ADV Leather Repair and Restoration Forum

Color Matching Guidelines
(a work in progress)

Brown family:
Covering brown:
Base: HC Brown
to lighten: Orange, or Yellow Oxide*
to darken: Black
tint with: Violet, Green, Organic Brown, Organic Yellow

* For covering browns that favor yellow, adding Yellow Oxide will work, but it will also lower the chroma when mixed with HC Brown. Adding Organic Yellow after adding Yellow Oxide will help raise the chroma again, and also help shift toward yellow.
Print brown:
Base: Organic Brown, Black
tint with: Violet, Organic Yellow
Add 5-15% color mixture to top-coat for print coat, used to print over fully opaque base coat.

Off-white family:
Base: 85-95% White, Yellow Oxide
tint with: Black, Orange, Violet, Red Oxide

Tan family (beige, creme):
Base: 70-85% White, Yellow Oxide
tint with: Black, Violet, Red Oxide, Organic Yellow
Taupe family:
Base: Yellow Oxide
tint with: Black, White, Violet, Red Oxide

Gray family:
Base:
Dark: 70-90% Black, White, Yellow Oxide
Light: 75-90% White, Black, Yellow Oxide
tint with: Orange, Red Oxide, Violet, Organic Yellow

Blue family:
Base: 50-75% Blue. Rest of list are options, and may or may not be required in mixture - Red Oxide, Black, White, Violet
Tint with: Red, Purple, Yellow Oxide

Green family:
Base: Green, or mixture of Blue/Yellow Oxide (higher coverage)
tint with: Black, White, Red Oxide, Yellow Oxide

Red family:
Base: Red, or Red Oxide/Violet mixture (higher coverage)
tint with: Black, White, Violet, Purple, Blue, Organic Yellow, Yellow Oxide

Yellow family:
Base: Yellow Oxide
tint with: Black, White, Green, Organic Yellow, Orange

Burgundy family:
Base: Violet
tint with: Black, Red Oxide, Purple, Blue

Orange family:
Base: Yellow Oxide, Orange, or mixture.
tint with: Black, White, HC Brown, Violet, Green

Additional notes:
None of the lists above are exclusive. All palette colors may be required for any individual color match. These recommendations are based on typical matches.
The more colors used to get a color match, the more likely the match will have issues with chroma (muddiness), or metamerism (incorrect/different rendering under different lighting sources). A three color match is optimum, but rare. Try limiting colors to 4-5 in a mixture.
Start small when mixing colors. When mixing 2 ounces or less, start with a quarter-ounce of your base color. Add counted drops of your tinting color. If you see no discernible difference, double the amount each time until you do see a difference.
Add in one color at a time, at least initially. Evaluate what impact one color has, rather than dumping in multiple colors at a time until you can anticipate the results of doing so. It can be difficult to isolate what worked if you add more than one color at a time to your mixture.
Each time you use a cancelling color (opposite on the color wheel), take into account that the cancellation will lower the both the value and chroma of your mixture.

Thanks, Jason! Very helpful.
For light to medium tones that are yellow / orange / tan I often grey it down with the violet first, rather than use black, due to risk of going greenish from the strong blue influence in the black. Or I test with 1/2 oz mixed on the side to see which one moves toward the desired color best. A tiny amount of blue can be effective to darken many browns and keep the chroma higher than using black alone.