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How to Avoid Buying Duplicate Paint Colors

Add to your color mixing knowledge.

By , About.com Guide

This painting tip might be called "Read the pigment list on the tube!" I'd been trying out different oil paint blues to see what they look like and how I might use them in painting. Among the colors I purchased were Winsor and Newton's Thalo Blue Winsor, W&N's Indigo, and Gamblin's Cerulean Blue Hue. Let me itemize the pigments:

  • Winsor and Newton Thalo Blue: Copper Pthalocyanine
  • Winsor and Newton Indigo: Copper Pthalocyanine + Carbon Black (Ivory Black)
  • Gamblin Cerulean Hue: Copper Pthalocyanine + zinc oxide (zinc white)
Now, I'm not much of a learned color mixer, but I do believe I can mix a pigment with black or white which I always have in my paint box. Had I only purchased Thalo Blue, I could not only have easily made these other "colors," but I would have saved at least US$25. That can buy a lot of paint or canvases or chocolate. Now, I'm going through my 80-some odd tubes of mixed colors and see what else is really going on in there.
Tip from Tina Jones.

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