Don't bother me! I'm mixing virtual paint!

If you love pushing around acrylic paint, but you're separated from your beloved colors -- nooooo! -- read on. I just found the most fun web page EVER.

Golden Artist Colors now has a virtual paint mixer! It's pretty easy to use. Start by clicking on a color swatch, then click on one of the virtual paint tubes on the right. (Follow my blue graffiti arrow.)

There's also a drop-down menu which allows you to choose heavy-body colors (the ones that come in a tube), fluid colors, or one of five other types.

To adjust the color ratios, just use the tube cap slider. (FYI, the first color default amount is "100%" until you start using the slider.)

But the best feature? Clicking on a point in an image -- theirs or one you upload -- and having the mixer suggest which colors to use! Apparently if I'm using fluid colors, my hair should be painted 70% Yellow Oxide, 20% Naphthol Red Medium, and 10% Carbon Black.

Or if I switch to heavy-body colors, I should use 40% Hansa Yellow Medium, 30% Light Violet, and 30% Light Ultramarine Blue.

Mind: blown.

Upsides, in my experience:

• almost more fun on the phone than the laptop (color on the go!)
• ability to see colors I haven't used before
• educational -- might reduce some trial and error in color mixing, which might save me some money if it keeps me from buying a color I can't figure out how to use

Downsides:

• some swatch colors are nothing like the real thing, until you transfer them into the "tubes"
• Golden's ad boast of "No More Mud" is a bit of a stretch: the color mix display seems to go quickly to "brownish" or "grayish" on my laptop (yes, it could be a calibration issue, but that doesn't often happen on my laptop)
• can't mix different paint types (e.g. a heavy-body paint color and a fluid paint color)

Thanks to DickBlick.com for sending me a link to the color mixer (I'm not being compensated by Dick Blick or Golden for this post).

Have you used the Golden virtual color mixer yet? How? What did you think? Tell me in the comments or on Facebook. And if you post about it, send me a link to your blog. Follow-up posts are awesome.