us were looking for an alternative to canvas and the market responded. These ready-made panels offer most of the same benefits as self-made panels.

Let’s take a look at both the benefits and drawbacks of painting on a wooden panel.

Painting on Panel vs. Canvas

A wooden panel is heavier that a stretched canvas. Masonite is a brand of hard board – a  composite wood product. Masonite is thinner than other wood products making the weight of a panel less problematic than in the past but a canvas is still much lighter. When painting large scale or on location, the weight of a panel may be cumbersome to some.

On the plus side, however, with that extra weight comes durability. (I happen to own a nice painting on canvas that has an unfortunate hole in it.) Canvas is more easily damaged than a panel. The same careless mistake that damaged my nice painting on canvas would have barely left a mark, had my painting been on a panel.

A panel also has another advantage over canvas – surface customization. The panel has no visible texture prior to priming. A canvas, on the other hand, has a visible woven texture. Unless heavy layers of paint are used, that woven texture is a part of the artwork, like it or not.

Using a panel, the artist can create any surface texture he/she wants. During the priming stage (discussed below) a variety of surfaces are attainable. This flexibility gives the artist more control over the final product and another opportunity for expression.

Related: See our Painting Lessons

Canvas currently enjoys an advantage over panels in the marketplace. Canvas is available from more retailers and in a wider variety of options – rectangles, squares, circles, ovals, gallery wrapped, fine weave, coarse weave, primed, unprimed, by the roll, etc. Panels are closing the options gap quickly, but most art suppliers limit the sizes of the panels they offer to less than three feet in any one dimension.

Preparing A Panel for Painting

Reasons to make a panel instead of buying one

• It is cheaper to make panels than to buy either prefabricated panels or canvases. Like cooking at home vs. eating out, tackling the preparation ourselves saves on labor costs that are built into the price.
• Quality assurance. If you make your own panel, you can be certain of the quality of materials used.
• Total surface control from start to finish. Like store-bought stretched canvas, most prefabricated panels options have a homogenous surface. Artist-made panels have a unique surface.
• Most importantly, it’s fun!

Materials for Painting on Panel

• Wood – As mentioned before, Masonite is a popular choice and is the substrate featured herein. Plywood with a birch or maple veneer is also a nice option but will be heavier and more coarse. 1/8th inch Masonite is suitable for artwork fewer that 24 inches across. For paintings above 24 inches I recommend using 1/4th inch Masonite.
• Gesso – Gesso is a thick, nonporous acrylic primer used to prepare any surface for acrylic or oil paintings.
• Gesso Brush – 1 ½ inch or larger, depending on the overall size of your panel.
• Sandpaper – 220 and 400 grit sandpapers are appropriate for sanding the brush strokes out of gesso. Any grit rating lower that 220 is too course and will make grooves in the gesso.

Procedure for Preparing Panel for Painting

1. Cut Masonite or other wood panel to the desired dimensions. A circular saw is perfect for this. Hardware stores sell Masonite in 2×2, 2×4 and 4×8 foot sheets. Lowe’s, Home Depot and other hardware stores will cut those sheets into different sizes, sometimes at no charge.

2. Sand for better adhesion. If the Masonite (hardboard) is ultra-smooth with a sheen then it is tempered and should be lightly sanded before applying gesso. If it is light in color and not shiny then it is not tempered and sanding is not necessary.

3. Apply gesso. Do not attempt to completely cover a panel with only one coat of gesso. It should take two or more coats of gesso to properly cover your panel. Make strokes in one direction.

Once dry, apply a second coat of gesso in a direction perpendicular to the first. Doing so will ensure an even application of gesso. At this point, the panel is ready for painting.

If a rough, unique surface is desired then mix other materials (sawdust, dirt, grass, seed beads, etc.) into the gesso prior to priming. If, however, an ultra-smooth surface is preferable then apply 2-4 more coats of gesso in various directions and move on to the next step.

Pro Tip #1 – After the first coat has dried, make an “X” on the back of the panel with gesso to counter any subtle warping that might occur due to the drying (and shrinkage) of the gesso layers. This is not necessary on panels less than 10 inches.

Pro Tip #2 – A hair drier will speed up the drying time between layers.

4. Using a circular motion, remove some or all of the brush strokes with sand paper for a smooth surface. A dust mask is recommended when sanding. Before painting, be sure to remove any excess gesso dust with a damp cloth.

The Panel Experience

The weave of the canvas creates friction that pulls paint from the brush. A smoother surface like sanded Masonite creates less friction between the brush and the painting surface. Your paint will spread farther and more easily on a smooth panel. Oil painters typically use course bristle brushes to apply paint. Long-handled synthetic brushes (instead of bristle brushes) are softer but may adequately spread paint on an ultra-smooth Masonite panel.

Also, painting on hard surfaces like panels give some artists a strong feeling of control when compared to using stretched canvas. Brushes are flexible (even floppy) and a stretched canvas is somewhat flexible as well. When pushed on with a brush, stretched canvas gives some. A panel does not react to pressure from a brush.

The hard surface of a panel offers control in another way as well. The artist can rest his/her hand right on the surface for detail work. Doing so with stretched canvas may warp the surface and is not advised.

Conclusion

Whether store bought or hand-made, painting on a panel is a different experience than painting on canvas and worth exploration. If you’ve never painted on panel, you may try in your next work. You may find the control and finished look that you’ve been looking for.