Content

• To step
• Method 1 of 3: Mix acrylic or oil paint
• Method 3 of 3: Make pink with food coloring
• Tips

Many people think pink is a beautiful color. Pink clothes, cake decorations and flowers are especially popular, but sometimes you can't find pink dye in the store. Pink is a shade of red, but in nature it is a combination of red and violet. Fortunately, you can easily make pink paint, icing, or food coloring by mixing red with white.

To step

Method 1 of 3: Mix acrylic or oil paint

1. Choose red paint. Which shade of pink you get depends on the shade of red that you mix with white paint. When getting started, experiment with different shades of red. To get the brightest shade of pink that lasts the longest, try acrylic paint in a color like permanent alizarin red or quinacridone and mix the color with titanium white.
   • With vermilion you make a beautiful, pure pink shade.
   • Brick red gives you a duller pink that is closer to peach.
   • With darker reds like alizarin red, you get a pink color with a blue or purple undertone, which is ideal for hues like magenta.
2. Apply red paint. Grab your canvas, paper, or paint palette. Squeeze red paint on it. With this red paint you are going to make pink, so keep the red paint aside until you see what pink color you get and know how much you need.
3. Add white paint. Squeeze white paint onto the surface near the red paint. Start with a dollop so as not to waste paint. When mixing paint, you can always add more white paint later if you need more white to lighten the pure red color.
4. Add other colors. Whether you use wet or dry watercolor paint, you can make other kinds of pinks as well. For example, add a dollop of purple and then yellow, or dilute red paint with water and don't use white. Experiment to get the pink color you want.
   • You can get a regular pink if you don't use white. This depends on how much you dilute the red color with water before the paint dries.
   • Add yellow to get softer shades of pink. This will eventually give you a peach color.
   • With a little violet or blue you get a bright pink color. Add more to get a shade like magenta.

Method 3 of 3: Make pink with food coloring

1. Prepare a quantity of the white ingredient. You can do this with ingredients like frosting, glue, and conditioner. Use as much of the white ingredient as the amount of pink food coloring you need. Put the white ingredient in a mixing bowl so you have enough room to add the food coloring.
2. Add other colors. To give your mixture the shade of pink you want, try adding drops of food coloring in other colors. Experiment with this. Work slowly, adding only one drop at a time.
   • By adding a color like blue, violet, green or even brown you make a darker pink color. That way you get bright pink first and then fuchsia or magenta.
   • Add a lighter color like yellow to turn your pink color into a peach color.

Tips

• Keep in mind that you can always add more food coloring or paint, but you cannot remove any colorant or paint. Start with small amounts of food coloring or paint.
• If you want a lighter pink, use a drop or less of the red food coloring. You get a very dark pink color if you use too much red.
• When mixing paint, always add the white paint to the red paint. This way you prevent your white paint from getting too dark and you don't waste paint.
• Using more red makes a darker pink color. With more white you get a lighter pink color.