Mixing a Can of Paint

When you've gone to the paint store to buy a can of paint, have you really understood what goes into the can? I had a general idea, but being a woman of science, I needed proof to confirm my suspicions. I thank Kevin Greenlee over at Nayer Paint, a Benjamin Moore retailer in Gig Harbor for enlightening me.

I showed up with 12 empty bottles hoping for a lesson in universal tints. Kevin thought it would be best to explain the process through the actual mixing of a can of paint.

He said "go ahead, pick a color." I decided upon "Putnam Ivory", HC-39, a warm, soft neutral I had recently seen applied in a client's bedroom.













Then, he brought the formula for "Putnam Ivory" up on the computer. Here you can see the individual colorants that make up this hue and their proper amounts for mixing: yellow oxide (OY), black (BK), orange (OG) and grey (GY).

Before he started mixing though, I had to first be educated on the different bases used by Benjamin Moore: pastel, being the lightest in value, medium, deep and ultra deep.

The pastel base is thick and opaque and consumes almost the entire can, whereas the ultra deep's can leaves room for a lot of colorant to be added. It was translucent. Here they are brushed out side by side.

Starting with the can of pastel base, Kevin added the colorants one step at a time until the mixture was compete. At each step, he brushed out the paint on a white card. First black, which rendered a beautiful light cool grey. Then the orange which turned it into a dusty mauve which was not at all what I was expecting. Then grey, which turned it violet, and finally, the yellow oxide. The mixture was complete.

The most amazing discovery was that the colors that were brushed out at each step of the way made up a beautiful harmonious palette in its own right. I would love to experiment with other formulas to see if the parts of the whole always make for such harmony.

Kevin filled up my empty bottles and now I have new color tools with which to experiment. And of course, I also have many new unanswered questions. But isn't that what makes the study of color so fascinating? www.eb-color.com