Pigment pair · PW4 + PG7
Mixing Zinc White and Phthalo Green
Nine steps from one to the other, worked out with a spectral model rather than by averaging screen colors. Half and half gives #186A5B. Click any step to open it in the mixer.
The full range, Zinc White to Phthalo Green
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: #FBFAF7
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.
The same range with white added
Two parts titanium white to one part of the mixture above. White lifts the value but also takes the chroma down, which is why a tint is never simply a lighter version of the same color.
Phthalo Green is much the stronger of the two. The ratios above are by volume, so the first step away from pure Phthalo Green already changes a lot less than the last step towards it. Put out less than looks right and work towards the color; going back costs far more paint.
What you are working with
| Pigment | Index | Strength | Opacity | Lightfast | In |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zinc White | PW4 | 3/10 | semi-opaque | excellent | Oil |
| Phthalo Green | PG7 | 10/10 | transparent | excellent | Oil, Watercolor |
A soft, cool white for subtle glazes. Can crack in thick layers, so do not make it your main white.
Very strong and artificial in tone. Tame it with red or with an earth color.
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.