Ripped, hacked, and put together from the Winsor & Newton site.
Like everything you learn in elementary school, the color system they taught you is also wrong. We are taught when young that the three primary colours - red, blue and yellow - are all that are required for colour mixing. In fact, in pigment form every colour has both a masstone and an undertone which is different to the next colour.
For example, a blue pigment will have either a red undertone or a green undertone in comparison to another blue pigment. French Ultramarine is a red shade blue whilst Prussian blue is a green shade blue.
So, red, blue and yellow alone are not the whole story and in fact six colours provide a wider base for colour mixing: a red with a yellow bias, a red with a blue bias, a blue with a green bias, a blue with a red bias, a yellow with a red bias and a yellow with a green bias.
Three Primary Colours
Theoretically, the three primaries are magenta, cyan and yellow. But, remember that each artists’ colour has a masstone and an undertone; that artists require a package of handling properties and that permanence is also important. The recommended primaries therefore offer the best practical mixing properties combined with permanence wherever possible.
Listed below are the recommended primaries for each Winsor & Newton range:
Artists’ Oil Colour:
Transparent Yellow, Winsor Blue
(red shade) and Permanent Rose.
Artists’ Water Colour:
Winsor Lemon, Winsor Blue
(red shade) and Permanent Rose.
Artists’ Acrylic Colour:
Azo Yellow Medium, Phthalo Blue
Red Shade and Permanent Rose.
Artisan Water Mixable Oil Colour:
Lemon Yellow, Phthalo Blue (Red Shade) and Permanent Rose.
Artists’ Oilbar:
Cadmium Lemon, French
Ultramarine and Alizarin Crimson.
Griffin Fast Drying Oil Colour:
Winsor Yellow, Phthalo Blue
and Permanent Rose.
Designers’ Gouache:
Primary Yellow, Primary
Blue and Primary Red.
Winton Oil Colour:
Cadmium Lemon Hue, Phthalo
Blue and Permanent Rose.
Cotman Water Colour:
Lemon Yellow Hue, Intense
Blue and Permanent Rose.
Galeria Acrylic Colour:
Lemon Yellow, Winsor Blue and Permanent Rose.
Note; It is often a surprise to artists that Cadmium Red is not recommended as primary red in a three colour selection. Permanent Rose produces much cleaner and brighter violets and oranges, because it is closer to magenta.
The Six Colour System
A broader spectrum can be mixed with six colours as discussed under Basic Colour Theory earlier. As a learning exercise, the move from three colours to six also begins to introduce other variables like opacity, tinting strength, drying rate, and granulation, depending on the type of colour used. Here are the recommended six colour palettes:
Artists’ Oil Colour:
Winsor Lemon, Winsor Yellow, French Ultramarine, Winsor Blue (green shade), Permanent Rose and Cadmium Red.
Artists’ Water Colour:
Winsor Lemon, Winsor Yellow, Scarlet Lake, Permanent Rose, French Ultramarine and Winsor Blue (Green Shade).
Artists’ Acrylic Colour:
Lemon Yellow, Azo Yellow Medium, Ultramarine Blue, Phthalo Blue Green Shade, Permanent Rose and Cadmium Red Light.
Artisan Water Mixable Oil Colour:
Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Hue, French Ultramarine, Phthalo Blue (Red Shade), Permanent Rose and Cadmium Red Hue.
Artists’ Oilbar:
Cadmium Lemon, Cadmium Yellow Pale, French Ultramarine, Manganese Blue Hue, Permanent Magenta and Cadmium Red.
Griffin Fast Drying Oil Colour:
Cadmium Lemon, Winsor Yellow, French Ultramarine, Phthalo Blue, Permanent Rose and Cadmium Red Medium.
Designers’ Gouache:
Lemon Yellow, Permanent Yellow Deep, Phthalo Blue, Ultramarine, Scarlet Lake and Alizarin Crimson.
Winton Oil Colour:
Cadmium Lemon Hue, Cadmium Yellow Hue, French Ultramarine, Phthalo Blue, Permanent Rose and Cadmium Red Hue.
Cotman Water Colour:
Lemon Yellow Hue, Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue, Ultramarine, Intense Blue, Permanent Rose and Cadmium Red Hue.
Galeria Acrylic Colour:
Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow
Deep Hue, Ultramarine, Winsor Blue, Permanent Rose and Vermilion Hue.
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