I find the "big chart exercise" is helpful to find unexpected colors I would not have thought of combining. The big chart is a good starting point to then try the other method shown on the small cards. My big chart was also visually attractive so i hung it in my studio! The first time I did one of these big charts I noticed the same thing that you're repeating colors, so rather than doing all the colors 50/50 I did them 25/75, so I am skewing to one color in each version (like what was shown on the small cards). I still would recommend the big chart, but the suggestions are good if you're frustrated with it and need some ideas. I can imagine that the small cards do take a long time to do and so does the big chart! Thanks for putting these ideas out there!

Brush miles are never a waste. You get lots of practice painting a chart, making even flat washes and mixing colors, without the pressure of "creating art." You also get to explore many mixes you might not have thought of. There are a lot of ways to address your criticisms of this type of mixing chart. I have seen plenty of people just make a triangle chart with only one mix, and when I do it, I make two different colors - one leaning towards one, and one leaning towards another. If you want to mix all the steps between two colors, that is a different exercise. If you want combos of three colors, that is another different exercise. All of which are valuable and good for different reasons -- don't conflate them! It's fine if you don't like to make mixing charts personally, but clearly a lot of us do. I make mixing charts as well as individual swatch cards, which are obviously easier to use to make a color story or palette. I do agree that individual cards are superior to swatching multiple colors on a larger sheet, so that you can pick and choose from everything, without looking at other distracting colors. Another issue I see with your charts is that you didn't swatch the original color -- or even note what it was -- or the pigment code. You just put "warm yellow, warm blue" etc as if they are all the same. They are not! How will you mix this color again you have just labeled "warm green" without knowing what paints you used?

I understand the 5 points that you are making in this video and I appreciate all of your advice and time in teaching us. But, I don't fully agree with you about there being no value in the big chart exercise. I do a lot of nature journaling with a limited palette. I do not have any neutrals, in the paint I carry in my limited palette, as I'm trying to keep the palette very small and easy to use while on location in nature. I have a big mixing chart with all the colors on my palette (11 total colors) and I refer to the chart often when I need to know what colors make neutrals and some other combinations too. I know the chart does not show the full range of combinations but it is a starting point and reference for me to have when I'm on location. All the color swatches are wonderful but not practical when you are carrying a minimal pack into the woods or on a hike.

I did the “big chart” with my India inks, it did make me realize I LOVE all the other colors mixed with brown, it makes a really pretty muted range. But that’s about all I learned from it

These 2D charts are amazing and very revealing! The problem, however, is the number of such charts you would need to map out a typical palette. If you have a simple split primary palette plus a convenience earth color plus black, there are already 56 charts required to capture all possible combinations of three colors and the number goes up steeper and steeper the more colors you add. Also there is significant redundancy required because the same two color combination will appear on multiple charts. And then there is glacing, which is much more complex than mixing, because the order of the color layers matters...

When I make the multiplication chart rather than going for lighter and darker value I create two different mixes with one and then the other colour for example if it's a mix of blue and yellow then one colour will be blue with a little yellow and the other yellow with a little addition of blue. The other charts are great too so the more the merrier I guess :)

You know what? I'd like to see some credit given to us for doing THAT kind of color chart. I do it to initially get acquainted with my palette, how it flows, how it dilutes and the 50/50 mixing - it's a *start* and could be acknowledged as such. Then I move on to other forms of color swatching - cool/cool, warm/warm and warm/cool and so forth. Good video, really appreciated it, but don't come down hard on us old-school color swatchers. Thanks! :-)

Totally agree I’ve never found those big mixing charts very useful, I made a couple when I started in watercolour and never looked at them again. They do give beginners a reason to try mixing different combinations but IMHO there’s much better ways to explore that which are less tedious and open up more possibilities.

As a super beginner I did that chart and thoroughly enjoyed it, and saw some unexpected and useful results, but now having seen your suggestions (especially that 3 colour mixing one!), I am super excited to try it out... I think they all have a place in the learning experience (yours maybe more as the next step in learning colour mixing). I found this video super helpful and exciting, thank you!!!

