Blue Ochre

This is the first post for our new line of Marion Street Art Materials Oil paint. I've made a test of one of our first colors, Blue Ochre. It is the smokey blue color at the center of the above picture. Around it are various colors and the mixes that can be made with them. I'll do a bigger breakdown soon but for now you can see at about 2 o'clock from the blue ochre is a Yellow light and between is the rich grass green that comes about from a 50-50 mixture. Counterclockwise from this, at about 1 o'clock is a Cadmium Yellow medium and the much browner green that you get with that mixture. One of my favorite mixtures is right above this at the top- Burnt Umber- which gives a really nice rich dark brown with great life (Ok it may be hard to see in this picture).Actually I was quite surprised by the mixes that came from all of the earth colors, Burnt Sienna in the upper left corner, Raw Sienna in the upper right corner. It makes some incredible yet very natural colors that I've had a hard time mixing in the past. Below is a very transparent Ultramarine Pink and the Blue Ochre is transparent enough to mix with it to make a violet without overwhelming it.

 

Color Change/ New Color

The problem I get occasionally is a discontinued pigment. This happened with a brown ochre. Ok, it wasn't really discontinued, the company I bought it from decided that it didn't want to be bothered selling me a bag at a time. So the price went up about 10x what it was. So I figured that maybe I make enough yellow brown sandy colors anyway and instead of trying to match the color using different pigments I would just change the color to something that I didn't have. I thought I would make a cooler compliment to the yellow brown colors, besides it would give me a chance to try a new blue shade violet pigment that I was working with.

The above 180-183 is the result. Using a burnt umber as a starting point it has a warm reddish feel that is pulled back by a little bit of blue violet. The lighter tones are wonderful neutrals. I've had it in stock at the shop and without my saying anything (Like look look a new color) several customers have added it to their pallets

Here it is in relation to one of the yellow browns that I make. You can see how it can work as a cooler shadow accent.

It also fits in nicely with the Raw and Burnt Umbers that I make.It fills a gap in the color line for a weird cooler red neutral that you didn't even know you needed but when you see it, of course, it all makes sense now..