How To Mix Colors To Match – Automotive Interior Dyes
Mixing your colors to match the automotive interior your working on has got to be the most crucial part to any repair. We are challenged everyday as a professional with not only having to repair a tear or a worn out seat or door panel but the color has to be spot on or we might as well have left it alone.
Lately I’ve been getting calls and emails from people wanting to know how to mix a color, what colors do what, and what colors they need to have with them.
As far as color matching, I match all my dyes by eye, meaning I use no formula, no mixing chart, just knowledge of colors and what they can do. So if your looking for a formula for how I mix my colors your looking in the wrong place.
What I’m going to do is give you the basics of colors and what colors will do when mixed together. The rest is up to you to learn and take mental note of how to achieve the color your looking for. I learned something from an Art teacher of mine in High School, she said that art is a learned behavior, yes one has to have talent, but the techniques of painting, drawing, and color mixing are learned. If you were to stop drawing at say 12 years old and never picked up a pencil to draw again until you were 30, you would draw like a 12 year old, it’s a learned behavior.
So with that said, lets get onto some learning…
Primary Colors
There are 3 colors that are the Primary Colors, Red, Blue, and Yellow and all colors vary from just these 3 colors in either hues or shade. A hue is a variance in any one color and a shade is the intensity of a color.
Secondary Colors
These are colors that come from mixing 2 primary colors together. For example if you mix Red + Blue = Purple, Yellow + Blue = Green, Red + Yellow = Orange. So Purple, Green, and Orange are your secondary colors.
Complementary Colors
This is something I use a lot when mixing my colors. The reason for this is if I go to far with one color I use it’s compliment to counteract or cancel out that color. If you don’t have a color wheel then here’s a great tool that will help, it’s called the “Color Triangle” . Draw a triangle, put one of each of the primary colors at the corners and one of each of the secondary colors on each side in mixing order. Now with the colors in place pick a color… lets say Red, when you look directly across the triangle what do you see, Green, that’s Red’s complimentary color, same goes for a color wheel. They call it a compliment because when you put the two together they make the other seem more intense or vibrant. When a color your mixing is lets say too yellow, add it’s compliment which is purple to cancel the yellow out.
Tertiary Colors
Tertiary Colors are your browns and grays. These are the colors that we deal with mostly in today’s vehicles. They’re created by mixing either all three primary colors or a primary and secondary color (secondary colors of course being made from two primaries). By varying the proportions of the colors you’re mixing, you create the different tertiary colors.
Black and White
Black and white are colors you would think would be part of the primary colors or even the secondary colors but they leave them out due to the fact that you they can’t be mixed by using the other colors. Most artist’s don’t even use black or white but in the automotive world it’s used more then none. When adding white you will loose intensity in the color and when adding black the color will mud. I do use a lot of white and black to lighten or darken a colors but I will have to add a little more color for intensity, if not the color will have a milky look to it. I call this “milking the color”. You’ll notice this in your tans mostly, you’ll get the shade right but the color has a white look to it, if you add little more color to it you should keep the shade but loose the milky look.
We have an unlimited pallet of colors to choose from, yes you could sit down with the 3 primary colors with black and white and get the colors you desire, but we have choices of pre-mixed colors that will get you there a little quicker. Here’s an example of some of the colors I carry on board with me that I use to mix the automotive interior colors. You’ll notice I use a red and a yellow oxide, these are hues of yellow and red with a brown shade added. Most of the colors used in today’s auto’s are a hues and shades of brown, even your gray’s.
Main Colors -
- Black
- White
- Dark Brown
- Yellow Oxide
- Red Oxide
3 Primary Colors -
- Red
- Blue
- Yellow
Secondary Color -
- Green
- Violet
Metallics
- Silver
- Gold
Now I don’t usually carry an orange, the reason for this is that almost every color I am mixing is a shade of brown or gray which IS a hue of orange and the yellow and red oxides work better for this.
One hint on mixing your leather dyes. Keep a selection of pigments to go along with your premixed dyes. I mix all my dyes in two ounce jars, which is plenty of dye for just about any job your doing. I’ll mix about 1 and 3/4 of an ounce of my premixed dyes and get the color as close as I can get it, then to finalize the color off I’ll use my pigments to get me there quicker. You kinda have to experiment a little with this, the pigments will get you there really quick so very small amounts. I use this when I get a color say a little dark and I’m running out of room in the jar, I’ll grab the white pigment to lighten it up or a color pigment to intensify the color instead of using my premixed which could cause me to have to mix more then I would need. Theres no need to waste dye, dye is money.
By the way, I have some people asking about keeping your dyes and some that have said they just dump the excess when their done. I keep all my dyes and use them over and over. I do this by not mixing to many different colors, what I mean by this is I will have around 10 jars of grays and 10 jars of browns with a few reds and blues and just tweek them for each individual job. I also use a crosslinker which enables me to keep my dyes up to six weeks before they start to gel up, which by that time I’ve already used it on something else by just tinting it to match. Why throw away usable dye, that’s money your pouring down the drain!
Color matching is something you just have to play with. Start with your basics like is it dark or light? If its dark start with a dark brown or a black, if it’s a light color then start with white or the lighter color in the mix as your main color and tint from there. Your blues and reds you’ll start with the primary color and tint from there by adding in small amounts, and I do mean small, it doesn’t take much to make red into pink.
One thing you might try is to go to your nearest upholstery shop and get some scrap peices of the most recent colors and take them home and just sit down and mix. Just play with the colors and see what they do. Remember its a learned behavior and you have to learn what each color will do before you can mix your colors to match.
Well guys I hope this answered some of your questions on mixing your colors to match. It’s something that takes practice, patience, and knowledge just like anything in the automotive interior repair business. I gave you some knowledge so let’s give it some practice and be patient, it took me some time to pick it up too.
Talk to you soon,
Mike “TIG”
p.s. don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter!
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