Tbh I feel like the color mixing charts were INTENDED for when you have a very limited or small palette of colors. Like I know the Daniel Smith primary colors starter kit, shows how to make a color mixing chart and encourages it because you are starting out with only 6 colors and 3 of them are cool tones and the other 3 are warm colors and so when you do a mixing chart the amount of colors you can achieve with just those 6 colors is almost limitless. The color mixing charts are also INTENDED to help show the different, and difference in, colors you can achieve by mixing your warm colors and your cool colors. Mixing a pyrrol scarlet with french ultramarine is going to be drastically different than when you mix Quinacridone Rose with the french ultramarine because one red is cool and one red is warm. Know what i mean? So color charts arent MEANT to have more than like 5 or 6 colors across the top and down the side but i think people wanted to swatch ALL their colors prob just for fun and then these charts started getting way too big, tedious and hard to actually utilize.

It's not necessarily only a change in value. For my first large chart, I was taught to change the amount of each color to get a sense of the wider possibilities. This way you are actually making new colors, much as you do on your cards. ALL of these methods can be valuable. We should do what helps us best as we become ready to learn such things.

This is so funny, every time I look at one of these colour charts I feel confused and a little frustrated, I honestly thought it was just me! I am actually really good at colour mixing, it has always come really naturally to me and I always do my charts or mixing exercises similar to how you do or just a straight value chart or 2 pigments at a time, clearly labeled. So nice to know I'm not just a weirdo.

I'm really surprised to see someone post this. I find my color charts invaluable and a huge time saver for mixing paints, no guessing, just a quick glance at my chart. Additionally, you did something incorrect here by simply diluting for your second color box. The boxes should have a shift towards one color, not diluted - so a yellow and blue mixed together produces a box with with green with a blue shift (cool) and another box with green with a yellow shift (warm).

Thanks for this. I like the fact that these method gives coherent swatches rather than my previous huge luminous chaos.

Thank you for saving me all that time that I didn't have to spend doing the old school charts. I learned so much from your Mud and Neutral classes!

It’s not either/ or though. A basic mixing chart doesn’t teach about colour temperature, it teaches basic mixing. Once you have an idea what a 50/50 mix looks like you can create other mixing charts and play with varying values, play with mixing warm and cool colours. I feel like you made this chart sound way more confusing than it actually is. You said the colours go along the side edges but they run diagonally in pure mass tone. How you mix on either side is up to you - whether you include tints or varying ratios. Learning colour theory is so dependent on actually playing and experimenting that it’s a shame you would discourage anyone from doing this.

Thanks Ashley for this video! I must say that I never did the watercolor chart because it overwhelmed me a lot. I did find this video helpful!

I like the chart, I use mine a lot, because I make one for each pallet I use. I think whether you like the big chart or not is a personal choice, some people will get a lot of value and others wont. It is best to try different kids of charts and see what works best for you personally.

The color table has helped me to understand how to obtain other colors. I think that with the help of a color wheel can open up many opportunities if one knows how light or dark it is.Darkness can reach your color palette... It helped me know cold to warm colors. Maybe for someone with a lot of experience like you this is a waste of time but for beginners this It is pure gold to understand that a palette of 24 colors can be turned into 500 or more. I think that with experience one is improving and searching, but above all it is better to know about the harmony of color. with the color wheel

I made that chart a long time ago for a class, and while I understood how to make it and gave me the very basics of color mixing, it didn’t really give me good information about cool and warm tones and what should not be mixed together even if they could be mixed. That was the one and only time I made that chart. I do prefer the way you do it. It’s so much easier to see everything and to combine different color schemes (?) from different charts like you did.

I love the 3 color chart idea!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for saying it. I don't necessarily think it's a complete waste of time- playing with paints and colors and mixing even 50/50 mixes still results in something learned. However; I do agree that there is MORE information and more to learn with your other methods. I made a similar chart to the 50/50 one except instead of tiny squares (where you can only fit a tiny square of one color), I made the chart with rectangles. And I used a small flat brush to make little lines of colors in the rectangles. And I could fit around 8-10 colors. A gradual gradient mix between two colors. With this I made a "GREENS" chart. Blues on the top and yellows on the side. These 2 color mixing charts are really valuable for seeing your possibilities with secondary colors

Thank you for validating my decision lol. I like to swatch my mixes separately in my journal, & explore all the colors I can make. Then I typically paint a small picture next to them with those colors. It makes me happy. The chart doesn't make me happy.

