Normally when I do mix-your-own lookalike posts, I try to find dupes for paints I don’t want in my palette. Either the paint has some textural problem I don’t like, or it’s too limited in use case to earn a spot on my palette, and I want to figure out an alternative means of mixing the hue so I can feel free to cut it. But I love Indanthrone Blue (PB60), and it’s an important part of almost any palette I create. So why try to dupe it?
Mix Your Own
Mix Your Own Buff Titanium Lookalike
I used to have Buff Titanium but I don’t anymore. Its light tan color is useful and convenient because it’s common in nature, but I didn’t like the opaque, chalky way that it mixed. It is basically white, after all. Still, many artists like it. Jane Blundell talks about using it for sand, along with Goethite Brown Ochre. Claire Giordano uses buff titanium for desert/canyon scenes, as a base for sandstone rocks. It works really well, and while working one of her Capitol Reef scenes, I actually went so far as to put another tube of Buff Titanium in my cart… but then I challenged myself to make some light tan mixes with colors I already had, just to see if I might like them better.
Mix Your Own Bordeaux Lookalike
When I was recently trying to mix a Perylene Violet hue, Bordeaux (PV32) was one of the colors I used. Then I realized I had it backward: Bordeaux is LF2 and not as lightfast. Anyone trying to replace less-lightfast colors with more-lightfast colors would be trying to go the other way round. So I thought I’d try and make a Bordeaux hue with more lightfast colors.
Mix Your Own Perylene Violet Lookalike
Occasionally I come across color mixes that look like “perylene violet” to me. I’m also not the biggest fan of the paint, so I’m motivated to find a way to replace it. Here are some color mixes I’ve tired to emulate a Perylene Violet hue. In the upper left is Daniel Smith’s Perylene Violet. From … Read more
Mix a Chromium Oxide Green Lookalike
Chromium Oxide Green (PG17) is an extremely opaque, lightly granulating single-pigment dull green. It’s a nice color for desert plants, but not the only nice color, and I haven’t found another use for it. So, I’ve been wondering if I want to remove it from my extended palette. I sometimes feel when I’m making color spotlights that I accidentally mix a hue. So let’s try mixing a hue on purpose.
Mix Your Own Alizarin Crimson Hue
Alizarin Crimson is a notoriously beautiful and fugitive pigment. Many people now use Quinacridone Rose (PV19), Carmine (PR176), or other alternatives, but the color is often pinker and not as deep. So how can we mix a hue?
While I don’t have the original Alizarin Crimson (PR83) to compare to, I’m using Da Vinci Alizarin Crimson Quinacridone (PV19) as a point of comparison (upper left).
Here’s what I came up with.
Mix Your Own: Mission Gold
I previously explained how to mix your own version of mixed Daniel Smith colors, and now I’d like to do the same for Mission Gold! Recently I happened to be window-shopping their line and saw some good ones that gave me new ideas for cool mixes. That’s cool thing about exploring brands’ commercial mixes – even if you don’t buy the paint, it can inspire your own explorations at home, if you have the component colors.
Mix Your Own Burnt Umber Lookalike
While I think that Da Vinci Burnt Umber has quite a nice color – for a brown – I have trouble motivating myself to find space on my palette for many earth tones, when there are so many brights to choose from that are more compelling to me! So here are my attempts to find a lookalike mix from my palette.
I Refuse to Buy Schmincke’s Supergranulating Paints
Although I like granulation now, I’m not tempted by the sets everyone in my watercolor friends-list seems to be going gaga for: the Schmincke Supergranulating colors. If you take a look at them, they are generally* not new colors, they’re mixes of other granulating colors that Schmincke (and other brands) offer. You can mix your own!
Mix Your Own: Daniel Smith
While I tend to prefer single pigment colors to mixes, it’s no question that there are some beautiful mixes out there! Premixed paints can be great time-savers. I also like that they give me ideas for neat ways to mix my single pigment paints – as long as you can understand the pigment codes on the bottle!
In swatching out the dot cards for Daniel Smith, as well as looking up what pigments each color is made of, I came to recognize pigment codes on sight. Just from looking at the tube, I can easily tell what pigments mixed paints are made of, and what single-pigment colors map to the components, giving me a good idea of how to mix it up myself. It occurred to me that not everyone has this superpower, so I made this handy lookup post!
If you ever wondered “How do I mix…” amongst the mixes in Daniel Smith’s line, look no further!