Make Brown from Primary Colors

You can create a vast spectrum of shades of brown by mixing the primary colors: red, blue, and yellow. If you are using paint, your best bet is to use a palette knife instead of a brush to achieve an even color. To make brown from primary colors, you will have to use two of the primary colors to create a secondary color, then and mix it with its complementary primary color.

Steps

Making Brown from Orange and Blue

  1. Mix yellow and red to create orange. First, start with a considerable amount of red. Then, add a small amount of yellow -- just 10% of red or so. Mix in the yellow until you have created a dark orange. The result should be far more red than yellow.
  2. Mix in blue with the orange. Add just a little blue paint to the mix -- no more than 5-10 % of the total color at first. Mix it in until the color begins to turn a rich, chocolatey brown. If it still looks too orange, mix in just a bit more blue.
  3. Adjust the color. If you would like to darken the color a bit more, add a bit more blue. If it looks too dark, add orange. If you are mixing paints, just use some of the orange paints. If you're drawing, then lightly draw orange over the paint using red and yellow again.

Making Brown from Green and Red

  1. Mix yellow and blue to make green. Use an equal amount of yellow and blue to make green. If you use too much yellow, the color will be too bright. If you use too much blue, the color will be too dark.
  2. Mix green with red. Slowly add red to the green until you've created a ruddy brown color. Add just a little red at first and continue to mix it in to darken the color.
  3. Adjust the color. Add more red to warm up the brown, and add a bit more green to add a greener hue to the brown.

Making Brown from Purple and Yellow

  1. Mix red and blue to make purple. Mix them in equal proportions to create a royal purple. This will be a darker shade of purple.
  2. Mix purple with yellow. Yellow will lighted up this dark shade until it turns into a yellow-tinted brown. Add just a dollop of yellow at first, and mix it in a bit more if you'd like to lighten the brown.
  3. Adjust the color. To continue lightening the brown, mix in more yellow paint. To darken the brown, add a bit more of the purple.

Making Brown by Other Methods

  1. Mix all three of the primary colors together. Since mixing two primary colors and then the third will give you brown, mixing will also give you a similar result, but this process will not be as neat since you will not have as much control over the secondary color. Mix them in different proportions just for fun and see what proportion creates the brown color that you want.
    • The more yellow you use, the lighter the shade of brown will be; the more red and blue you use, the darker it will be.
  2. Mix multiple shades of brown together. Mixing all the shades of brown you have created will make other shades of brown. You can use just the browns you created from one separate method (mixing orange and blue, for example). Mix and match the different browns from different methods and see how the colors turn out.

Making Brown Using All Main Colors

  1. Mix dark blue and dark green in equal proportions.
  2. Mix in black in the same proportions as in dark blue.
  3. Mix in red in the same amount as black.
  4. Mix in yellow.
  5. If you need a lighter shade of brown, add a bit more yellow.

Understanding How Color Mixes

  1. Understand primary colors. The primary colors are red, blue, and yellow.
  2. Understand secondary colors. The secondary colors are created by mixing two primary colors. The colors that are created when you mix two colors together appear between the primary colors on the color wheel. Therefore, red and blue make purple, yellow and red make orange, and yellow and blue make green.
  3. Understand complimentary colors. The complimentary colors are simply colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. This means that they are of opposite hues in the color model, and should mix to produce a neutral color of white, gray, or black if they are mixed in the proper proportion.
  4. Create brown by mixing a secondary color with its complimentary primary color. To create brown, you'll simply have to mix the following complimentary colors:
    • Mix orange (from yellow and red) with its complimentary color, blue (Method one, steps 1-3)
    • Mix green (from yellow and blue) with its complimentary color, red (Method two, steps 1-3)
    • Mix purple (from red and blue) with its complimentary color, yellow (Method three, steps 1-3)



Tips

  • You can make brown by using colored pencils or crayons, but the best way to mix colors is to use paint. If you do want to use paint, then start with a palette knife, which is a flat metal tool that mixes two colors together as you glide it back and forth across a piece of paper or canvas. Using a paintbrush will not give you the best results because it will leave streaks of paint in the colors and will be completely ruined after you have mixed it in with every color.
  • You should use more yellow even if it is not acrylic paint, because the results will end in a color almost black.

Warnings

  • Do not use too much blue or red, because it will probably not turn out the shade of brown you wanted it to be.

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