I do my charts just like this for all my sets and I love the variety and possibilities they show me!This is just one kind of chart for a particular reason and I do many other charts and this video makes all of this extremely complicated and no fun at all

I only do half of a mixing chart and try to mix the colors equally. For me these charts are just to get to know my palette better. I have been setting up a new palette 2 weeks ago and painted a quick color chart. The chart is still hanging on my wall and yes I could make it bigger but there would be not enough space for 16 colors. I think I'm very type B with these charts and don't need a grid. 😅😊

I made the typical color mixing chart that everyone makes and it really didn’t help me learn to mix colors. I learned that on my own. I’ve always gravitated towards a 3 primary palette and most of the time I don’t even use additional colors because I don’t actually know how they interact with each other in a practical way. I’m definitely going to try some swatching using your methods!

Thank you for the video! I have done that kind of chart just to see how it comes out. Now all I can think to do with it is hang it up, it is kinda pretty! But what I really needed was the info you get from your kind of charts. I’m looking forward to learning more.

Oh my....and to think I had similar frustration with the larger chart....but thought it was "just me". Thanks for sharing alternatives that are actually more useful for inspiring new combinations. I cand wait to make both your 3 and 4 combo versions.

Thank you! I've gotten nothing out of big charts, so I went this way. It helps so much.

I did a traditional chart with my limited palette of 6 colors so it wasn’t overwhelming. For the two mixes I varied the proportions of the colors I noticed too that it didn’t showcase the range of values or color mixes but it gave me an idea of what color mixes to start with and I do a color thumbnail of my scene before painting to test the mixes and adjust the colors. Honestly your smaller charts look more overwhelming because it looks like you have to do so many of them before you start a painting. I do one master chart when I switch to a different paper which is at most twice a year and then I do one color thumbnail at the beginning of each painting but that’s it. A 12-color chart would be overwhelming for me too.

Thank you so much for this video. I made one with 8 color tubes but not for hundred others that I ended up buying after that first set. Always thought of making charts but didn't want to make this giant one having too many colors. This is clearer direction. Thanks again!

The times table chart was really helpful to me when I started as it gave me at a glance a color I could get from my particular pallet. It would get me in the ball park so to speak then all I needed to do was to tint or adjust it to my needs. In art class I didnt want to carry around a lot of mixing charts just the one with a color wheel to get me close when I was having trouble was all I needed. Now I never use it as I automatically just mix what I need. It was a very useful tool to start with the aid of a color wheel. Mixing thousands of little swatches looks more time consuming to me but hey whatever works for you. We all like different ways of doing things.:)Thank you for your video its great to share ideas.

I like the big chart, is aestetically pleasant and the time passed with your paintbrush is never a waste of time.

It’s like going into a fabric shop and trying to pick out which fabrics look good together by walking around without the fabric in hand!

Beautiful video and information! Thank you for such clear reasons - without all the contrived explanations - just clear, concise color info!

the simple colorchart is just to get a idea whati is possible or not with two colors ... for examble cad. red light and ultramarine, or magenta as red is a very big difference. I know that the color range between two colors are endless if you want to play with all these... you will get never a pretty violett if you use the wrong red, that´s why I make a simple color chart for me and my own practice. for every color work I pick up 1, 2, or 3 colors as my primaries just for fun. I learn on this way a lot about all the pigments in every color that I have and I´ve found some very useful color combinations that surpricing me a lot with many skintones between, or springgreen, without any green and so on... I like to use limited palettes for my experiments :D

Color charts are useful and fun to explore your palette. Advanced swatches should be intentionally used to target color combinations of interest whether it’s two three or even more. You have to tell the audience about exponential growth in mixing all these hues and values ….

