Before we can better understand what Colors and Paint Mixing are all about we probably should take a step back and look at what makes up the colors in paint first:
What makes Color?
Through the history of paint, paint has always been made out of pigments and dyes. Pigments are, usually, naturally colored minerals that are un-dissolvable. This means that even when placed in water, they do not lose their hue. Dyes on the other hand are usually organic compounds that normally dissolve in water.
Early humans found pigments in charcoal, red-clay, talc, ochre, manganese oxide and hematite. While early forms of dyes were found in the form of egg, blood, milk and other animal fats.
As technology has advanced, today you have synthetic pigments that are available and the pigment industry alone worldwide is worth billions of dollars.
What are colors?
Grade school teaches us that there are three Primary colors: Red, Yellow and Blue. These exist in equidistance on a color wheel:
The Three Primary Colors: Red, Yellow & Blue
Combine each of these Primary colors and you have the secondary colors:
The Three Secondary Colors: Green Orange and Violet.
Now combine a Primary and a Secondary color together and you get the Intermediary Colors. You do not get the Tertiary Colors. To get those, you need to combine just the Secondary Colors and so forth.
The Intermediary Colors
As you can see, there really is no limit to the number of hues that you can combine. This color wheel below shows you thousands of hues, but it is probably nowhere near the full number of colors that we can produce – especially today with synthetic pigments available.
Common Color Wheel.
What is Paint Mixing?
Paint manufacturers cannot be expected to create every hue of paint in an almost infinite palette. Even with the advancements of technology, having an infinite number of perishable paints in one’s store would be a logistical and unpractical nightmare.
So paint manufacturers developed Paint Mixing. Paint Mixing is literally the mixing of different hues to create new ones. HOWEVER, as most paint jobs require several liters of specific hues, what you mix, and how much you mix, becomes the question. Imagine having a building with paint hues that are close, but not quite the same.
Which is why modern Computerized Paint Mixing is a Godsend. Computerized Paint Mixing Machines:
- Identify the color that you want.
- Inject the precise colors that you need to create what you want
- Mix the colors together.
Creating a unique paint just for you. Here’s one of the Color Mixing Machines that you can find in MC Home Depot:
Click here to learn more about Davies.
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