Lightening a colour by x%?

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Tarkas
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Lightening a colour by x%?

Post by Tarkas »

Been looking at various websites trying to find matches for certain colours, and I keep seeing instructions like "use Bloggs Paints' shade ABC-123, lightened 10% with white." How? More exactly, how do you lighten a paint 10%? Mix it with white in a 9:1 ratio? 10:1? What about larger percentages? One site suggested lightening a colour by 40% but, naturally :roll:, didn't say how.

Any suggestions?
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aeroplanegripper
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Re: Lightening a colour by x%?

Post by aeroplanegripper »

Tarkas wrote: Mix it with white in a 9:1 ratio? Any suggestions?
Hi mate, with my limited experience on lightening paints, I use a pipette and do a 9:1 ratio, 9 parts base colour and one part white or sometimes light grey.

Hope this helps.
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Mark

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Tarkas
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Re: Lightening a colour by x%?

Post by Tarkas »

Thanks, Mark. That's exactly the sort of answer I was looking for. Me to the LMS for paint and some pipettes.

Phil
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Nax
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Re: Lightening a colour by x%?

Post by Nax »

Dont know if this will help you but when I have to lighten a paint colour I use the same colour but in a lighter finish. ie, if I want to make a grey paint a little lighter, I had Light grey paint, a few drips at a time. If I want to lighten a Dk Brown colour, I'll use a few drops of Tan, like wise Dk Blue, I add a few drops of sky. I only use white if I want to make a light colour a shade different. ;-)
Hope it helps.
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AndrewR
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Re: Lightening a colour by x%?

Post by AndrewR »

Nax wrote:Dont know if this will help you but when I have to lighten a paint colour I use the same colour but in a lighter finish. ie, if I want to make a grey paint a little lighter, I had Light grey paint, a few drips at a time. If I want to lighten a Dk Brown colour, I'll use a few drops of Tan, like wise Dk Blue, I add a few drops of sky. I only use white if I want to make a light colour a shade different. ;-)
Hope it helps.
I agree with you Steve, adding white usually doesn't look right to me.

I use Vallejo paint, which comes in dropper bottles, so I can mix the paint dropwise, so I don't need pipettes.

If you think the colour needs to be 40% lighter, then personally I think getting a different pot of paint is the way to go. :)

Cheers

Andrew
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