So, we know that mixing two complementary colors will get us a brown or black if we do it deliberately, and “mud” if we don’t. 🙂 You can see a Burnt Sienna (“orange”) and Ultramarine Blue chromatic black that I used here.

I mixed opaque Red Iron Oxide (PR 101) with both Ultramarine Blue (PB 29) and Anthraquinone Blue (PB 60). Both mixed to a nice dark black, but as I continued to add more white to that black, the PR 101 – PB 60 mix created a bluer gray.

I also mixed Dioxazine Purple (PV 23) with Green Gold (PY 129) and got a dark brown rather than a black.

Finally I mixed Quinacridone Magenta (PR 122) with Phthalo Green Yellow Shade (PG 36) and then with Phthalo Green Blue Shade (PG 7). The chromatic black for both of these mixtures was far and away the deepest black (much more evident than in the photos). What was striking to me was how blue the tinted version of the “black” mix of PR 122 and PG 7. (See bottom photo.)

I have a couple of shades of red and a couple of shades of yellow, so wanted to see how a mixed orange would play out, and then how it would tint. Turns out my Naphthol Crimson (PR 170) is quite close to my current favorite Anthraquinone Red (PR 177). And the light yellow is more of a lemon (cool) color, while the medium yellow is considerably warmer.

I recently bought some Primary Red (PV 19) which turns out to be nearly the same as my Naphthol Crimson (PR 170) — definitely a cool (transparent) red. And I picked up a tube of Transparent Red Oxide (PR 101) and the color is not significantly different from the regular (opaque) Red Oxide (also PR 101) which I already had.

The warm yellow seemed to make more of a difference than the warm red (at bottom — pyrrole red PR 254) as far as the orange was concerned. Meaning, I don’t see much of a difference between the medium cad-free yellow mixed with PR 254, as compared to the same yellow mixed with PR 170.