Pigment pair · PW6 + PB15:3
Mixing Titanium White and Phthalo Blue
Nine steps from one to the other, worked out with a spectral model rather than by averaging screen colors. Half and half gives #4081AA. Click any step to open it in the mixer.
The full range, Titanium White to Phthalo Blue
Ratios are parts by volume, the way you would put them out on a palette.
These two cancel each other almost completely. Somewhere in the middle of this range sits a gray with no lean at all, which makes this one of the most useful pairs on a palette: it gives you shadows and grays without a tube of black.
The quietest point: #F8F7F3
At pure this pair is at its most neutral. That is the mixture to reach for when you need a shadow or a gray that still belongs to the rest of the painting.
What you are working with
| Pigment | Index | Strength | Opacity | Lightfast | In |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titanium White | PW6 | 8/10 | opaque | excellent | Oil |
| Phthalo Blue | PB15:3 | 10/10 | transparent | excellent | Oil, Watercolor |
Strongest white there is. Lightens a mixture but also chalks it; use as little as you can get away with to keep the chroma.
Extremely strong. Always start with a fraction of what looks right; it takes over any mixture.
Now do it with your own paints
This page assumes two tubes. The mixer works from everything on your palette at once, and from a color you pick out of your own photo.