need gray shades???

[Jimbob]

I am working on a black killer seat for a Triumph>>>>

The design in the center is a crest with shield and the Union Jack plus a bunch of skulls...but my customer don't want any color...(urrrg**) so I need to do all this in different shades of black>> gray, his bike will be all gun metal colored and flat black..(urrg)...any sugestions how to create different shades of gray from black leather dye??? Can you MIX acryls with leather dye???

Thanks a bushell...

JimBob

[Deb59]

Have never tried it, but I would think you could grey down the black by mixing some white dye with it until you get the shade you want and try it on some scrap leather. You would have to keep track of the amounts of each used to get the effect you want (maybe using an eye dropper) and mix enough to cover the area you are wanting.

Hope you will post a picture when you get it done - Good Luck Deb

[outcast]

Use various background tools to create different textures in the black. It works for me.

[tashabear]

I'd just try thinning it.

[TomSwede]

You could go with thinned dye as suggested to get different tones of grey.

I used Cova-color white once to get a sorta marbled stone effect to a background.

It is a logotype and the letters are white so it was important that I didn't make the marbled stone to bright.

The cova-color was diluted very much with water(to a milky white fluid) and then I brushed it carefully onto the background that was structured and making sure I didn't get to much color into cavitys and crevages.

Pics from the process can be found here: http://blogg.1eye1.se/category/rev-168/

I actually use this method with diluted white for all white pieces and paint layer by layer until I get it to full strength white. It makes the paint sink down into the leather leaving the nice looking leather structure intact. Painting with undiluted acrylics makes it sits on top and makes it more prone to crack or even come off in flakes ( I guess).

Tom

[DavidII]

Gray is actually a lighter Shade of Black, so obviously you could just dilute any Black you have....However, there are different hues (color) of Black ! As a Watercolorist, I use/make Blue-Black, and Green-Black by mixing a few drops of the non-black color until I get the Hue (Color) I want. Then dilute to create even more some different Shades (light/dark) of this new color. So as you can imagine you could easily come up with a dozen or more different Grays.

Hint - you can use this same technique for all the Other Colors on the Color Wheel also. i.e...Red-Orange, Yellow-Orange, Yellow-Green, Blue-Green, Red-Purple, and Blue-Purple. I like to make/mix my own Color Wheel (using squares) on a scap piece of leather (recording my Mix Ratio) on the back...i.e.. 10 Parts Black and 1 Part Blue, etc.... You can also pre-mix this combination of colors in seperate and smaller bottles. I glue scap of leather to the lid to indicate its color actually on leather, and record the ratio I used, too! Good luck -seems like a nice project! David

PS: Make it easy on yourself by buying a Color Wheel (in any art supply store/section) and a couple of Eye-Droppers (for mixing) at the Drug Store.

[KatieG]

Another option might be to use a layer or two of a resist over the gray areas. They won't take as much color and turn grayer rather than black.

[rcsaddles]

I had a guy call me last night wanting me to look at the seats in his Dodge pickup. The dog had scratched at them and the gray is off of the leather seat and it is a brown color underneath. He wants me to "fix" it.

Any suggestions for this? I am thinking of black and white dye mixed to the matching shade but also thought about using the cova colors. I have no experience with the cova colors and the same with mixing dye.

Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Thanks