Stealing Color: Formulas
Stealing Color, Paint Mixing Web Application now Available
Lately I have abandoned oil painting in lieu of this other method, which I find curious and preferable. The commercial production of colors, is heavily dependent on mathematics. Since I find some of the most interesting color relationships to be based on those that occur in the natural world, I began a process, which I call "stealing color". This means that i engage in a practice of taking digital photographs. I then modify the colors and export swatch palettes from those photographs, or modified photographs. Once I have the CMYK formulas for these colors, I run those numbers through an algorithm that I developed, and this gives me an equivalent for the color in tempera paints.
Tempera paints are formulated on CMYK. So, this process works fairly well. I also have a similar formula for commercial house paint. I use the tempera for small paintings and the commercial acrylic latex paint for larger works. These color formulations, eventually allow me to work more in the manner of drawing, with carefully selected colors. I have used this process for some recent social commentary works as well.
Using the printed color swatches, I can line up the swatches, pick the colors I am planning on using and mix up the exact color. There is minimal guesswork involved. This method gives a very good approximation and if done correctly, only slight modifications to the colors are needed.