Friday, September 26, 2008

Things I Learned from Barney - Mixing Colors

My grandchildren love to watch Barney the Dinosaur. Barney and the children sing lots of songs and in the process learn a lot of really cool things. My 2 1/2 year old granddaughter - because of Barney - knows that when you mix blue and yellow you get green.

Sing this to the tune of If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands

If you mix blue and yellow you get green.
If you mix blue and yellow you get green.
When you mix the two you'll see
A new color magically.
If you mix blue and yellow you get green.

Then there are verses about red and yellow, and blue and red.

This - mixing colors -is something that I found to be a lot of fun. And it has saved me a lot of money.

I just recently bought some acrylic paint. I had only painted with oil and watercolor before this. I bought some good quality paints and therefore couldn't buy a lot of colors and still fill my car up with gas. So I bought these Liquitex paints:

Cadmium Red Deep Hue, Cobalt Blue Hue, Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue, Hooker's Green Hue Permanent, and Titanium White. I really like this paint. It's nice and thick and creamy and mixes beautifully.

I'll write more later about exactly how to mix tons of colors and shades, (right now I need to get to work) but I wanted you to see these ACEOs. All of the colors you see on these four little paintings were made with the five colors you see above.

So let me encourage you - if you're just starting out - to buy a few colors of paint (primary colors and white) and learn to mix your own colors. You'll understand more about color and save money in the process!

1 comment:

artbylmr said...

Good advice, Lyndel. I was taught not to use paint color directly from the tube except on rare occasions. The color will usually need to be dulled or lightened or darkened or whatever.

Never thought I'd learn from Barney at this stage of the game! Lynne