CHARACTERISTICS OF ACRYLIC PAINTS
by Auke Van Holst
BLUES:
Ultramarine blue - transparent but not too powerful; good for glazes; makes good
grays with brown and white; good greens with cad yellow and yellow ocher; rich
purples and violets with crimson reds.
Phthalo blue - transparent; use carefully - very powerful; makes bright greens
with yellow, bright purples with alizarin crimson and crimson; good for glazes
and washes.
Cobalt blue - subtle blue; moderate tinting and covering power makes delicate
greens; good for receding atmospheric perspective; useful for cool shadows in
portrait fleshtones.
Cerulean blue - opaque with good hiding power; good for skies; makes delicate
greens and grays; doesn't dominate mixtures; not good for glaze.
REDS:
Cadmium red (deep) - dense and opaque with great tinting power; good accent
color; makes great oranges, makes mud with blue; makes a fiery red with crimson;
luscious glazes and washes when thinned with acrylic medium.
Napthol red and crimson - transparent; makes good oranges and intense violets;
useful replacement for alizarin crimson; good for glazes and washes.
Alizarin crimson
Quinacridone red
Acrared
Oxide red - deep earthy brownish red; dominates when blended; good for reflected
lights in fleshtones; good for autumn reds.
YELLOWS:
Hansa yellow -transparent; makes lively green with Thad, subtle green with
ultramarine blue; good orange with napthol red; golden glaze with burnt sienna.
Azo yellow - much like hansa.
Cadmium yellow(lt. &med.)- intense, opaque and good covering power; makes strong
greens and oranges with blues and reds; be careful with washes - thin a lot.
Yellow oxide - more intense but similar to yellow ocher.
Lemon yellow - light cool yellow; weaker tinting power than cads; make vivid
oranges and greens.
Phthalo bronze.
ORANGE:
Cadmium orange - vivid orange, easily mixed from cad red and cad yellow.
VIOLET:
Dioxazine purple - opaque dense purple; can be used for glazes; becomes lighter
and brighter when mixed with water or medium.
GREENS:
Phthalo green - vivid and transparent; very powerful, use carefully; tone down
with brown or red.
Chromium oxide green - opaque olive green; good for landscape; good for shadowy
underpainting of figure; mixes well with earth colors.
Hookers green - transparent; good for landscapes; between phthalo and chromium
oxide, mixes well with earth colors.
EARTHS:
Yellow ocher- opaque; makes good fleshtones with white, burnt umber, burnt
sienna, red oxide, raw umber, blue; subdues reds; best yellow for underpaintings.
Burnt sienna - transparent coppery red-brown; good for glazes and washes by
itself and mixed; makes good grays and browns with blue; good coppery tones with
yellow, tones down greens.
Raw sienna - opaque orange- brown; makes a good range of earthy hues when mixed
with greens blues and purples.
Burnt umber - deep reasonably opaque warm brown; produces rich tones when mixed
with other colors.
Raw umber - yellow - brown; poor tinting power; good for toning down other
colors and mixing blacks; will tone down other colors
WHITE > BLACK:
Titanium white - a very powerful opaque; use sparingly in mixtures.
Acrylic gesso - a weaker white; good for underpainting and making foggy,
ghostlike colors.
Payne's gray - cold dark gray; weak tinting power; tones down other colors.
Mars black - greater tinting power than ivory black; be careful, it makes mud.
Carbon black -
This list was garnered from a number of sources; I hope you find it useful. Auke