Mixing recipe
How to mix purple
Target
#7A5C9E
Recipe mixes to #7C5C9D
A plain purple from a common box comes out grey, so this recipe uses the library: white with a part each of Quinacridone Rose and Dioxazine Purple. The rose keeps it warm and clean, the Dioxazine supplies the depth, and the match is within a ΔE.
The recipe
This one reaches outside the common 10-tube starter box. The paints above are from Masstone’s full pigment library.
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 2 parts Titanium Whitepile #F6F6F4
- Add 1 part Quinacridone Rosepile #E981AEStrong tinter. Add it in knife-tip doses and mix fully before adding more.
- Add 1 part Dioxazine Purplepile #7C5C9DStrong tinter. Add it in knife-tip doses and mix fully before adding more.
A simpler mix
Titan Buff and Dioxazine Purple, three to one, is a two-tube route that is a touch greyer and lands within two ΔE. It is the one for a muted purple in shadow or against bright colors; the three-paint mix is cleaner.
What goes wrong
Both color pigments are strong tinters in white. Add the rose first, to a clear pink, then the Dioxazine in small doses until the purple arrives. Too much Dioxazine and it is a blue-purple with no life; too much rose and it is magenta. If you have only Ultramarine and Alizarin, expect a dustier purple, and use a clean white and plenty of it. Quinacridone Rose (flagged by the mixing guide as moving a pile hard for its share) and Dioxazine Purple (tinting strength 5, where a cadmium is 1) are the paints to be careful with here: they go 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.