Improvisation is more than an ability. It is a skill. It demands a willingness to experiment, a proclivity for creativity, and a deep understanding of principles.
Today I improvised in painting my bedroom. I was not happy with a color I purchased for the background walls. Commercially known by Sherwin-Williams as “Ice Blue,” the tone is a bluish off-white that looked more white than expected. It blended with the pure-white trim boards. Metamerism! Natural light works in mysterious ways. Shall I dispose of this gallon of paint and purchase a warmer color?
Until today, it didn’t occur to me that you can mix different latex-based paints to create new colors. The vastness of the commercial naming of tones — “Ice Cube”, “Slate Blue”, “Hunter Green”— can make you to believe these specific colors are only achieved with precise quantities of pigments.
So I mixed the “Ice Blue” with the “Sandy Beach”, a peachy cream color I used for the hallway walls, to achieve a warmer off-white, similar to the background of this blog, if only a bit lighter. I hence-ford name this new creation “Travertine”.