I've been busy preparing for a class that I will be teaching at a National Trade Show.  The class will feature the book I wrote last summer which is soon to be available through Design Originals:  ALTERED SURFACES.  Prepping for a class requires a lot of detail planning and Suzanne McNeill and her team at Design Originals have been really helpful.  It was something that she recommended that set me to this challenge!  Since we have to prepare "kits" for all the participants, we needed to minimize the choices for all kinds of things and maximize the creative learning opportunities.  Suzanne suggested using just a "few" colors....well, you can imagine telling a Golden person this!  At first I couldn't decide how to decide.  Then I remembered how easy it was to mix clear beautiful colors when you pick the appropriate ones to start with. 

I wanted a "RED" "BLUE" and a "YELLOW"....pretty standard for color mixing one would think.  But I didn't want anything to read as PRIMARY colors so here is what I chose:  Quinacridone Magenta (RED), Turquois Phthalo (BLUE), and Nickel Azo Yelllow.   ELECTRIC choices.  So the plan was to mix a set of secondary colors only these three.  It works beautifully providing a mid-green, a good purple, and a "rusty orange"  All of these colors were Transparent pigments and they gave everyone the clear mixes I was looking for.  Each student also got a little  Iridescent Gold, Micaceous Iron Oxide, Titan Buff and Interference Violet.  This allowed everyone to make a set of 6 colors (primary and secondary).  With the Titan Buff added to any color they could create "tints" of any color that would be more opaque since the Titan Buff is an opaque color.  If they added Iridescent Gold to any of their 6 colors they would get "metallic" colors.  By adding the Interference Violet they would create even more. 

Sometimes when you limit yourself you get more creative by trying to solve the problem that confronts you.  The need to work in a tight schedule with a big agenda on a limited color palette was a real challenge.  But hopefully the end result will be successful.

Maybe you can try the combination and let me know how you liked it.