How to Make Paint Colors: Everything You Need to Know

Welcome to the wonderful world of painting! We’re so glad you’ve picked up your paintbrush and are ready to paint. But you’ve run into a problem: how do you make the color of your dreams? In this beginner’s guide, we’ll teach you everything there is to know about how to mix paint colors. We even talked to pro artists to bring you the best advice! So, keep reading to learn about the color wheel, secondary colors, and more.

How to Mix Basic Colors

Red + Yellow = Orange
Yellow + Blue = Green
Red + Blue = Purple

Section 1 of 5:

Color Mixing Basics

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The color wheel Before we break down how to mix paint colors, it’s important to learn why colors work the way they do. So, let’s start with the color wheel! The color wheel is a circular chart that displays how colors interact with one another. By reading a color wheel, you can determine what colors to mix with what. But first, it’s important to understand how the color wheel is divided:^{[1]
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- Primary colors consist of red, yellow, and blue, which are the only colors that cannot be mixed to create one another.
- Secondary colors consist of green, orange, and purple and are made by combining primary colors.
- Tertiary colors are yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green, and yellow-green and are created by mixing a primary and secondary color.
- Complementary colors are two colors directly across from each other on the wheel that “complement” one another, such as red and green.
- Analogous colors are any three colors that are side by side on the color wheel, such as yellow-green, yellow, and yellow-orange.
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Warm and cool colors On the color wheel, there are two tones of color: warm and cool. Warm colors (yellow, red, and orange) are reminiscent of fire and are generally brighter, whereas cool colors (blue, green, and purple) are found more commonly in nature and tend to be duller. When mixed, the temperatures or tones of colors can affect the outcome.^{[2]
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- For example, mixing a warm red and warm yellow will make a bright, warm orange. Alternatively, mixing a cool red with a cool yellow will make a muted cool orange.
- Warm and cool colors can also be mixed together to create more unique tones. When mixing a warm and cool color, the undertones of the color will mix. For instance, a warm red mixed with a cool blue makes a cool maroon.
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Lightening and darkening colors White and black paint can alter a color's tint, saturation, and shading. Tint and shade refer to how light or dark a color appears, while saturation is how “intense” or gray a color is. Experimenting with mixing in small amounts of white or black paint can allow you to create variations of basic colors.^{[3]
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- Similarly, you can also lighten paint colors by adding a little bit of yellow or darken them by adding a little bit of blue.
- 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.^{[4]
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Section 2 of 5:

How to Make Secondary Colors

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Mix yellow and blue to make green. Use an equal amount of yellow and blue paint. Mix them together using a paintbrush 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. As artist Kelly Medford explains, “It’s all about the proportion of the mixture.”^{[5]
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Expert Source

Kelly Medford
Professional Artist

Expert Interview. 26 July 2019}
- Blue and yellow both come in warm and cool hues. A cool yellow will look greenish, while a warm yellow will look orange-ish.^{[6]
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- To get a brighter shade of green, use a cool yellow and a cool blue, both with a greenish tint to it.
- If your green is murky, you might have used a warm, orangish yellow or a warm, purplish-blue.
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Mix yellow and red to make orange. Use an equal amount of yellow and red paint. Mix them together using either a paintbrush or palette knife to create orange. If you use an unequal amount of either paint, the orange will have a tone based on whichever color is more present (yellow or red).^{[7]
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- Like blue and yellow, red comes in both warm and cool hues. A warm red will look orangish, while a cool red will look purplish.^{[8]
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- To get a brighter orange, use a warm, orangish yellow and a warm, orangish red.
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Mix blue and red to make purple. Mix an equal amount of blue and red paint until you achieve your desired color. If you use more of one color than the other, your purple will come out with more of the dominant color’s undertone.^{[9]
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- Like other shades, blue has warm and cool hues. A warm blue will look more purple, while a cool blue will look greenish.
- To get a bright purple, mix a cool red with purple undertones and a warm blue with purple undertones.
- If your purple came out murky, you might have used a warm, orangey red or a cool, greenish blue.

Section 3 of 5:

How to Make Tertiary Colors

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Mix a primary and secondary color together. Each tertiary color is created via the same method: mixing a primary and secondary color. Choose which colors you want to combine (making the secondary color if you don’t have it already). Then, play around with the proportions and mix them together. Equal amounts of both paints will make a more balanced shade, while having more of one color will make it dominant the other.^{[10]
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Research source} Here are the six tertiary colors you can make:
- Yellow-green.
- Blue-green.
- Blue-purple.
- Red-purple.
- Red-orange.
- Yellow-orange.
- Note that tertiary colors are always named so that their primary colors are listed first.

