Tue 15 Jul 2008
To continue our discussion of warm and cool colors, I present: Green. For those interested, here are Parts 1 and 2.

This one gave some interesting results. The warm blue and warm yellow provided a nice, clear, warm green. It looks like it’d be good for grass that needs watering (a common sight in Atlanta recently). However, the cool blue and cool yellow gave me a brownish mess. Since the cool blue and warm yellow gave a similar shade of mud, I’m guessing it’s the fault of the common element, ultramarine blue, although I’m not sure why. Any suggestions? I’ve only mixed it with browns (to make dark, blackish colors) and reds to make purples.
The warm blue and cool yellow created a surprisingly pleasant mix. It reminds me of what grass is supposed to look like. I’ll actually get to see some of it during my road trip to Iowa next week. Which, by the way, is the reason I won’t be posting for the next week and a half.
In conclusion, I still have no idea what I’m doing with color mixing, and nothing consistent has come out of my experiments yet. Next installation: purple in all its glorious mystery.
July 17th, 2008 at 1:04
Are you using single pigment paints for this experiment? If more than one is inside, it would account for the muddiness. Pure Ultramarine is PB29 (Pigment Blue 29). On my monitor, the two cool colors look a lot like the cool blue with the warm yellow!
July 27th, 2008 at 9:25
Lisa, good thought. For this experiment, I used tubes that only had single pigments listed, but I’m not sure about the purity of those pigments…
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:19
Is it natural or synthetic Ultramarine?
If it’s natural, then the blue color is due to a S3- anion radical, which is somewhat unstable.
Depending on the chemicals in the yellows, it’s quite possible the ulramarine could react with something there and change some of the pigments.
August 5th, 2008 at 7:04
Mxali,
The ultramarine has a lot of info on the tube. It says:
Silicate of sodium and aluminum with sulphur (PB29).
Do you know if that is natural or synthetic? Sounds sorta natural-ish…