JIMC

Can I arrive at a darker, deeper shade of red by adding small amounts of black into the red, in this case I'm thinking about starting with Fasred, or do I darken the red by the way I back it....backed with white would be a bright red and backed with black would be a dark red.
Any siggestions would be helpful

Thanks
Jim C

Espiritus

As a general rule of thumb I don't darken a color using black but instead it's complimentary color. Red's complimentary color is green and adding just a little should enrich and deepen the color. You still want to back it with white or silver, though. Backing it with another dark color I think will make it dull and muddy. Just my 2 cents.

Wency_TA03R-PRO

Got the same principle in here bro!!..

Qranc

iTrader: (1)

Backing with a darker color will make it dull as mentioned before ... "muddy". Backing with white or silver makes the color "pop".

JIMC

Thank you Espiritus!!!
ditto Wency_TA03R-PRO!!!
ditto Qranc!!!!

Qranc

iTrader: (1)

If you have one locally you can head down to a local art supply shop and check out some color swatches, often they will give you color formulations.

What you want to do is match up the color red you have. Once you have an equivelant color swatch or chip then look for one that is the color red you want. Compare the formulations and you should see what color they added to make the red you want from the red you have.

Sounds like a lot of work and it kinda is but you will arrive at the color (or close to it) that you want instead of mixing colors experimenting. Trouble is if you are not exact with your formulation and you need to make another batch you might have slight variations in color density.

If you are thinking about using photoshop or something like that to compare color it really won't work simply because it's a different color space. Youre comparing additive color to subtractive. paints and inks etc. work differently with light than does digital color. That is to say, the values you get in photoshop are based the color guns in the monitor adding light. Pigments, paint etc. subtract light.

Unless of course .... you have digital pantone matching charts you could get the formulations from illustrator or pagemaker.

blah blah .... sorry. Got too involved.

GO to the art store, or even Home Depot! Match the paint you want and the paint you have, get them to tell you the formulation difference! they can tell you what they add to get the richer color!