Acrylic Color CHOCO BROWN

A cocoa brown as the workhorse of a palette

Choco Brown is a dark chocolate brown without a red or a yellow deviation. In a modeling palette it belongs to the colors with the highest consumption, because almost every model needs it: pouches and straps, rifle stocks, barrels, crates, tree trunks, the soil underfoot and the dark hair of figures all start from this tone.

It is interesting in what can be done with it further as well. Lightened with ocher or a bone shade it gives a whole range of leather and wooden shades, mixed with a dark green it shifts vegetation toward autumn, and thinned with water it turns into a dark shade for bringing out grooves without the result going black. Anyone building a palette from scratch usually starts with a brown of exactly this type.

Properties and use

• a neutral dark brown without a red reflection
• a base for leather, wood, soil and dark hair
• thinned, it serves as a dark shade into the recesses
• matte once dry and ready for a dry brush

The shade goes together well with an airbrush, it is enough to thin it slightly with acrylic thinner and work in thin coats. For brush painting it is applied straight from the bottle; the consistency suits both areas and small details, where a thinner paint would run into the grooves.

A high consumption is the rule with this paint, so it pays to have it at home rather sooner than later. The dropper dispensing meanwhile prevents needless waste: the paint is taken out in drops and the rest of the bottle stays closed.

A small piece of advice at the end: never mix brown with black for a shadow. The result goes gray and the area loses warmth. A better path leads through a darker brown or through a drop of blue, after which the shadow stays colorful.