The beautiful Payne's Gray

Have you experienced this? I recently tried to mix up a color palette using Payne's Gray but couldn’t get the right mixture.

I only have two colors, one acrylic paint and the other acrylic ink. After a few tries I wondered if there were different pigments used to create this beautiful gray.

So, I went searching and made an interesting discovery.

The answers were revealed in the pigment codes!

Here’s a snapshot of some acrylic paints and ink from a few manufacturers and their pigment codes. These are photos of the fully saturated color.

In each “formula”, they all use some sort of black plus a blue.

The last two, add magenta and violet.

In practicality, the best way to “see” a color is to add white. This can reveal how subtle or different the results will be, and sometimes you can actually see the undertones of each color within the formula. Just look at the variety of colors below!

Grumbacher acrylic paint

PB29 ultramarine blue

PBk9 bone black

FW Daler Rowney acrylic ink

PBk7 carbon black

PB15 phthalo blue

Golden acrylic paint

PB 29 ultramarine blue

PBk7 carbon black

The next two are both from Liquitex, one from the basics and the other professional. They both use ultramarine blue and bone black. The 3rd color changes the formula. The basics line uses quin magenta, the professional line uses ultramarine violet. The differences from the paint chips are noticeably different. I don’t have either to mix up but it would be something that interests me!

Liquitex Basics acrylic paint

PB29 ultramarine blue

PBk9 bone black

PR122 quinacridone magenta

Liquitex Professional acrylic paint

PB29 ultramarine blue

PBk9 bone black

PV15 ultramarine violet

For all those color techies:

Is the mystery solved? I think not! Little is known about Payne's life, and the origins of the colour are equally as unknown. There are so many formulas for this color, it’s mind boggling!

This website says:

William Payne created the color in the mid-1700’s and the original blend used a combination of Indigo, Raw Sienna, and Lake.

https://justpaint.org/nothing-is-black-and-white-with-paynes-gray/

There are many interesting comments below the post. One comment says “I think the only reason the Ultramarine and Black mixture is the most popular is simply because it’s the cheapest to make”.

BUT Wikipedia says that the original mixture is iron blue (prussian), yellow ochre, and crimson lake.

I have the Grumbacher heavy body paint, and FW Daler Rowney acrylic ink.

What brand of Payne’s Gray do you have?

Do you mix your own Payne’s Gray, and what colors do you use?

Let me know below in the comments!