Polymer Clay Color Mixing – Color Saturation
Video #437: Do you know which one of these Premo Sculpey blues is stronger … Ultramine or Cobalt?
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IN THIS POST: — color mixing — cobalt blue — ultramarine blue — saturation — artist pigments — (Topics marked with an asterisk* are discussed in the Comments Section below).
Topics Covered In This Video:
- As you’re learning more about polymer clay color mixing, one of the things you are going to want to keep in mind, is the strength of the color.
- Not all colors in polymer clay are equal. Some are stronger, some are weaker.
- This is really similar when you are working with color mixing things like oil paints, artists acrylics and water color paints.
- I don’t know if earth based pigments are actually used in polymer clay, but I can tell you that the Premo Sculpey colors at least have comparable properties to the artist colored paints which do use earth pigmentation.
- Today, I am going to talk about the color strengths of two different blues in the Premo color line, Ultramarine Blue and Cobalt Blue.
- Ultramarine Blue is on the cool side of the color wheel, which means it leans toward the purple side of the wheel.
- Cobalt Blue is on the warm side, which means it leans toward the green side of the color wheel.
- When you look at the two colors side by side, you may think that the Ultramarine Blue is a stronger color, simply because it looks darker than the Cobalt Blue. But in fact the opposite it true. Cobalt is the stronger one.
- In today’s video, I will show you how to do some simple mixing tests that will allow you to see better what I am talking about.
- As you will see by the mixed samples, Ultramarine is in fact half as strong as the Cobalt because it takes about twice as much Ultramarine to end up at a shade of blue that is roughly halfway between the Cobalt and the Ultramarine. If this sounds confusing, the video will clear things up for you.
- So the lesson here is that if you are using these two blues for creating your own color mixes, always be a little less stingy with the Ultramarine and a little more careful with the Cobalt, than what you might expect.
- These differences in color saturations happen because of the many different colors (pigments) that are used in polymer clay. The more you experiment with 50/50 mixes, the more you will understand how each color behaves, and therefore, you will gain a much better understanding of their mixing properties
- As a final note, please note that although every brand of polymer clay behaves differently, the principles of experimenting with 50/50 color mixes will be helpful no matter which clay you choose to use.
00:00:03 –> 00:00:08 Hi guys, its Cindy Lietz, your Polymer Clay Tutor, and in today’s PcT Mini Tute, we
00:00:08 –> 00:00:12 are talking about Polymer Clay color mixing and specifically, color saturation.
00:00:12 –> 00:00:18 Now, as you’re learning more about Polymer Clay color mixing, one of the things that
00:00:18 –> 00:00:23 you’re gonna need to keep in mind is the strength of the color.
00:00:23 –> 00:00:30 Now, not all colors in polymer clay are equal, some are stronger, some are weaker, this is
00:00:30 –> 00:00:37 really similar to color mixing when you’re working with things like acrylic paints and
00:00:37 –> 00:00:44 oil paints and water colors and things, and I don’t know if they’re actually using
00:00:44 –> 00:00:45 pigment based…
00:00:45 –> 00:00:48 I mean earth based, pigment colors in polymer clay.
00:00:48 –> 00:00:55 But it is…the Premo line of polymer clay, they are using the same kind of color palette
00:00:55 –> 00:01:02 as the artist’s palette in the art… painting line, and Premo specifically has lots of different
00:01:02 –> 00:01:09 colors, and they’re based on the artist’s palette, and I’m gonna talk today, first
00:01:09 –> 00:01:17 about Blue, now, I’ve got two colors of Blue here, one is Ultramarine Blue and I’ve
00:01:17 –> 00:01:18 got Cobalt Blue.
00:01:18 –> 00:01:25 Ultramarine is on the cool side, it’s a lit…which means it’s a little bit closer
00:01:25 –> 00:01:32 to the Purple on the color wheel, and Cobalt Blue is on the warm side which means it’s
00:01:32 –> 00:01:35 a little closer to the Green on the color wheel.
00:01:35 –> 00:01:45 But, as you look at these two colors here, you may just think that the Ultramarine Blue…
00:01:45 –> 00:01:50 because it’s darker, you may just think that it is a stronger color than the Cobalt
00:01:50 –> 00:01:57 Blue which is obviously a lot lighter, and in this particular case, the opposite is true,
00:01:57 –> 00:02:00 now, I’ll show you how to prove that.
