Color mixing charts are an amazing way to see what the colors in your palette can do.  Basically you take the paints in your set (in this case 12 of them) and mix them with each other to see what additional colors they make.  It's a little time consuming, but it'a also relaxing and a great way to get to know your colors better, you might just even find a new favorite color somewhere in the mixes!

With the 12 colors in the Jane-isms set you can make more than 136 colors (we all know 12 x 12 is 144 but I'm deducting 12 as these are the pure colors eg: Start the Art mixed with Start the art!).  Honestly, 136 colors is just the tip of the possibilities, you can make many more colors than 136 with just these 12 colors!

Supplies 

• Watercolor paper
• Jane Davenport Art Time Watercolor set (I used the brush and paint from this set for my color mixing chart) available from http://janedavenport.com
• Copic MultiLiner 0.3 (because this is waterproof)
• Ruler
• Ceramic Palette (mine is from Marley & Lockyer)
• 2 cups of water - so your brush stays clean and your colors remain true
• Paint rag

You can see how I created my color mixing chart below, it's not perfect, but it sure is pretty!

Now there are many MANY ways to create a color chart, here's how I created mine and why I did it this way

Create the grid

OK so for this grid, I wasn't going for a museum quality artwork, I DID NOT add spaces between my squares and I did not wait for everything to be perfectly dry.  I wanted to see what the colors could do, so I created this in my color chart journal, you may have seen me play in this before - it's where perfectionitis is outlawed and fun rules! 

Try it - it's really very free-ing :)

So having warned you all,

1. I began by drawing a square - I had 12 colors in the Jane set so my square measures 13 cm - 1 cm for each color and one square extra (mine is 13 cm x 13 cm, but you can create yours in inches if preferred) using my Copic MultiLiner - making it this small meant I could fit all the colors on one page.   You could make this 12 x 12, but I wanted to be able to see the colors at different strengths!
2. Mark 1 cm increments along the edges of the square on all 4 sides - this will create the grid
3. Use your Copic MultiLiner to join the dots creating 13 rows and 13 columns - this is the base of your grid
4. Label the color names across the top of the grid and also down one side.

TIP

• If you want an ultra neat grid, use a pencil to draw your lines in and then go over with a waterproof pen

Adding Color to the Grid

OK I hope my lazy idea works well for others :)  This idea does make things a bit faster than usual, just try to work methodically so you don't miss any colors.  This took me about 2.5 hours to completely fill in and I did it in 2 sessions - pop on some music and sing away while mixing - fabulous stress relief.

1. Begin by adding the pure forms of each color, I added a super dark/opaque version of each color along the top row, a version mixed with a little water along the diagonal (where the color intersects itself on the grid) and a nice watery pale color down the side - this is why I added the extra column so I could see how each color looked at different strengths.
2. Now comes the fun part!  On my palette, I added one drop of color for each row and column I had to fill in.
   EG: I started with Gather Sunshine.  I had squares to fill in on 12 rows and 12 columns - so I added 24 drops of Gather Sunshine to my ceramic palette.
3. Next, wash your brush and pick up eg: pale pink (Kindness Matters), mix this with one drop of yellow (Gather Sunshine) and paint that into the square where Gather Sunshine and Kindness Matters meet.     BUT KATE there are 2 squares like that!!!!    
   I have made sure that the paint on the horizontal row is always the dominant color, so this mix would go on the row labeled Kindness Matters.
4. Then WITHOUT cleaning your brush, add the color on your brush to another puddle of yellow (Gather Sunshine) - this will create a mix where the yellow (Gather Sunshine) is the dominant color - add this color to the row where Gather Sunshine is on the row label, and where it meets Kindness Matters.  In this way, you always know what the strongest color in the mix is and you end up with 2 different color mix options for each color on the chart!
5. Repeat this step with each color in the grid until all squares are filled in.

TIPS

• If you want your grid to be a little neater than mine wait for each square to dry before painting the one next to it so you don't get any color mixing or bleeding. 
• You could leave a gap between the grid squares or use masking tape as the base to create ultra perfect squares!
• You will notice you will need fewer spots of paint for each color as the grid fills in eg you start needing 24, then 22 then 20 etc

So why do I just adore this color grid, because it make sit so so easy to see what's possible from just 12 colors, and I can replicate the color because I know exactly what I used to make it!  It's simply a stunning view of the possibilities at your fingertips.