Mixing Colors

Mixing paint is a practical skill that saves a lot of frustration. Why does your green look muddy? Why can't you get a bright violet? The answers come from how pigments behave, and from choosing the right paints.

Subtractive mixing

Paints mix subtractively: each pigment absorbs (subtracts) some wavelengths of light. When you mix two pigments, the mixture absorbs what both absorb, so mixes are always darker and less saturated than their ingredients. The more pigments you mix, the duller the result.

Try mixing real paint colors here:

The limitations of three primaries

In theory, red, yellow and blue mix every color. In practice, no paint is a perfect primary. Every pigment leans toward a neighbor: a red can be orange-leaning (cadmium red) or violet-leaning (alizarin crimson); a blue can be green-leaning (phthalo) or violet-leaning (ultramarine).

To mix clean, bright secondaries, use primaries that lean toward each other:

• Bright green: green-leaning yellow (lemon) + green-leaning blue (phthalo).
• Bright orange: orange-leaning yellow + orange-leaning red (cadmium red).
• Bright violet: violet-leaning red (crimson or magenta) + violet-leaning blue (ultramarine).

Using primaries that lean away from each other produces muted, grayish mixes, which is useful too: those are the beautiful, natural colors.

A practical palette

A classic split-primary palette, two of each primary:

Plus titanium white (for opaque paints) and an earth color like burnt umber or burnt sienna for neutrals.

Mixing neutrals and darks

• Complements neutralize each other: a little green into red makes a muted red; equal amounts make a rich gray-brown.
• Rich darks mixed from ultramarine + burnt umber (or crimson + phthalo green) are more alive than black from a tube.

Mixing tips

• Start with the lighter color and add the darker one gradually: it takes very little dark to change a light color.
• Mix enough paint: remixing the same color later is hard.
• Don't overmix: slightly broken mixes on the brush can look lively.
• Keep your water and brushes clean to avoid mud.
• Limited palettes (3 colors + white) are the fastest way to learn mixing and get harmony for free.