The color brown.

[Roc]

Just curious, do you guys mix your own brown and if so what is your formula?


Cheers

Roc.

 

[Pete_H]

Oh, this should be interesting Kreston Peckham once gave me a great mix for brown, but I don't remember it off the top of my head.

Here's mine: brown I just use it straight out of the tube and shade with either raw umber, burnt umber, or sepia (depending on the basecoat).

 

[Roc]

I've experimented with different formulas, Mars black with Venetion red produces a nice brown.

Cheers

Roc.

 

[Le Lancier]

Well, Roc, I use green and red. that usualy yields a fairly adequate brown from which I can work. Adding yellow for lighter browns or tans, more red for red-browns etc.

Now which hews of red and green do I use? Don't matter to me really, they all yield a base colour from which I can work. It's a trial and error thing I guess... :lol:

Francis

 

[Einion]

Hi Roc, depends on the brown. If it's close to a tube colour or I know it can be based directly on one (buff = BU + white for example) then I'll use it for speed and simplicity.

With a few exceptions browns are basically dark orange-yellows through to orange-reds so you can mix just about any brown from a yellow, red and something to darken and/or dull it. Black is useful for this but often won't lower the saturation quite enough in which case you have to resort to using a complementary colour, Phthalo Blue GS is ideal for this but most any dark blue will work fine, even French Ultramarine which is as different in hue to the other blue as you can get but it still works okay.

As Francis mentioned you can also mix reds with greens, many artists make their browns this way, any combo along these lines is worth experimenting with and you can get some very interesting colours that you're not quite expecting. If the red and the green are close to being mixing complements at about the balance point between them you'll be close to grey - loosely called neutrals by painters - which are some very attractive colours in the right context. Almost all green paints are transparent to some extent though, so bear this in mind if you want a mix with good coverage, in which case use Chromium Oxide Green or mix your green from an opaque yellow and blue and/or Mars Black.

Einion

 

[PJ Deluhery]

If the tubed colors aren't right, I start with "Christmas brown" cad. red + cobalt green. This give a nice reddish brown. From there I can adjust to the lighter side with yellow ocher, flesh or Naples yellow. For adjustments to the dark side, I use blue, Paynes Gray, purple or black.

 

[pkess]

I have never felt the need to mix my own browns. There is plenty of variety in the premixed ones. I do mix all of my own greens. Since most available greens are very transparent except for Chromium Oxide.

 

[megroot]

I use it from the tube. But as i read this topic, it is better to mix your own browns.
I think Einion gave some nice toughts for mixing browns. I'll try it and thanks to PF without error.
BTW. There most be more topics like this one.


Marc

 

[nagashino]

Hi All

I think maybe browns are my worst nightmare, especially as working in oils, most of them are very "grainy" straight out of the tube, even the high quality ones like Old Holland and Rembrandt. I will certainly be investigating some of Einion's mixes, as the component colours are generally finer textured.

Phil

 

[Figure Mad]

Hi Phil

I can see everybody’s point about brown, its just a horrible colour, I suppose being an acrylic man helps me in many ways as I dont have to mix one up, its already in the bottle and with the ranges that Vellajo and Andrea are doing now, it becomes all to easy, but it can get to much to try and decide which ones to use....... but thats another problem.... :lol:

Dave