Mixing recipe
How to mix dusty rose
Target
#C9949A
Recipe mixes to #C49598
Dusty rose is a pink that has been greyed almost to a neutral. The base is white, warmed with a part each of Yellow Ochre and Burnt Umber, and the pink comes last from a single part of Alizarin Crimson. The earths are what make it dusty; without them it is just a tint of crimson.
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 9 parts Titanium Whitepile #F6F6F4
- Work in 1 part Yellow Ochrepile #F4DCB8
- Work in 1 part Burnt Umberpile #CFB8A1
- Add 1 part Alizarin Crimsonpile #C49598Strong tinter. Add it in knife-tip doses and mix fully before adding more.
A simpler mix
Dropping the Yellow Ochre and using white, Alizarin and Burnt Umber alone gets within three ΔE and saves a tube. It comes out a little cooler and more lilac. Use it for rose in shadow; the ochre version is warmer and the better match in light.
What goes wrong
The ochre and umber stage is a pale putty color, and the Alizarin turns it to rose in a very small amount. Alizarin is transparent and strong against this much white, so add it a knife-tip at a time; a half part too much is a candy pink. If the mix looks muddy, it has too much umber, and more white and a speck of Alizarin brings it back. Alizarin Crimson (flagged by the mixing guide as moving a pile hard for its share) is the paint to be careful with here: it goes in last, a knife-tip at a time, and a little too much cannot be mixed back out.
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.