I really appreciated your video on this. I am a newbie to watercolors -- if you consider being at it for six months being a newbie -- and I have found that watercolor chart to be confusing and unhelpful. Actually, it has made it feel more like I am doing math than having fun with watercolors. So, it is a relief to hear you tell why it isn't the best way to swatch and learn mixing! Thank you. I like doing the swatches in a smaller format for how I will plan to pick my colors for a special painting I am going to start -- or when I get a new pan or group of tubes, I like to just see how the individual colors can be applied to water to make stronger and weaker (vibrant and pastel) hues from each color. I have tried doing the basic three primary color mixing with a circular chart and in a format using small squares of paper to mix a limited (cool and dark primaries) before starting a painting. But I have to admit, I don't feel I am great at getting the colors I like so I do like the 24 pan sets where the greens and earth tones are available for me with less mixing of primaries. I do want to get better at this though. I think my painting will be more transparent and beautiful when I can get a better grasp of this.

Oh, so it's not just me who tried the grid chart mixing and thought it was a "giant waste of time." Very cool tutorial, thanks.

This was really helpful - those big charts really are like a maze to me, too. Shame how people feel like this is a personal attack, lmao.

OMG I LOVE YOU! I'm new to art and have avoided that chart for months. I've been mixing and making cards as I go. That chart looked so overwhelming, I couldn't ever use it; it would just be an exercise. PLUS!!! I have been trying to figure out how to make a 3 color chart that was useful. So thank you for that! That was the whole reason I came to KZfaq. I thought I was going to have to learn how to do this, to see if I could alter it. (Which, I just realized I might because I can use the side row, but push everything one box down to get some interesting combinations. ) So you helped me with both! Don't listen to the nay sayers. Some people can't use those charts and need an alternate version. Thank you for providing that!

As a beginner i was having a hard time understanding the chart at all lol, now that you explained it i understand how it works, thank you.

Thank you for this. I was actually thinking of making a chart, but to be honest I was hesitating because just like you, I find it really difficult to understand because I'm seeing a lot of different colors and values all at the same time and nothing's clicking right to me from that. I prefer more your way, it's more organized and cohesive. And you can actually see how many colors you can get in just mixing two or three colors. It's more detailed and it seems helpful in understanding the colors especially if one has a very limited number of colors to use.

i love the videos you host!! looking forward to seeing more of you

Quite attractive, easier to see and make a decision while painting it in preparation of the painting. Thank you

Never made a chart like this, and nw I'm happy I didn't. I will start making some of the smaller swatch cards, it makes so much more sense to have the gradations next to each other.

Absolutely agree with you. After reading some of the comments what you said is true. A color chart is used to give you information. I will admit doing it could yield color combinations that I wouldn’t have known exist but honestly… after doing this chart it’s more difficult to follow it than effective. It ultimately is not an effective chart. What you proposed is more effect.

Winsor & Newton did one for their florals set of 8 colours. It was mindblowing. My only regret was not spacing them out with white in between. It looks as if you had way too many colours. A palette of 8 is fine.

This explanation sounds very logical. I didn't swatch colors the old way because It looks like a mess that is hard to navigate. Those small pallets look more usable. BUT I don't know a better way to see what can you do with your big color pallet, like I have 24 colors and I want to have general overview on what colors I can mix out of it.

Terrific video, period. There are far better, and more natural, ways of learning to mix colors. Love the little cards with 2 colors only.

THIS. This is fantastic advice. A great video. I loved this. I feel like I am among enlightened beings.

So glad I found this video, I am a newbie and haven't done a mixing chart and neither much mixing, yet but had similar thoughts, in spite of the pretty look of the standard mixing chart, it just did not look easy to navigate and yes, overwheming.

You also need much larger pieces of paper to create those colour mixing chart, and it is a large, daunting task to create one of any size. This can be done bit by by bit, and it would b a fabulous way to record any mixes you create along the way. Thanks for the fabulous idea!

Thank you for this video.

Subscribed! Finally a channel that touched upon really helpful and interesting topics.

I also did a chart similar to the first one & did notice many times colors were same but just lighter/darker saturation! As a beginner it did help but find making the color magenta very difficult? Blue & red (cool’s make purples) but what can you add to make a real magenta? Ty & feel doing a few of the smaller ones can reference faster! Ty

Great Rant! Thanks.

Thank you!

I prefer the old school way. I rather see all of my options at a quick glance than have all those small cards to go through. I mean who can't line up 2 boxes? It's also easier to spot a color similar to what you are thinking and say... Oh I'm looking for that color but maybe a bit more red, so I'll add more red. It's pretty simple. I think someone is just trying to sell their class by putting down other's methods. Not a good etiquette.

