Physical Mixing - photo credit: ZebrasHateHail, flickr

1. Physical Mix or Palette Mixing

Mixing color on your palette with a palette knife or brush is the most basic method of mixing acrylic paint.

The paint is physically mixed together, sort of like a marraige – where two blobs become one.

Sticklers for proper form, will insist that a palette knife should be used instead of your brush.  Little is paint wasted and brushes stay unmuddled.

Those who paint loose and free, will use their brush to dab and mix on the palette.

Complete physical mixing produces consistent, homogeneously mixed color.  Some are of the opinion this produces a flat, lifeless color.  Others insist it is the best way to obtain an accurate color match.  I guess it depends on your style and technique of painting.

To avoid dullness, try only partially mixing the different colors to create more variety and reduce the solid appearance of a thoroughly mixed hue.

Paint recipes often refer to physical mixing.

For example, a classic formula for a palette mixed peachy flesh color is: White, Yellow Ochre, and Cadmium Red Light. Normally start with a lot of white, add a small amount of Cad. Red Light, and lastly add an even smaller amount of Yellow Ochre.

2. Wet into Wet or Canvas Mixing

A more casual and spontaneous method of mixing color is to apply each color on the canvas, (or other surface) and mix with your brush while each is wet.  A dab of this, a dab of that, swirl, swish, push and pull.

Wet into Wet has been used for centuries by oil painters.  So much so that newbie art collectors see the wet into wet technique as “real” oil painting, not understanding it is a technique -not a definition.  As painters know, works in oil can take on all sorts of appearances.

If drying time is a problem when trying wet into wet with acrylics, extend it with retarder, mediums, or use acrylic paint with extended open time. see Tips to stop acrylic painting from drying too fast.

Wet into Wet mixing does not produce a smoothly mixed color.  Mixing on your canvas will yield the general idea of the mixed color, but will still contain identifiable swirls and strokes of the originating colors.

Wet on Wet painting results in a painterly look.  Less precise. Messy.  Definitely less reliable with color surprises build right in.  Some might say more passionate and less logical.

Danger: this often will produce a muddy or dull color that perhaps you didn’t expect.  Secret is to stop before you over do it and end up with a big, wet brown or gray mess.

3. Optical Mixing

Detail from Seurat's La Parade de Cirque (1889), example of pointillism, a style of optical mixing.

Optical mixing involves colors separately but side by side on the canvas.

When viewed from a distance, the human eye mixes the colors together using the brain.

Pointillism is the classic example of this, using separated dots and dabs of color.  See Seurat’s work.

Optical mixing is not difficult, but it IS time consuming.  It also takes some practice and experimentation to achieve the result you want.

The shapes don’t have to be dots.  They can be streaks, lines, blobs – whatever.

Try for yourself.

Experiment with these three basic acrylic paint mixing techniques to expand your skill level and improve your paint handling confidence.