00:02:00 –> 00:02:05 Now I’ve got…I’ve rolled out a little bit of the Ultramarine Blue and a little bit
00:02:05 –> 00:02:11 of the Cobalt Blue, and I’m going to take a little cookie cutter here and cut out equal
00:02:11 –> 00:02:19 parts of these two colors and mix them together, now when I do this, we get an idea of what
00:02:19 –> 00:02:24 a 50-50 mix of the color would be, now I would keep blending this for a little bit until
00:02:24 –> 00:02:29 it was really thoroughly mixed, I’ve got one here that’s already been mixed, Now,
00:02:29 –> 00:02:39 if I take this 50-50 mix and lay it up on top of the Ultramarine Blue, you can see…or
00:02:39 –> 00:02:43 hopefully the camera picks this up nicely, you can see that there’s quite a color contrast
00:02:43 –> 00:02:52 between the two Blues, the mixed and the Ultramarine, when I lay this same mix on top of the Cobalt
00:02:52 –> 00:02:58 Blue, they’re… that difference isn’t as obvious, it’s a bit different, you can
00:02:58 –> 00:03:04 see it’s a little bit…got a little bit more Purple in it, but the color differences
00:03:04 –> 00:03:06 are not very strong.
00:03:06 –> 00:03:13 Which means that basically, visually, between the two here, it’s not really a 50-50 mix,
00:03:13 –> 00:03:18 it’s more like a three quarter, two parts of this and one part of this.
00:03:18 –> 00:03:25 I’ll show you another mix, I’ve done two parts of the Ultramarine and one part of the
00:03:25 –> 00:03:34 Cobalt Blue, and this laying up against the Ultramarine, has some contrast, as well as
00:03:34 –> 00:03:42 it has some contrast against the Cobalt Blue, so this actually…even though it’s not
00:03:42 –> 00:03:50 technically a 50-50 mix physically, visually, it is, it’s basically the middle part between
00:03:50 –> 00:03:56 these two colors, because you can see enough of a contrast between the two of them.
00:03:56 –> 00:04:02 So what… in actuality, even though this color here, the Ultramarine Blue, looks like
00:04:02 –> 00:04:09 it’s about twice as strong in strength as the Cobalt Blue, it’s actually half the
00:04:09 –> 00:04:16 strength, because it took the two parts of the Ultramarine to the one part of the Cobalt
00:04:16 –> 00:04:19 to make a 50-50 visual mix.
00:04:19 –> 00:04:23 So, I hope that’s making sense to you, it means that when you go to make your color
00:04:23 –> 00:04:31 recipes…you’re going to mix something together, you can be a little less stingy
00:04:31 –> 00:04:36 with the Ultramarine, and you need to be a little more careful with the Cobalt when you’re
00:04:36 –> 00:04:40 mixing it, because you make it a different color than what you’re expecting.
00:04:40 –> 00:04:46 Just because it’s visually dark, doesn’t mean it’s visually strong…I mean physically
00:04:46 –> 00:04:51 a strong color, and that’s just because of the pigment levels that are in these particular
00:04:51 –> 00:04:54 formulas for these particular clays.
00:04:54 –> 00:04:58 And that will be true for a lot of the other clays, you’ll find some of the colors are
00:04:58 –> 00:05:04 strong and some are weak, and you’ll get to know that if you play with these 50-50
00:05:04 –> 00:05:08 mixes and look at them against each other.
00:05:08 –> 00:05:13 So I hope you learned something from that, if you did, please press that like button
00:05:13 –> 00:05:15 we’d really appreciate it.
00:05:15 –> 00:05:21 And my question for you today is, were you aware that there was different color saturations
00:05:21 –> 00:05:24 in polymer clay?
00:05:24 –> 00:05:28 And would you like to learn more about color mixing in future videos?
00:05:28 –> 00:05:32 Please leave those answers in the comment section below we’d love to hear from you.
00:05:32 –> 00:05:37 And also, please subscribe to our channel, we have lots of new videos that come out every
00:05:37 –> 00:05:40 week and you’re not gonna want to miss a thing.
00:05:40 –> 00:05:42 We’ll see you next time and bye for now.
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Resource Links:
- Related Video: Understanding Polymer Clay Color, by Making Mud
- Related Video: Color Plus 1 Polymer Clay Color Mixing Trick
- Related Video: Making Small Test Blends With Your Polymer Clay Colors
- Related Video: Mixing Custom Color Recipes Tutorial Intro
- Related Video: How To Mix Polymer Clay Tutor Color Recipes
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Oh by the way Michaels is also having a sale on PC. You have to pay $2.33 per 2 oz block and you only get that price if you buy 5 at a time. Not much of a sale really. Joanns is so much better.
Perfect time to stock up on clay. JoAnns is having a sale right through the weekend. $1.24 per 2 oz block.