I think this is a great video. Thank you

Yep. I don’t waste time with the big charts either. ☺️ thx.

Ashley, thank you for this. I have done several of the color charts that you say not to do and have thought the exact same thing - aren't I duplicating colors???? I did do one not too long ago just because I wanted to paint but had no inspiration. So it was kind of mindless painting just to free myself up! I do make swatch cards for myself more often now - for two reasons - so that I know what my color choices were for a particular painting and to make sure that the colors feel right together. So appreciate your input and perspective. Thank you!

I’ll make whatever kind of chart I want thank you very much

I agree on the big chart. Did one and knew there had to be a better way because I am not going to mix burnt umber and black--really! Maybe people who've pooh-poohed you think you're saying they've wasted time. If they've gotten value from doing it, great! While I didn't let the chart discourage me, I imagine many people without formal training would be. I take one color and little by little add more of the other one (so it is different enough) until I am very close to if not on the other color again. I do a nice stroke about 1/2" wide. I also do separate cards which show each color in a graded wash on its own. I've found the ranges to be much better to see at a glance than the diagonal crazy quilt chart. Thanks for putting this out there!

Thank you

Hello! I just bought the 2 courses that you recommend in this video at your website. I paid with ApplePay but as I didn’t register I couldn’t find where I can watch the courses I hope you help me with this Thank you

Good video, good point, thanks!. The simple color chart is pretty useless and this one takes much more time to make of course. I have three red, blue and yellow, warm and three same cool colors and i think it will take eight charts to get a completed overview. Then I have the already mixed none primary colors, those i will not put in system that gonna be way to much, this is for use how it is.

New painter here and getting accustomed to my new paint palettes and overcoming the "first step fear." The multiplication table palette mixer is a great way to understand my palettes, learn how to mix colors and clean my brush, learning how to avoid the mud. The multiplication table is a safe place for beginners to start. It also teaches painting within the lines and what happens when 2 wet lines touch. Not to mention how to keep from dipping your hand onto the wet paints. And regarding the claim "nobody is every going to mix paynes gray with raw umber," the ugly colors on my multiplication table teach me why nobody ever does. But if I'm going into a jungle to plein air paint the crocodiles, sloths, and mushrooms, those mud splotches are going to come in handy and I just might need "Paynes Umber" to capture the belly of a toad and make it stand out from the "black ivory umber" puddle he's nestled in. All this is not to say that I won't try your paint cards. They will definitely come in handy while I'm trying to decide which 5 colors I'll pack for my jungle trek. They also make a nice card catalog of swatches that is scalable. While professional artists probably don't need multiplication table mixers, don't dis them altogether

This was very interesting. Where are the links that are supposed to be posted with the video? Thanks

I fell into this chart making and never used it again.

yup, not agreeing with this. I love my charts, they are time consuming but also meditative and very useful if you have a couple of different palettes - one glance and you can know what range you can get from which palette. Also sometimes you can discover unexpected information - like which colour gives you light or dark, warm or cool neutrals. Only thanks to chart liek this i discovered how much i could do with perylene maroon and thank to that i went to more experimenting with it. I understand there are ways of doing charts that you personally like better but telling people to NOT ABSOLUTELY do this one is just... ugh. I mean you literally can do both, its just preference, do we have to turn everything on yt into clickbaity titles?

At 6:09, you explained you added yellow but why is there an orange swatch at the bottom too? And the black & greys at the top?

They don’t really help me so I get how you feel. I went on a website where they only do half of the chart but I just do mixing splotches a lot because these are pretty but they don’t help me.😭

I actually like your method of a color mixing chart, showing the 4 diff. variations of combining 2 colors. I can see enough range from combining the 2 colors. And also the addition of a third color is very clever. I can see the value of doing a warm primary and cool primary color chart and the range of colors you can get from it. This would have convinced me to just buy 3 primaries of the warm and cool and not have to spend money on the convenient colors. Wish I had seen this video sooner, bec. all the secondary and tertiary colors are there. It's so organized too. At 7 min., you showed the 2 big charts. They have brushstrokes at the top of the charts of a dark and then 2 shades of grey. What are those for?