Section 4 of 5:

How to Make Neutral Colors

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Mix a tertiary color with a primary color to make brown. More specifically, mix the tertiary color with the primary color that’s 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.^{[11]
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- Adding a greater portion of a warmer color, such as red, will result in a warmer brown. For instance, Medford recommends using a darker red and blue to make a muted purple and then adding in a little warm yellow.^{[12]
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  Kelly Medford
  Professional Artist
  
  Expert Interview. 26 July 2019}
- Using greater quantities of colder colors, such as blue and green, will result in a brown that is very dark, nearing black in color.
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Mix complementary colors to create black. Complementary colors are those that are considered opposite one another on the color wheel, such as red and green or blue and orange.^{[13]
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Research source} Mixing these colors together creates a black mixture that leans toward one of the colors used in the mix. This is referred to as chromatic black.^{[14]
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- 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.^{[15]
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Mix a primary, analogous, and complementary color 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.^{[16]
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Research source} Adding an analogous color to a color plus complement mixture will neutralize the intensity of the color, creating a more gray color.^{[17]
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- Alternatively, to make a more basic gray, mix all three primary colors and alter the color temperature as needed.
- Add white to lighten the value of this mixture until you are satisfied with the gray.
- Dark colors mix more easily into light than vice versa. Mix a small amount of the gray mixture into the white to start, and add more as necessary.

Section 5 of 5:

Advice for Beginner Artists

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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.^{[18]
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Artist Renee Plevy recommends referencing the color wheel when you first start mixing paints. She suggests letting your creativity and curiosity run wild! Look at the wheel, find a color you want to make, and then use your knowledge of primary and secondary colors to create it.^{[19]
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Expert Source

Renée Plevy
Portrait Artist & Educator

Expert Interview. 7 May 2021.}
If you want to save your mixed paint colors for later, place them in an airtight container, such as a jar or reusable kitchen container. Similarly, you can also cover your palette with saran wrap and store it in the fridge ((or freezer for oil paints) or place a damp towel over the paints.^{[20]
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Be aware of the quality of your paint. Paints come in two qualities: student grade and professional. Student grades are cheaper but don’t have the same longevity or intensity as professional paints. As you progress as an artist, think about upgrading your paints, as they can upgrade your paintings and help you make bolder, more saturated colors.^{[21]
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- Plevy actually recommends starting out with the best supplies possible: “If you really want to learn, you need to get the best supplies that you can.” This way, “you learn the right things first.”^{[22]
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  Expert Source
  
  Renée Plevy
  Portrait Artist & Educator
  
  Expert Interview. 7 May 2021.}
Don’t be afraid to use the internet and any other resources at your disposal! If you’re unsure how to mix a specific color, do a bit of googling. There’s no harm in asking for help, especially when you’re first starting out.
While it may sound cliché, practice does make perfect. Don’t get discouraged if you mix together some paints and the color doesn’t come out like you imagined. Keep trying! The more you practice mixing colors, the easier it’ll be to combine and pick which colors make what.^{[23]
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Expert Q&A

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What colors do I mix to make different colors?

Kelly Medford
Professional Painter
Kelly Medford is an American painter based in Rome, Italy. She studied classical painting, drawing and printmaking both in the U.S. and in Italy. She works primarily en plein air on the streets of Rome, and also travels for private international collectors on commission. She founded Sketching Rome Tours in 2012 where she teaches sketchbook journaling to visitors of Rome. Kelly is a graduate of the Florence Academy of Art.

Kelly Medford

Professional Painter

Expert Answer

You can make every color by mixing some combination of the primary colors and white.

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Can I make white paint at home?

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This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

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You can make white paint by mixing a white pigment, such as chalk or zinc oxide, with a binder or glue. Some good binder options include vegetable oils (for oil painting), gum Arabic (for watercolors or gouache), or egg yolks (to make egg tempera).

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How do you lighten a paint color?

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The easiest way to do it is to mix the darker color with a lighter hue. For example, you could mix a dark red with pink to make a lighter red. Mixing in a little white will also work. You can also dilute the paint with water or paint thinner to make it paler and more translucent.

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Try mixing your paints in a jar instead of on a palette if you intend to use the paint later.

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Take notes to remember what color combination and ratio you used to create it.

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