Which spray can colours do I buy?
“Oli, which colours do you use?” This is one of my most ask question, second to “are you Banksy“ of course…
So in this blog post (that I’m writing only to score better seo and get more jobs) I will shed some lights on why I chose those colours.
MTN 94 is by far my favourite paint, but it’s a really bad paint to store and the reason many artist don’t use it. So to go around that, I keep a low stock and I try to use any open can within 6 months. After that the can is not working smoothly and ends up being used in the background. It’s interesting that it’s downfall as far as longevity in storage is what makes this paint so good. Because it is a little “powdery” it is a high quality paint with good coverage. But once it’s been used, the countdown begins. No spray can is perfect, so you can choose what works best for you.
So for this reason, I’ve been accustomed to keeping a limited stock at any one time. But because I sometimes get asked to paint a mural last minute, I need to have general colours. So I’ll start with the general colours and then explain the portrait colours as a bulk.
Magenta is a nice vibrant Pink, useful for neons and popping text. I mainly use it for girls’ events, or to match a logo.
You have to have a Red, Madrid Red is a very vibrant and deep colour. Light Red is also good, but more orange.
Lava orange is your typical Orange, useful for a variety of murals.
Light Yellow is the best one of this brand. It covers well (better than Eldorado) and it’s also not orange, yet bright enough.
Valley Green is a good all around for medium colour grass, logos, forest and more when mixed with Black and Yellow.
Formentera Blue is a good Turquoise, and covers well. Good all around, though a little on the Green side.
Rain Blue is great for painting the sky as well as a bunch of things. Barcelonet is better for the sky but too light for most things.
Dark Blue is a must for painting logos, like facebook and stuff. It’s the best this brand has. Babylon or Tuareg are other options.
Electra Violet is a good one, though I don’t use it much, but still need one. Sultan is good also but more Lilac.
Tokyo Pink is a great all rounder if you just want one. Though if you want to focus on portraits, Supernova is better.
Rita Grey is the best for sexy concrete, like my website’s background, also more useful than you may think to have a Grey.
And now for the ones people are really interested in, portrait colours:
Black and White are an essential for every mural, so get one of each, better yet two of each for all your murals minimum.
Chocolate Brown is my favourite of this brand, it works so well due to the dark pigment (lighter pigments are often a problem and the ones that are harder to use) and it is great all around. It is a colour that is found a lot in portraits, the holes of the nose, the eyes, corner of the mouth, also great for painting eyebrows before painting some in Black, creating depth.
Bean Brown and Tana brown are great mid colour complexion. I use them together to create fades in the faces of people, then blend some Chocolate Brown for darker complexions or Jaima Brown for Lighter complexions.
Oak brown is the closest colour for lips. Believe me I’ve tried them all! then depending on the person, you can add some other colours to fine tune the shade. It’s also a great colour to add to a person’s face to add a Red hue and mix some White to get a Pink shade (or you can use Tokyo for simplicity, if you want to carry it).
Jaima Brown is one of my favourite. It’s essential in a portrait. I’ve tried to forgo using it, to have one less colour to carry, but the subtle off-White is a must for people of all complexions, then near the end I add a touch of White to create a 3D effect, works great.
I painted people of all colours and I find it interesting that I use exactly the same colours for all. Unless of course the picture has a green or pink filter from a light source. However this is my look, another artist may choose Kraft as a base or Respect Pink, and get a different result.
Even though you can’t mix spray paint (unless you do the cold/hot cans with needle cap thing) you are pretty much stock with the colours you bought. But because the colour is sprayed on, you can spray 2 colours to get a third one or more. This is how I’m able to use a limited amount of spray cans to get an array of of colours. And I just buy other colours when I have to paint flat colours of a specific tone.
You will see that the colours in this post or in charts are not actually close to what you get delivered. What I highly recommend if you are/wanting to do this as a full time mural artist, is to buy a chart made from the actual paint. I paid around £20 and I get to take it to my clients who can choose the colours, with no surprises when the paint arrives. It also has MTN Hardcore colours in it, which is a slightly glossy paint with more vibrant colours, but it has more pressure.
I know also Belton Molotow makes one as well as Montana Gold, if they are your chosen paints, I would recommend getting one.
Thank you for reading. More posts are coming soon to this blog if you want to check it again weekly (I’ll try) and I will also soon do an equivalent video post.
Olivier.
