When you are painting a surface with a metallic silver color, it’s totally normal that you run out of paint. And we know how it feels to stop the work midway, grab the keys, and drive to the paint shop to grab new paint cans. It distracts you from your work, we understand.
That’s why in this article, we are going to discuss how to make silver paint so that you can make silver with existing paints and stay focused on your work.
First, you need to mix an equal amount of black and blue and a little amount of white. Next, you need to increase the warmth of the color by adding some brown. And finally, depending on your preferences, you can adjust the tone by adding some white or black.
Know the Color Theory
No, you don’t need to visit your elementary school again. We are making things easy for you. Here are the basics of color theory, probably which you don’t remember anymore.
Generally speaking, in traditional painting, you will find three types of colors; primary colors, secondary colors, and tertiary colors. However, there are other colors as well, like quaternary colors. But we are not going there; we are sticking to the basics.
Primary Colors:
Primary colors refer to those colors which cannot be created by mixing two or more colors. You can say they are unique. All other colors are the product of the mixture of these colors. In traditional painting with pigments and paints, red, yellow, and blue are considered primary colors. If you want to make other colors, you need to start with these colors.
Secondary Colors:
Secondary colors are the product of the mixture of primary colors. Simply mixing two primary colors will produce a secondary color. Note that secondary colors are made from two primary colors only. So, if you add one more color, it will no longer remain a secondary color.
In traditional painting, if you mix red and yellow, you will get an orange color. If you mix blue and yellow, you will get green and if you mix red and blue, you will get purple as a result.
Tertiary Colors:
The name is quite self-explanatory. If you mix a primary color and a secondary color, you will get a tertiary color as a result. There are six tertiary colors. And the names of these colors are based on the mixture so, you can easily remember them.
If you mix red and orange, you will get red-orange and if you mix blue and purple, you will get blue-purple. Similarly, the other tertiary colors are yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, and red-purple.
Next Read: How to make beige
What Is Silver: Meaning of the Color Silver
Silver is a cool, metallic color. The color originally refers to the metal, silver. However, when you want to make the color, you will see that it is related to gray color. Generally, you will find the color has a metallic gloss in it. And this color shows the smoothness and richness of a surface.
What Colors Make Silver?
There can be multiple ways of making silver color. One of the best and simplest ways of making silver color would be to use different shades of gray.
And to make gray you will need white and black color. But simply mixing different shades of gray won’t do, you need to use some white as the final touch to make the silver color.
And if you were to go even further, like you want to achieve a nice metallic silver color, you need to do some extra tasks. You need to use some reflective pigments; this is the only way to achieve it. However, the gray color will remain the base color.
Also Read: Yellow Paint Making Guide
What Two Colors Make Silver Paint?
Generally speaking, you will not be able to achieve the silver color with just two colors only. Even if you do, chances are it won’t be the accurate shade. To make a nice-looking silver color, you need to go through the gray color first. And the easiest way of making a gray color would be to use just black and white color.
How to Make Silver Paint by Mixing Oil Paints
To make silver paint with oil paints, you need to collect some supplies first. Take a look at the things you will need so that you can start the mixing process.
- All primary colors (Red, Blue, and Yellow paints)
- Black paint
- White paint
- A container
- A stirring stick or a palette knife
Step 1: Mixing Blue, Black, and White
First, take some blue paint and black paint. The ratio should be equal, 1:1 respectively. Mix them well. Now, add a little amount of white color to the mixture. Mix them again.
Step 2: Adjusting the Temperature
Here, we need to add some brown to the mix. This will help adjust the temperature of the mixture. To begin making brown, you need to take some yellow and blue paint. The ratio should be equal, 1:1 respectively. Mixing them you will get the green color.
Now, you need to add some red to the green color. This will give you a brown color. Finally, add this brown color to the mixture of blue, black, and white that you made previously. Mix them well, you will get a warmer color.
Step 3: Adjusting the Tone
You may not be satisfied with the silver color you got in the first shot. No worries, it’s normal. You can always adjust the shade of your silver color. If you want a brighter silver color, add some white to the mix. And if you want a darker color, use a little amount of black.
Keep adjusting the value of the color until you are satisfied with it. For some reason, if you don’t find your desired silver color, try changing the amount of the paints until you get your desired color.
Step 4: Adding Finishing Touches
After implementing all the steps above, you should get your desired shade by now. Additionally, you can focus on the shadows and highlights now.
To create highlights you can use good quality titanium white paint with your silver color. And if you want to add some silver shadows to your painting object, add some black to your silver mix.
How to Make Silver Paint by Mixing Watercolor Paints
Generally speaking, the process of making silver paint with watercolor will be quite the same as paint mixing with oil paints or acrylics. There may be slight changes in the procedure. To make silver paint with watercolor paints, you need to gather the supplies below:
- All primary colors (Red, Blue, and Yellow paints)
- Black paint
- White paint
- Water
- Paint palette and Paintbrush
Step 1: Taking the Basic Colors
As we are working with watercolors, first, we need to make the brush damp. Dip the brush in water. Take out some blue and black paint from the paint tube. Mix the colors using that paintbrush.
Step 2: Adjusting the Temperature
Here, you need to adjust the temperature using brown color. You can make the brown color the same way you made it with oil paints. You can mix the primary colors blue and yellow to make green first. Then add red to it to make it a brown color.
If you don’t want to make things messy, you can simply use brown paint instead. Now, you need to add the brown color to the previous mixture of blue and black. And finally, adjust the warmth of the color by gradually adding the brown color.
Step 3: Adding Finishing Touches
You can add some final touches to your color by simply adding water. You don’t need additional paints to adjust the tone. If you want a lighter color, try using a little bit more water here. To make a deep color, use less water compared to the amount you used for lightening the color.
How to Make Silver with Acrylic Paint?
The process of making silver paint with acrylics is identical to making silver with oil paints. But let’s remind you of the process again.
- You need to begin by mixing an equal amount of blue and black. Then add a little amount of white. Mix them well.
- Next, you need to use some brown color to adjust the warmth of the previously made mixture.
- You can make brown by mixing all the primary colors. And you can adjust the value of the brown by changing the amount of the colors.
- Finally, you can do further adjustments to the silver color by adding more white or black to the mixture.
Check the Video:
How to Make Silver Paint Shine?
If you want to make a silver paint that shines or more like, reflects like a mirror, you need to use some silver metallic powder. The powder will make the color look shiny. And if you were to ask how to use metallic powder on a painting or how to make metallic silver paint, the procedure is given below.
First, take some metallic powder. You need to prepare the powder in such a way that you can use it with liquid paint. That’s why you need to mix it with a liquid medium.
To give you a clear suggestion, I would say you can use walnut oil to mix the powder if you are working with oil paints. And for acrylics, you can use an acrylic gel medium. Using the powder for watercolors is not recommended.
How to Make Silver Paint Look Tarnished?
The process may slightly vary from surface to surface. But if you were to give an aged look to a surface like a photo frame, you need to do the following:
- Clean the surface to get rid of dust and dirt. Make sure no oil and grease are remaining. You may need to wash the surface if possible. But if dry cleaning is enough, don’t go for wet cleaning.
- Take a metallic silver spray paint, it will allow you to spray evenly. Spray the paint on the surface.
- Mix some black paint with a little bit of water. Dip a paper towel on the mixture and wipe the surface gently.
- Now, take a clean rag and wipe the excess mixture of water and black paint. Most of the mixture might get removed. Don’t worry, the remaining black paint on the surface is enough to make an aged look. However, if you think that most black paint has been removed and it looks bad, you can wipe over specifically your desired areas only.
- You can finish the process by applying a coat of clear polyurethane.
Silver in Design and Decoration
Silver is a nice metallic color. It adds a premium look to surfaces. It can be used for different surfaces. Here are some of the common usages of silver color:
- Antiques: If you are an antique lover, probably your house is stuffed with silver color. Many antiques are made of silver, so here you will find the color very common.
- Arts and Crafts: Artists use silver color for still life paintings and to give their artwork an aged look. The same goes for crafts, if you want to give a fake silvery look to your craft, you need to use silver color.
- Home Decorations: Silver is a standard color for home decorations. You can paint your walls with a smooth silver color or give a silvery touch to your home decors.
- Automobiles: Automobile industries use silver color a lot. You will find lots of cars and bikes painted with shiny silver color.
- Gadgets and Accessories: Silver-colored gadgets and accessories are getting popular day by day. You will find lots of laptops, computers, Smartphone, and other gadgets painted with shiny silver color.
These are just a few examples of the usage of silver color. There are more uses of the silver color than you can even think of.
Final Thoughts
Silver has been a part of human life for a long time. Its beautiful color, metallic shine, and rarity are what make it stand out in the crowd. You will find this amazing color connected to our life one way or the other. From automobiles to digital gadgets, it’s everywhere.
In this article, we talked about the procedure to make silver color using various mediums. So, no matter which medium you are working on, if you get short on silver paint, you can always make your own silver color with your existing paints.
