Truely Neutral Colors for Paint Jobs

[HoosierQ]

Sarduy made a post and showed a wonderful paint job. I commented on the use of colors neither warm nor cool...truely neutral. I have gotten a professional artist to comment here on how to create truely neutral colors that not only blend into a variety of backgrounds but are hard for the eye to focus on.

Some of this may seem counter intuitive but this is all based on 50 years of study in color theory. I've got the basic color I think folks here on THR are going to want to paint guns, grey, green, brown, and tan. Here goes...

Nuetral Gray - Most commercial grays are slightly blue-a truly neutral gray is a mixture of this kind of gray and a tan that is not too yellow -(more like a light brown).
Neutral Green -To make a neutral gray green use a tan or brown that is yellowish and add gray or black.
Neutral Brown - Neutral brown is made by adding black to red or orange with just a little white to keep in neutral.
Neutral Tan - Neutral tan can be made by adding white to brown (white tends to be bluish so a tiny bit of yellow or orange might be needed to counter this).

Hope this helps on your next paint job project.

 

[HoosierQ]

USAnumberONE

I will attempt to get some answers for you and reply. Might take a couple of days.

 

[Coltdriver]

Krylon makes camo paint that is perfectly tinted You can buy all the colors at Wal Mart. Two grays, tan, brown, green, black and white. They look very nice and are the appropriate sheen.

 

[HoosierQ]

Indeed. DuraCoat also has a lot of well thought out camo colors. They have two coyote browns, 3 or 4 tans, 3 or 4 greens, etc. For myself, when I get my Saiga 7.62x39, I am going to DuraCoat the whole thing one of the coyote browns.

Camouflage is a fascinating subject and one could play with colors for months to find the right one.

 

[GunDoctor]

Very true HoosierQ. Thats something I've worked on for some time now. I like what you said about the gray and tan mixture. I think you are thinking of a medium toupe color. That is a very good color for many areas.
My father was a painter. You mix colors like an artist.

 

[HoosierQ]

Both of my parents are art school graduates. My mother was a professor of color theory for 35 years. I grew up on a farm with a woods so I was just as likely out hunting and tracking game as helping out in the art studio.

In art school, they teach color theory so that painters can make their work "pop" or come alive off of the canvas. What I have posted here is exactly what a color professor would advise against...making things neutral so that they do not come alive. Drab in the truest sense...exactly what we want in a camo scheme.

 

[GunDoctor]

"Drab in the truest sense...exactly what we want in a camo scheme."

Amen brother.