Color Mixing
By Heather Roselli

I find that color theory and color mixing are two of the most difficult concepts and techniques involved in any art or craft medium. Color mixing isn’t as easy as the preschool mantra “yellow plus blue makes green”! Without going into the real science behind color theory (mainly because I don’t understand it all myself), here are a few simple basics about color.

Color Basics

Primary Colors are Red, Blue, and Yellow (and more recently in the world of printing and inks: Cyan, Magenta and Yellow). These hues cannot be created from other colors. In theory, all other colors can be created using just these three hues (plus black and white).

Secondary Colors, Orange, Green, and Purple, are created by mixing any two primary colors together. Red + Yellow = Orange, Blue + Yellow = Green, and Red + Blue = Purple. Depending on the strength or saturation of the primary colors however, these mixes are not always 1 part to 1 part. For example, you must experiment to find the right ratio of red to blue that gives the truest purple.

Tertiary Colors are created by mixing the secondary colors together. Results are often browns, rusts, and muds.

Tints result when any hue is mixed with white. The more white added, the lighter the hue becomes.

Tones result when any hue is mixed with gray. Mixing gray into a hue results in a more muted color than the original hue. You may think that adding gray will make boring colors, but try it! Tones are some of my favorite colors on the color wheel.

Shades result when any hue is mixed with black. Even tiny amounts of black added to most hues result in a deeper, darker hue than the original. Add more than a pinch, and you won’t be able to tell your new “color” from black!

Color Wheels are any representation of the primary, and usually secondary, hues of a color palette. The wheel can include tertiary hues as well as tints, tones, and shades. Color wheels help you to see the relationships between colors.

Color Palettes are comprised of a selection of red, blue, and yellow hues from which you mix secondary, tertiary, tint, tone and shade hues from. For example, you can use “pure” red, blue and yellow, or fuchsia, turquoise, and yellow, or even florescent pink, florescent blue and florescent yellow as your primaries. The choice is yours. All of the colors mixed from the three primaries you choose will be unique from those mixed from a different starting color palette.

Here are a few things I’ve learned about mixing clay colors:

• Don’t be afraid to mix new clay colors often
• Always label a baked sample of each new color you create and save it for future reference
• Make color wheels using several different color palettes so you always have a good place to start from when mixing new colors
• Use sheets of clay and clay cutters to cut and then mix set ratios of clay so colors can be easily reproduced when needed (see Reliable Color Mixing below for directions)

Reliable Color Mixing

Polymer clays can be mixed together much like paints to produce an endless number of hues, shades, and tints. The following method is a great way to mix colors accurately and repeatedly. Using a pasta machine, roll out #1 sheets of clay in the colors to be mixed. Using a cutter of some type and shape (Kemper Cutters, Cookie Cutter, Clay Cutters, Brass tube, etc) cut out pieces from both sheets (A) and mix together in different proportions, keeping count along the way (B). As long as you use the same thickness sheet and same cutter for the pieces being mixed, you can reproduce any color in any amount. Use a large cutter when larger volumes of clay are needed and a small cutter when small amounts are needed.

To keep track of color mixes, cut a shape from a sheet of the new color and bake. Once cool, write the color recipe on the back of the chip with a Sharpie permanent marker. String labeled chips together on ball chain or mount to a stiff board (label underneath each) for future reference.

Shaded Color Wheels

Adapted from Barbara McGuire’s terrific book, “Foundations in Polymer Clay Design”.
1. Print patterns onto cardstock and cut out each shape. 2. Cut one 20 degree section from your choice of a Red, Blue and Yellow. 3. Make a Skinner color blend between red and blue, red and yellow, and blue and yellow, then cut one 100 degree wedge from each blend. 4. If desired, cut circles from each primary and secondary color (equal amounts of red+blue, blue+yellow, and red+yellow). 5. Bake wedges and circles for 30 minutes at 275 degrees F. 6. Assemble wedges into a 6-inch color wheel and place circles around perimeter over corresponding colors or print layout for the Cyan, Yellow, Magenta or the Red, Yellow, Blue layouts and then mount to mat board or similar rigid surface for future reference.

Premo colors used in these Shaded Color Wheels:

RYB (left): Red Brilliant, Cadmium Yellow, and Cobalt Blue
CMY (right): Turquoise, Fuchsia, and Cadmium Yellow

Expanded Tint, Tone, & Shade Color Wheels

This color wheel is much more involved, consisting of 48 colors in all! This color wheel gives you much more information and a wonderful jumping off point for creating thousands of custom colors. You will create 12 hues from 3 primary colors, and then you will add a tint, tone and shade for each hue.

1. Print patterns onto cardstock and cut out each shape.

2. Ccut one 30 degree wedge for each of 12 pure and mixed hues as follows.

Red: Red Brilliant Red-Orange: 1 part Red Brilliant to 4 parts Cadmium Yellow Orange: 1 part Red Brilliant to 8 parts Cadmium Yellow Yellow-Orange: 1 part Red Brilliant to 24 parts Cadmium Yellow Yellow: Cadmium Yellow Yellow-Green: 1 part Cobalt Blue to 8 parts Cadmium Yellow Green: 1 part Cobalt Blue to 2 parts Cadmium Yellow Blue-Green: 1 part Cadmium Yellow to 2 parts Cobalt Blue Blue: Cobalt Blue Blue-Violet: 1 part Red Brilliant to 6 parts Cobalt Blue Violet: 1 part Red Brilliant to 1 parts Cobalt Blue Red-Violet: 1 part Cobalt Blue to 4 parts Red Brilliant

3. Mix white, gray, and black with each hue to create a tint, tone and shade for each color created in step 1.

Tint = 1 part Hue + 4 parts White
Tone = 1 part Hue + 1 part Gray (Gray = 1 part Black + 4 parts White)
Shade = 8 parts Hue + 1 part Black

4. Using the appropriate pattern piece, cut one for each tint, tone, and shade created in step 3 (36 in all).
5. Bake clay pieces for 30 minutes at 275 degrees F and cool.
		6. Assemble into a color wheel or print layout and glue into place on mat board or other rigid surface as a future reference. Variation (left): Cut circles or squares of clay (larger for Hue, smaller for Tint, Tone, and Shade) and arrange each color within its own wedge on the color wheel. Print layout here.

Primary colors to consider when creating new palettes to work with might include:

In addition to creating the traditional tint, tone and shades for each hue from your palette, consider adding the following colors to create these familiar palettes: