Blending Dye Colors For Your DIY Batik Painting Kit

Thank you for choosing our DIY Batik Painting Kit! Get ready to dive into the vibrant world of color mixing and unlock endless creative possibilities.  The information, guides and tips presented here are suggestions.  Results vary depending on your choice of measurement and even water temperature.  Use the information as your a jump off point, a lesson on mixing, and then let your creativity be your guide.

If you are new to color, there are three color pillars in theory: primary colors, secondary colors and tertiary colors. Let's talk about the theory of color for a bit.

Primary Colors:  These are your base colors.  They are Red, Yellow and Blue.  These are your foundational building blocks.  You can go anywhere from here.

                                 

Secondary Colors:  These are created when two primary colors are blended together.

Tertiary Colors:  These are created when primary colors are mixed with secondary colors and from here your palette will just keep expanding.

Our DIY Batik Painting Kit contains 5 bottles of dye powder.  You have the three primary colors: red, yellow and blue; along with black.  The fifth color may be different in each kit but we try to pick a color that will complement the design in the kit.  Follow the instructions in your kit to make your dye powder ready for use.

Mixing Basic Hues

It is a good idea to keep your measures uniform throughout to ensure a consistent outcome.  For example, to create this resource, I consistently used a 1/8 of a teaspoon measure. So a ratio of 1:2 will be 1/8 tsp of the first color plus 2 x 1/8 tsp of the other.  If the ration is 1:1/4, the 1/4 is 1/4 of an 1/8 teaspoon.  Please reach out with questions if none of this is clear.

So we know that the primary colors are yellow, red and blue. 

primary color + primary color = secondary color

red + blue = purple     yellow + red = orange     blue + yellow = green

                 

If we then take these secondary colors and mix them with our primary colors we will get what is called tertiary colors.

      blue + green                    yellow + green                   blue + purple

                          

       red + orange                     yellow + orange                      red + purple

 Creating Tints

Tints are lighter colors.  It means to dilute the color.  We are working with fabric dyes so to lighten a color we must use water.  In our DIY Batik Painting Kits, we stress a lot that you should always start with your lighter colors and progress to dark.  This may not always be possible but if you learn the basics of how colors interact with each other you will be able to proceed fearlessly.

Here are some samples of tints of red, yellow, blue and black.  The first color swatch is the undiluted color.  It is followed by diluted ratios of color to water 1:1; 1:2; and 1:3 

original color	1:1	1:2	1:3

           

You can play with creating tints moving one color from it vibrant original to pastels.  Check out this play on the secondary color green, which we achieved by mixing primary yellow and blue.  It goes from its original shade and progresses down in ratios of 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, 1:5, 1:6, 1:7, 1:8, 1:9 and 1:10

 

original color
1:1
1:2
1:3
1:4
1:5
1:6
1:7
1:8
1:9
1:10

 

Creating Shades

Shades are darker colors.  It means darkening the color.  For this purpose we use black dye color.

Here are some samples of shades of red, yellow, blue.  The first color swatch is the undiluted color.  It is followed by diluted ratios of color to black dye 1:1; 3:1; and 3:1/4

original color	1:1	3:1	3:1/4

     

 Phew! That was a lot, but the most important take away here is to explore and have fun with color.  Play with the colors, try your own combinations.  It's the best way to learn.