Mixing the right colors will help you find the shade of jeans you are looking for.
Mixing acrylics to make the color of blue jeans depends on what kind of jeans you are painting. An easy technique is to make a line of blue paint, starting light, and mixing in black until the end of the strip is dark blue. You can use lighter shades to paint your jeans where the jeans capture light and darker colors to accent natural shadows. Acrylic paint dries moderately quickly when compared to oils or some watercolors, so keep this in mind while mixing your paint.
Instructions
Mixing Paint for Light-colored Jeans
1. Put a sizable amount of light blue acrylic paint in a line on your palette, using a palette knife.
2. Put a little bit of medium blue paint halfway down the line of light blue paint with the palette knife.
3. Drag the light blue paint into the dark blue paint slowly, using the palette knife. You are making a strip of paint fading light color into dark color. Mix the strip so that it fades from a faded blue jeans color to a dark blue jeans color. One side should be your lightest color and the other side of the strip, your darkest color.
4. Use the light blue to medium light blue for painting the jeans, and use the darker color for the shadows on the jeans.
Mixing Paint for Dark-colored Jeans
5. Put a sizable amount of medium blue acrylic paint in a line on your palette with a palette knife.
6. Put a small amount of black paint at the other end of the line you will mix with a palette knife.
7. Mix the black into the medium blue slowly. A little bit of black goes a long way. You are doing the same thing you did with the faded jeans. Make a color strip where one end is the lightest color you will use and the other end is the darkest color . A palette knife will allow you to measure more accurately than a paintbrush, so use the palette knife to add and blend darker and lighter colors together. At the end of the paint line mixture, you should have a midnight blue.
8. Paint the jeans with the medium blue mixture and shade with the midnight blue mixture.
