Concept · Relationships
Neutrals and Earth Colors
Neutrals are colors of very low saturation: grays, browns and near-grays. Earth colors are pigments such as ochres, siennas and umbers, dug from the ground.
Mixing two opposites cancels much of their hue, giving grays that still lean toward one parent. Earths owe their color mainly to iron compounds, with manganese adding the brown of umbers, and they are among the most permanent pigments.
- Hold a pure swatch beside a wall or a shadow to see how gray the wall or shadow really is.
- Burnt sienna and burnt umber are the raw earths heated, which darkens them and turns sienna from yellow-brown to red.
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