Mixing grays

Rick Martin

Detail Decepticon!
Ok being new to this kind of painting i was wondering how you mix grays. I know a color wheel is a must, but does each brand of color have their own color wheel. Whats really throwing me off is paynes gray which mine is a blueish gray. Thanks for any input.
 
Do a search on here for greys or grays... someone made a really good chart that had a legit mixing ratio to get your % greys.
 
Ok being new to this kind of painting i was wondering how you mix grays. I know a color wheel is a must, but does each brand of color have their own color wheel. Whats really throwing me off is paynes gray which mine is a blueish gray. Thanks for any input.

Paynes grey isn't suitable for grey scale because it is a colour and not a pure grey or neutral grey, adding white or black to woukd likely give you a shade very far from what your after.

I thought you had a greyscale set delivered?, if you want to work greyscale this is what you should work with and don't use anything outside of that set.

If you go to Google images you can search for a grey scale value finder which you can download and print off, but @haasje dutchairbrush did a very in depth how to in grey scale whuchvi sure he'll guide you to, I believe he posted a downloadable grey scale finder in that same thread.

Also, on YouTube do a search for airbrushing videos concerning cokiyr capping which will give you an idea of how to proceed in miniscule using your greyscale set.

I should point out that working with greyscale value sets is far more complicated than simply painting with an over reduced black or paynes grey and building up your values, but is important to avoid any other cokours including white, anything white should be your substrate, and when you build up yiyr values you care merely hiding parts if your substrate to different degrees.

I'm assuming you got the greyscale set hoping it would be easier than working with colour? I think you may now be finding out that that just isn't so:)
 
Paynes grey isn't suitable for grey scale because it is a colour and not a pure grey or neutral grey, adding white or black to woukd likely give you a shade very far from what your after.

I thought you had a greyscale set delivered?, if you want to work greyscale this is what you should work with and don't use anything outside of that set.

If you go to Google images you can search for a grey scale value finder which you can download and print off, but @haasje dutchairbrush did a very in depth how to in grey scale whuchvi sure he'll guide you to, I believe he posted a downloadable grey scale finder in that same thread.

Also, on YouTube do a search for airbrushing videos concerning cokiyr capping which will give you an idea of how to proceed in miniscule using your greyscale set.

I should point out that working with greyscale value sets is far more complicated than simply painting with an over reduced black or paynes grey and building up your values, but is important to avoid any other cokours including white, anything white should be your substrate, and when you build up yiyr values you care merely hiding parts if your substrate to different degrees.

I'm assuming you got the greyscale set hoping it would be easier than working with colour? I think you may now be finding out that that just isn't so:)
No i got it just to add colors to my inventory, but alot of what i want to paint has mostly different shades of gray. Like Airbrush Dreamin i have a passion for bobcats and whitetigers. And yes i have a grey scale set in the studio.
 
No i got it just to add colors to my inventory, but alot of what i want to paint has mostly different shades of gray. Like Airbrush Dreamin i have a passion for bobcats and whitetigers. And yes i have a grey scale set in the studio.

Tigers and indeed all other cats are my favourite subject:)

I see Haasje has posted a link to the thread I was talking about, so some cool info in there for you:thumbsup:

Still download the grey scale value finder, it will be easier to use than the one that comes on a standard colour wheel, it will be huge benefit in choosing the particular grey you might need, a lot of greys look darker or lighter than that actually are and you can only see their true value when you are able to isolate them:)
 
Sounds good my friend. I am doing a bobcat now and when im done for the day i will download and read that link.
 
If you are mixing greys it means you want to work with opaques and you will need a mix for every value in your picture. Just mix your black with transparent base and build up your values with that.
 
Payne's grey is a color mixed by and American artist called Payne - I think it was William. It is a mix of Prussian blue and carbon black. I mix it using 4 or 5 parts trans black and 1 part trans blue with my Golden paints. It is a great color for a black that looks black rather than brown black.
 
We all love good necro, so here is support for this necro thread from my end as well.

Gray scale : used Wicked white and Wicked Jet black


Shading:

20 trans: 20 transparent base drops + 1 drop of Wicked Jet black
Number on the cards is the number of the layers of that mix sprayed on the card

10 trans: 10 transparent base drops + 1 drop of Wicked Jet black
Number on the cards is the number of the layers of that mix sprayed on the card




20240321_180128.jpg

20240321_175847.jpg

20240321_175842.jpg
 
You are far too organised Husky!! :p
Seriously though. When I joined this forum, they were confusing me with formulas. So I took the plunge, ordered bunch of plastic business cards and start mixing colors on them so I have recipes for colors and I can see them with my own eyes.
 
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Seriously though. When I joined this forum, they were confusing me with formulas. So I took the plunge, ordered bunch of plastic business card and start mixing colors on them so I have recipes for colors.
It is a brilliant idea, and something I should do, off to amazon I go to look for folders and cards 😂
 
If you need diarrhea color no problem. I have a recipe :cool:
I have more colors then Createx is selling :whistling:
I wonted to take picture of all the recipes but unfortunately I needed to add them on top of others. No space on my desk...

View attachment 88230
nothing wrong with a little OCD !
you're set up looks perfectly logical to me, but I also have some cards ready to do the same thing when I start to take this airbrushing thing seriously !
 
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