In my recent attempt to mix up a custom maroon/burgundy color for my boat, I came across a site for artists that can help in theorizing your color mix before you even have to buy the paint. The only caveat to this tool is that I haven't put it in practice yet (but I will over the next couple of days, so I will report back with the end result!).
The site is here: http://www.wetcanvas.com/colormixer/colormixer.php
In my specific example, I started with a gallon of red base paint so I wanted to find out how much blue and black I would need to add in order to get my needed color. I first started by picking a red that was close to the red of the base paint. I then picked the blue artists oil that I bought. I started with a 40:1 ratio (which, unfortunately, is the smallest ratio this tool can handle... meaning I would need about 3.2 ounces of artists oil added to my gallon on red). This is the results I got:
I quickly realized that 3.2 ounces of blue wasn't going to cut it (each small tube is 1.25 oz). Next, I decided to try a ratio of 25:1 (meaning I would need about 5 oz [4 tubes] to my gallon. This is the new results:
This got me a little bit closer, but I decided to try to add one more tube to the mix, or a ratio of about 20:1 [about 6.4 ounces added to my gallon of red]). Here's what that gave me:
Still working on it. I finally decided to try 6 tubes (7.5 ounces) added to my gallon. This is a ratio of 17:1. This is what I got:
Now, there wasn't much change here, but what I did notice was the lower section of the tool, where it shows what the mix will look like with white or black added to it (as a percentage). It just so happens that the color between 20% and 30% is pretty much what I need. This means if I add a quart of black to my gallon of red, plus the 7.5 ounces of artists oil, I should be close to what I need
Again, this is all still theoretical as I haven't put it to the test, but I will be doing so shortly. I only had 2 tubes of blue when I started mixing in my first 1/2 gallon tonight and it actually came out close to what this tool shows that it would be (a 32:1 ratio) so I'm thinking [hoping?] that it will still be close when I get closer to the theoretical 17:1 @ 25% black.
The site is here: http://www.wetcanvas.com/colormixer/colormixer.php
In my specific example, I started with a gallon of red base paint so I wanted to find out how much blue and black I would need to add in order to get my needed color. I first started by picking a red that was close to the red of the base paint. I then picked the blue artists oil that I bought. I started with a 40:1 ratio (which, unfortunately, is the smallest ratio this tool can handle... meaning I would need about 3.2 ounces of artists oil added to my gallon on red). This is the results I got:
I quickly realized that 3.2 ounces of blue wasn't going to cut it (each small tube is 1.25 oz). Next, I decided to try a ratio of 25:1 (meaning I would need about 5 oz [4 tubes] to my gallon. This is the new results:
This got me a little bit closer, but I decided to try to add one more tube to the mix, or a ratio of about 20:1 [about 6.4 ounces added to my gallon of red]). Here's what that gave me:
Still working on it. I finally decided to try 6 tubes (7.5 ounces) added to my gallon. This is a ratio of 17:1. This is what I got:
Now, there wasn't much change here, but what I did notice was the lower section of the tool, where it shows what the mix will look like with white or black added to it (as a percentage). It just so happens that the color between 20% and 30% is pretty much what I need. This means if I add a quart of black to my gallon of red, plus the 7.5 ounces of artists oil, I should be close to what I need
Again, this is all still theoretical as I haven't put it to the test, but I will be doing so shortly. I only had 2 tubes of blue when I started mixing in my first 1/2 gallon tonight and it actually came out close to what this tool shows that it would be (a 32:1 ratio) so I'm thinking [hoping?] that it will still be close when I get closer to the theoretical 17:1 @ 25% black.