I’m with Kelli. I’d love to learn more about color. I am so glad I found you on YouTube. This is the perfect time for me to return to polymer clay. I just received a settlement from an accident and I allotted myself so much money for a hobby and polymer clay is it.. I think I have enough tools, for the moment anyway, and I can always get clay on sale somewhere. Now I just need space to play. I’m almost finished with my room (maybe tomorrow) and then I’m going to rewatch all of the videos I purchased from on you. I have a couple of friends who want to learn so I am turning one of them on to you. (The other friend doesn’t do computers.) I appreciate that you are keeping the cost so reasonable. I know I’ll be able to afford at least a couple of back issues a month. Maybe someday I’ll be 1/8 as good as you are. That would be awesome!
Cindy,
Very interesting, I have a pretty strong background in art and color, and knew that about Colbalt, but still feel that I have a lot to learn, please make more of these very informative video’s, they are of great help and a great reference point! I think it’s very important for an artist to have access to this kind of information for future projects and I can’t think of a better starting point for any project than color!
I can’t get enough of your informational video’s, short of long!
Be well,
Joy :)
Hi Cindy~ I realize this video is almost 4 months old now~ but NEW to me!!! I absolutely LOVE LOVE ALL your color recipes. And this video is AMAZING and VERY informative, it would be great if you could do more mini tutes on the colors that have these unexpected results!! I am catching up on all the “clay news” so I am not sure if cobalt or ultra marine were some of the discontinued premo colors or not. I bought a crazy amount of both of these colors and a few others on the chopping block at that time……. I couldnt imagine trying to mix my favorite color recipes without them!!!
Fast forward 2 years or more and I am STILL trying to use up all that clay!! This video really helped me with a few of the color issues I have been struggling with~ not only with blue, red is another one that acts similar!
I would vote YES to one COLOR MINI TUTE A MONTH or maybe a paid~ mini color series???!!! I would pay for this info!!!
Thank You so Much for all the AWESOME Tips, Tutes, and being an AMAZING TEACHER!!!!!
Kelli
Wow Kelli, thanks so much for the kind words! What a nice thing to read hear this morning. SO glad to be of help with your color mixing. I will add your suggestion for more color mixing tutorials, to the list. It is a subject that is a challenge for many people!
That was sooooo interesting Cindy! Thank you!
I’ve become very interested in color saturation in the past year or so because of a program that teaches about clothing color according to “energy type.” It’s quite fascinating and this really helped me understand why a lighter value color would still not be considered a tint. I’ve been trying to create jewelry that works for the various energy types, too, so this is very helpful. Keep those color-mixing tutes coming, Cindy. I love playing with color!
would love more of these color mixing tutorials. Very interesting!
more color mixing videos ,plz. also I loved your blouse
Would love more of these color mixing tutorials. Very interesting!
Yes please…love colour mixing tutorials.
Your video really explains a lot…it gave me a “V-8 moment” where I wanted to smack my forehead and say “Of course!” Thank you so much…you know sometimes you just cannot see the forest for the trees!
Thanks Cindy.
I would also like to learn more about colour mixing. I would love to be able to mix the colours the same as a colour swatch like design seeds. Is this a complicated process?
Many thanks
Sharon
Hi Sharon, I will definitely be doing lots more videos on color mixing. To answer your question, is it complicated to mix colors the same as a swatch, the answer is yes for most people. That is why I do it for people by mixing up color recipe palettes.
I’ve always found color mixing to be intimidating but I love your explanations. More videos on color mixing would be great!
Very interesting indeed, Cindy – who knew! I for one would love more colour-mixing tutes! :-)
Great video Cindy. I just mixed 347 of your color recipes and learned a lot about color saturation. I also learned that just because one color looks similar to another it does not produce the results you are expecting. I would love to see more videos on color mixing and saturation.
It doesn’t surprise me, but no, I was not aware. I would very much like to learn more about this. Great video!
I would have thought that the darker blue would have stronger saturation. Really interesting!
I had NO idea there were differences in the pigmentation of clay! LOVE your colour videos. They are VERY interesting!
That was very interesting:)
Cindy, this video was wonderfully informative, please keep going on this topic line!
Thanks Cindy, I had no idea that two such colours could have such different intensity, as you said, I would have expected the Ultramarine Blue to be ‘stronger’ as it is darker. Yes, I found this very useful, I’d like to see how other colours vary in this way. It would also be interesting to see how the two different blues used in your experiment, would change another primary colour, e.g. red, yellow etc. Presumably each colour would affect the red and yellow in quite different ways.
Marion