Mixing recipe
How to mix cream
Target
#F3E6C8
Recipe mixes to #F5DFBD
Cream is white with the smallest possible amount of Yellow Ochre: one part in twelve. The ochre is gentle and opaque, so the tint stays soft and does not go lemony. Two tubes from a common box.
The recipe
Step by step
Build the pile from the biggest, lightest component and work toward the strongest tinter. Check the pile against each swatch before moving on.
- Start with 11 parts Titanium Whitepile #F6F6F4
- Work in 1 part Yellow Ochrepile #F5DFBD
What goes wrong
With this little tint the recipe is really a direction rather than a measure. Put out the white, add ochre with a knife-tip, and stop when the white is no longer white. At twelve parts the engine's nearest step is a shade darker and warmer than the target; if your cream needs to be paler, more white is the only move. Adding Cadmium Yellow instead of ochre gives a cleaner but colder cream that reads as pale lemon.
Related colors
Results vary with brand, lighting and medium. Acrylic dries a touch darker than it looks wet. Treat this as a mixing aid, not a lab instrument: it tells you which tubes to reach for and roughly in what proportion. Fine-tune the last stretch by eye.