Having a set of primary colors—yellow, blue, and red—is essential to any painting practice. You can ultimately mix all colors from a nice starter set that contains yellow, blue, red, white, and black paint. I recommend the following specific colors:
- Cadmium Yellow Pale, which is a bright, pure yellow;
- Cobalt Blue, which is a bright, medium blue; and
- Magenta, which is a bright, dark pink.
EXPERT TIP: If your subject is pink or red, it’s important to have a color straight out of the tube that closely matches the desired mid-tone. It’s nearly impossible to mix paint colors that match a primary color. In this case, shop for the closest color you can find, and then blend other colors in for highlights and shadows.
Every artist must also understand complementary colors—that is, which colors are opposite on the color wheel (Figure 1). For example, orange is opposite of blue, green is opposite of red, and yellow is opposite of purple. This is valuable information because including some of the opposite color can enliven your work. Try putting a little red in the shadow of a green leaf. It gives the leaf a natural depth that is difficult to otherwise achieve. Try mixing green and red together to make a rich brown.
Generally, it’s also better to mix colors than to use paint straight out of a tube. Tube colors are too uniform and can end up looking flat if used alone. To make more interesting colors, try using the color out of the tube but then adding others to provide depth. For example, try mixing equal amounts of yellow and red together with varying amounts of blue to make different shades of gray. These grays are inevitably more appealing than the grays straight out of a tube.