Mixing recipe
How to mix rust
Target
#AE5329
Recipe mixes to #AC5B3B
Rust is a dull red-orange. Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow make a clean orange-red, and one part of Ivory Black knocks it back to the color of oxidised iron. Three tubes from a common box, and the match is good without being tight.
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 6 parts Cadmium Redpile #E64333
- Work in 5 parts Cadmium Yellowpile #E85636
- Work in 1 part Ivory Blackpile #AC5B3B
Another route
Burnt Umber in place of the black lands in the same place with a warmer undertone. Pick it when the rust sits next to warm colors; the black version has a slightly greener cast that suits rust on cool, grey metal.
What goes wrong
The pile is a bright orange-red until the black goes in, and Ivory Black against the cadmiums moves fast. Add it in halves; a part too much turns rust to a dull brown. Both cadmiums are opaque, so if the mix looks too clean and bright it is the black that needs adding, not more of either. Ivory Black (tinting strength 4, where a cadmium is 1) 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.