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tend to mix one from red and blue, but

a tubed violet made from a single pig-

ment, rich and clean, can be an asset.

Before I get into that, however, let’s

look at what we can do with violets.

One of my favorite color schemes

is based on a triad of secondary colors:

green, orange and violet. Th ese are

colors often found in the landscape.

Th ey appear in vegetation, from warm

oranges in sunny spots to cooler

greens in half-tones to coolest violets

in shadows. I can also make warm,

earthy greens with violets by add-

ing yellow. (See Landscape in Green,

Orange and Violet, pages 22–23.)

I can make violets warmer or

cooler depending on what colors I

mix into them. I may mix in a little

alizarin crimson to warm up a violet or

mix in cobalt blue to cool it down. I’ve

learned I can make an incredibly dark,

transparent neutral that approaches

black with dioxazine purple and

phthalocyanine green. I use this for my

darkest dark in rocks and vegetation.

Beautiful grays are another pos-

sibility with violets. Many tubed

violets are so dark you can’t tell their

true color without adding white,

which also cools and “grays” them. By

adding tiny amounts of other colors,

you can shift these muted violets to a

whole spectrum of grays.

MIXED OR TUBED VIOLETS?

Chances are you mix your violets

from red and blue—but which red

and which blue? In my split-primary

palette, for example, I have a warm

and a cool version of red and blue (and

yellow). With cadmium red light (a

warm red) and ultramarine blue, I can

mix a violet that’s warm and somewhat

dull. If, however, I substitute alizarin

crimson (a cool red) for the cadmium

red light, I get a violet that’s cooler

and more intense. Why? Because the

richest violets are made from reds that

lie closer to blue, like alizarin crim-

son, and from blues that lie closer to

red, like ultramarine blue. For better

understanding, try some color experi-

ments while referring to a color wheel.

(See Mixed Violets, above.)

Brushing Up

ABOVE: Mixtures of different reds and blues yield different violets. Here you see a grid

of six different violets mixed from three different blues. In the top row I added cad-

mium red medium and white to each blue; in the bottom row, I added alizarin crimson

and white to each blue. The intensity and temperature of a violet will vary, of course,

with the proportion of its components. To see how this works, make your own swatches.

MIXED VIOLETS

ABOVE: The top row of swatches shows color drawdowns of six violets by Gamblin Art-

ist’s Oil Colors (although quinacridone magenta is listed on the Gamblin website as

a red, to my eye it’s close enough to violet to be included here). The thicker paint at

the bottom of the drawdown swatches is the mass tone of the color. The undertone

became evident as I drew the paint out thinly toward the top of the swatch. A visible

pencil line a third of the way from the top indicates the transparency of the paint.

Note that dioxazine purple is such a powerful, staining color that, although transpar-

ent, it nearly obscures the pencil line. The bottom row of swatches shows a tint of

each color, made with titanium-zinc white. Violets are often so dark, white needs to

be added to make the color easier to see.

TEXT CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20

ultramarine blue +

cadmium red medium +

white

cobalt blue +

cadmium red medium +

white

phthalo blue +

cadmium red medium +

white

ultramarine blue +

alizarin crimson +

white

cobalt blue +

alizarin crimson +

white

phthalo blue +

alizarin crimson +

white

TUBED VIOLETS

ultramarine

violet

dioxazine

purple

cobalt

violet

manganese

violet

quinacridone

violet

quinacridone

magenta

UNDERTONE

MASS TONE

TINT

24 artistsmagazine.com

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