Blending Colors

You don't need an airbrush to blend colors. Jim Hingst provides a tip for making an oil-based medium used to achieve a smooth color gradation.  

I wanted the eyes of the Tiki head in the photo shown below to glow from a bright red on the outside to chrome yellow in the center. To blend the colors I first brushed on a medium. Then I painted yellow, orange and red. Using a small bristle brush I mixed the colors until I achieve the effect that I was looking for.

Using a medium not only extends the paint but also improves how the paint flows and increases its open time. These features allow you more time to create smoother transitions from one color to another.

Sign painters use two different mediums for blending. One medium is a mixture of 50% Danacolors D406 Smith’s Cream and 50% Boiled Linseed Oil, thinned with mineral spirits to the desired viscosity. As an alternative, painters also use Winsor & Newton Liquin. Both mediums work well.

A medium was used in blending the colors of the sky and the background behind the "BEER" reading.

The medium may also be mixed directly into your enamel paints. If you decide to use Smith’s Cream with 1 Shot paints, limit the additive to no more than 10%.

The glue chipped and gilded  Indian motorcycle panel displays a gradation of colors from  a dark Venetian red on the ends to bright red in the middle. Between the two I painted a mixture of the two reds and then blended the colors. 

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About Jim Hingst: After fourteen years as Business Development Manager at RTape, Jim Hingst retired. He was involved in many facets of the company’s business, including marketing, sales, product development and technical service.

Hingst began his career 42 years ago in the graphic arts field creating and producing advertising and promotional materials for a large test equipment manufacturer.  Working for offset printers, large format screen printers, vinyl film manufacturers, and application tape companies, his experience included estimating, production planning, purchasing and production art, as well as sales and marketing. In his capacity as a salesman, Hingst was recognized with numerous sales achievement awards.

Drawing on his experience in production and as graphics installation subcontractor, Hingst provided the industry with practical advice, publishing more than 150 articles for  publications, such as  Signs Canada, SignCraft,  Signs of the Times, Screen Printing, Sign and Digital Graphics and  Sign Builder Illustrated. He also posted more than 325 stories on his blog (hingstssignpost.blogspot.com). In 2007 Hingst’s book, Vinyl Sign Techniques, was published.

Slides of Jim's Artwork

© 2016 Jim Hingst