Make Paint Colors

Crafting that perfect shade of orange or pink can be a daunting roadblock for the beginner who doesn't know where to begin when putting their palette together. Thankfully, nearly all colors in the spectrum can be created from just a few basic colors. Learning the color wheel will give you the foundation you need to produce any hue you desire.

Steps

Mixing the Secondary Colors

1. Gather paint-mixing supplies. You'll need a palette and a paint knife or brush in order to get started. Mixing paint with a paint knife results in a more even, uniform color compared to a brush.
   • If you're using brushes to mix paint, make sure to clean them in between mixing. You don’t want paint of a previous color mixing with the two you are currently mixing. Use soap and water for acrylic, or odorless mineral spirits or turpentine for oil.
   • You can mix your paints in a jar instead of a palette if you intend on preparing paint for later work.
   • Color mixing is skill that takes hard work and experience. Practice with different amounts of paint, as well as different kinds of combinations, in order to get more acquainted with how your paints will interact.
2. Start with the three primary colors. All other colors stem from the three primary colors: red, blue, and yellow. These colors cannot be made from other colors. It's useful to think of them as the base “parent” colors.
   • You might consider purchasing larger quantities of the primary colors compared to other types of paint. Larger tubes of paint are often available in 200ml quantities.
   • Paints come in two qualities: student grade and professional. Student grades are cheaper, but inferior than professional paints when it comes to longevity, intensity, and other factors. Student grade paints can also alter the mixing ratios required for certain colors, so be cognizant of your purchases.
3. Mix yellow and blue to make green. Use an equal amount of yellow and blue paint. Mix them together using either a paint brush or painting knife to create green. Using an unequal amount of either paint will skew the color of the green toward whichever color was dominant – blue or yellow.
   
4. Mix yellow and red to make orange. Use an equal amount of yellow and red paint. Mix them together using either a paint brush or painting knife to create orange. Using an unequal amount of either paint will skew the color of the orange toward whichever color was dominant – yellow or red.
5. Mix blue and red to make purple. Use an equal amount of blue and red paint. Mix them together using either a paint brush or painting knife to create purple. Using an unequal amount of either paint will skew the color of the purple toward whichever color was dominant – blue or red.
6. Use white and black paint to alter the tinting, saturation, and shading of a color. Tint and shade refer to how light or dark a color appears. Saturation is how "intense" or grey a color appears. Experiment with mixing in small amounts of white or black paint to create variations on the basic colors.
   • Whether white and black count as primary colors is debated. For paint-making purposes, it's important to know that a variety of black shades can be created with existing paints, whereas no paints mix to create white.
7. Store all colors that you mix. Place the paint in an air tight container, such as a jar, if you are not going to immediately use the colors. You will use these colors either to paint, or to create tertiary colors. A Tupperware container is also a great option if you don’t have jars available.
   • If you don’t have containers to store your paint, cover your palette with a saran wrap and store it in the fridge (or freezer for oil paints).
   • You can also place a wet towel over your paints to help keep them moist until you are ready to use them.

Mixing the Tertiary Colors

1. Start with the secondary colors. These include the colors that are made from the primaries: purple, green, and orange. You may use the paints you have already mixed, or purchase tubes of the secondary colors from any art store. Make sure you have plenty of primary color paint left over as well.
2. Mix a primary and secondary color to make a tertiary. Use equal parts primary and secondary paint. Mix them together using your brush or a painting knife. Using unequal parts paint will skew the resulting color toward whichever color was dominant – the primary or secondary.
   • Note that tertiary colors are always named so that their primary colors are listed first, as in "yellow-green."
   • Different colors will have different names depending on the manufacturer and the ingredients used in the paint. For example, one brand of paint may call yellow-orange "Cadmium Yellow Light." Keep this in mind when purchasing paints from the store.
3. Create all six tertiary colors. Each tertiary color is created via the same method, an equal parts mixing of colors. Different brands of paints often have slightly different pigment mixtures, so don't worry if they color doesn't turn out exactly as you expected. There are six tertiary colors in total:
   • Yellow-green.
   • Blue-green.
   • Blue-violet.
   • Red-violet.
   • Red-orange.
   • Yellow-orange.

Mixing Browns, Blacks, Neutrals, and More

1. Mix a tertiary color with a primary color to create brown. Specifically, mix the tertiary color with the primary color that is not already a part of the tertiary color’s mix. In the case of browns, the ratio of each paint will affect the type of resulting brown.
   • Adding a greater portion of warmer color, such as red, will result in a warmer brown.
   • Using greater quantities of colder colors, such as blue and green, will result in a brown that is very dark, nearing black in color.
2. Mix complementary colors to achieve black. Complementary colors are those that are considered opposite one another on the color wheel. Examples include red and green, or blue and orange. Mixing these colors together will create a black mixture that leans toward one of the colors used in the mix. This is referred to as chromatic black.
   • A dark blue and brown can also provide a deep black that may be keyed cooler or warmer depending on the ratio of paints.
   • Note that purchasing a pure black paint from the tube will limit your mixing opportunities with that particular black.
3. Mix a primary, analogous, and complement for gray. An analogous color is one located next to a particular color on the color wheel. For example, analogous colors of green are yellow and blue. Adding an analogous color to a color plus compliment mixture will neutralize the intensity of the color, creating a more grey color. Add white to lighten the value of this mixture until you are satisfied with the grey.
   • Dark colors mix more easily into light than vice versa. Mix a small amount of the grey mixture into white to start, and add more as necessary.
4. Use the color wheel. With the three main color groups at your disposal, you have every color you need to create any color you can think of. When in doubt about what is needed to create a particular color, look at the color wheel. Look at where the color falls on the wheel, and mix the two parent colors that the color falls between.
   • Use white (or yellow) to lighten a color.
   • Use a complement of a particular color to key the color toward grey.
   • Darkening a color requires an addition of one of its parent colors, depending on which color you wish to lean toward.

Tips

• Take notes in order to remember what color combination, and what ratio, gave you the color you enjoy.
• Replicating a color wheel is a great exercise for mixing paint.
• Experiment! You never know what you'll end up with.
• Start with small amounts of paint so you can get used to how much is needed for a given color.
• Don't wear any clothing that you would mind getting paint on.
• If you need a lot of a particular colour, mix a bit more than you think is necessary. Otherwise, you may run short and you can end up with a lot of different hues.

Warnings

• Many paints contain dangerous metals, such as lead and cadmium, so avoid ingesting the paint, or prolonged skin contact.

Things You'll Need

• Tubes of primary colors; red, yellow, and blue.
• Tubes of white and black.
• Clothing that can get dirty.
• A palette.
• Paint brushes.
• A painting knife.
• Jars or other air tight containers.

Related Articles

• Mix Colors
• Mix Paint Colors to Make Brown
• Mix Colors to Make Pink
• Make Brown from Primary Colors

Sources and Citations

See also

• Mix Green Paint
• Make Red
• Make Purple Paint
• Mix Colors to Make Pink
• Make Glow in the Dark Paint
• Mix Colors to Make Dark Blue
• Make Puffy Paint
• Mix Paint Colors to Make Brown
• Make Milk Paint
• Make Non Toxic Paint for Kids

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• Mix Paint Colors to Make Brown
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