This bigger chart does not make sense to me at all unless I’m missing something here. CY+CY≠bright yellow color produced. CG+CG≠produce a green color like that where they meet. WY+CY≠such a yellow color because there’s far too much orange (reds) in both colors to make it that yellow.

Wow Thank you! I often told my self those complicated charts were a waste of time. I kind of was becoming obsess and frustrated not to find the right chart. I Did manage to create a much simpler color chart for oils thought. I tried to transfer that patter into water color charts but got side tracked by so many useless charts... Thanks for making it much simpler much more practical. I would give it a try once again.

How to make sure that proportions of colors are right? Like, how do I know that I have 50% of paint A and 50% of paint B in my mix? Same question for 3 colors (33%,33%,33%). If course I not included water in those proportions.

Hi I think you did the first chart wrong, i thought one side of the color chart has more values of the color versus the other - instead of doing a lighter value you choose the ratio of paint differently like 1:3 3:1

I still don’t understand these color charts especially the big one-/frustrating at the least

If this is really done like a multiplication chart, then you would have numbers 1-12 along the top and down the side. But I dont' see ANY yellows on the top or the side, just a clump of 4 yellow tones together that were supposedly mixed from the oranges and pinks??? Seems like everyone does this kind of chart differently and I've seen some that have the full strength color on the diagonal, others leave the center diagonal blank, some have more saturated on one half and more pastel on the other, some have both sides seem to be the same. I'm just not sure which method you used because it wasn't a multiplication table Do you have a video where you show, maybe with fewer colors, how to make one of these charts?

No se repiten colores si en una columna pones mucho pigmento, en la fila medio y en la diagonal menos pigmento... al estilo de la web de Daniel Smith. Así es el color puro 100%, 75-25%, 50-50% y 25-75%..

how can i get color weel

❤❤

At roughly 2 minutes you mention that you have duplicates, in your case, a 100 percent value and a wash… how you are supposed to do the chart is one side (top row of colours) are the strongest pigment, and the vertical row is the non-prominent colour. This will give you a proper colour chart.

The swatch chart Alek Krylow shows in kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pt9hls14yNjTqXk.html seems useful to me; he uses warm colours along one edge, cool colours along the other, and does several stripes for each combination, adding an extra brushful of cool colour to the mix on each iteration.

*Have you ever made a traditional square chart like this? Did it help you or confuse you?*

I got lost when you started to explain your mixing chart. 😢

As a brand new student of watercolor I have no idea what you do with this chart. Other than a pretty chart I really don’t see a point.

Don't hate on my therapy... 😂

Charts never make a lot of sense in watercolor as water is part of formula and my chart could be so different that another’s with same colors 🤷‍♀️

Geeezzz do not waste your time on these complicated stuff. Make the simple chart and for the rest install a color mixing tool on your phone, works great with up to 3 colors....can change the % and see the outcome. Windsor colors are all in the library to choose from....gonna make this afternoon the big 'unusable waste of time' chart....

Short-sighted gatekeeping. Everyone tries to say what is "wrong" with people's preferences and they should stop doing something. Some people enjoy the process of doing something they know and understand.

never liked that chart. very hard to find colors for me, it's too confusing for my brain too much information all at once 😂 cards makes more sense to me and it's just easier on the eyes and mind

Yeah I don't like those too.

Great video and points but I'm way more confused about your mixing chart lol it makes absolutely no sense to me, no offense

I've done this type of chart in the past and absolutely hate it.

Smile a bit! It’s free!

This video could've been more helpful if u would mix the colors your way and name the video it as such. I'm sure you have valuable information but you choose to go thru the bad vibe route, all critique and no actual input other than show already made palettes and a discouraging rant.

This was simply a selling tactic. Telling the don’ts while not telling how. Instead it’s buy my class. Which is commonly known as clickbait because you have to go through the video to know she isn’t going to tell you how she does it. Selling a class is fine, great in fact, but say it in the beginning so those who don’t want to or can’t take a class to learn your method don’t waste their time trying to obtain knowledge but actually learn nothing.

You lost me…i wish you had actually shown making your style chart