How to Mix Paint Colors to Make Plum
- 1). Set up your palette with multiple reds, such as quinacridone, magenta and alizarin. Set up a few blues such as ultramarine, cobalt and cerulean. Put out a few earth tones like burnt sienna and raw sienna, and even some greens like sap green and permanent green light. Squeeze out some black and white onto the palette.
- 2). Mix one of the reds with one of the blues, such as magenta and cobalt, quinacridone and cerulean, or alizarin and ultramarine, using a palette knife. Add a little bit of white to get an idea of what the color looks like. Add a touch of green paint if the color looks too much like purple and not enough like plum.
- 3). Try mixing a red, especially quinacridone or alizarin, with black to make a deep red plum color. Add a little bit of blue if the color appears too red. Mix some white into the color to really see what the color looks like.
- 4). Mix a blue, like cobalt, with a tiny dab of red, like magenta, and black to make a deep blue plum color.
- 5). Mix a sienna earth tone with a little bit of red and a little bit of blue to render a brownish-looking plum color.
- 6). Add more or less white to make a lighter or darker tint of plum. Use black to shade and neutralize the plum color. Adding black will create a grayer plum than adding pure color.
