How to Lighten Red to Pink With Oil Paints

Pinks can range from cool pastels to richer deeper tints.

Pink is a light shade of red. Every oil pigment has a specific value, saturation and hue. The difference between a red oil color and a pink oil color is the value, or luminance level of the color. Add white to any existing red pigment and you will get a pink tint. Crimson red blended with titanium white results in a icy confection-like pink. Use warm reds and creamy whites to get a correspondingly warm pink. Add some yellow to the blend and get a coral pink.

Things You'll Need

• Mason jar
• Turpentine
• Linseed oil
• Artist palette
• Palette knife
• 3 synthetic bristle oil paint brushes
• Titanium white oil paint
• Alizarin crimson oil paint
• Flake white replacement oil paint
• Cadmium red medium oil paint
• Naples yellow oil paint
• Canvas board
• Paper towel

Instructions

1. Fill the mason jar half full with turpentine. Put the paint brushes in the turpentine-filled jar.

2. Squeeze out about one inch of each oil color on to your palette. Lay out the colors in a row and in the following order: titanium white, alizarin crimson, flake white, cadmium red medium and Naples yellow.

3. 

   Use the palette knife for getting pigments onto the palette and for blending colors.

   Grab about ½ inch of the titanium white with your palette knife. Deposit it on the open area under your row of pure pigments. Grab a pea-sized amount of alizarin crimson with the palette knife. Smear the crimson color into the white.

4. Open the container of linseed oil. Add one or two drops of oil on top of the mixture. Blend the crimson and the white by pressing and smearing the colors together. You have a cold pink color. Increase the amount of crimson to deepen the pink. Increase the amount of white to lighten the color.

5. Remove one of the brushes from the jar. Press the bristles of the brush against the wall of the glass jar in order to remove any excess pigment. Swirl the brush in the pink pigment and load the bristles with the paint. Paint across your canvas board. Use up all the paint on your brush. Wipe off your brush with paper towel and return it to the turpentine-filled mason jar.

6. Clean your palette knife with paper towel. Grab about ½ inch of the flake white replacement pigment with your clean palette knife and place it next to your cool pink tint.

7. Grab a pea-sized amount of cadmium red medium and blend it into the flake white replacement color. Adjust the white versus red ratio until you are satisfied with the intensity of your warm creamy-pink color.

8. Add one or two drops of linseed oil to your mixture and blend it in with the palette knife. Remove a clean brush from the turpentine filled jar, squeezing out any excess solvent from the bristles by pressing the brush against the wall of the jar.

9. Swirl the brush in the creamy pink paint. Load the brush with the paint. Sweep your brush across the canvas board. notice the difference between the cool and the warm pink. Wipe off the bristles of the brush with a paper towel and return the brush to the turpentine-filled jar.

10. Grab a pea-sized amount of Naples yellow with your palette knife. Blend it into the warm-pink mixture. You now have a coral pink. Use this pink to paint fair skin tones.

Tips & Warnings

• Add tiny amounts of ultramarine blue to any cool pink tint and create a violet pink.

• Always paint in a well-ventilated interior or outdoors.

References

• "The Artist's Manual"; Friso ten Holt; 1980

Resources

• Pigments through the Ages: Pigment Catalog