Matching and mixing colours
Matching a colour means answering three questions in order: what is its value, what is its hue, and how intense is it? Answer them one at a time and mixing becomes systematic instead of guesswork.
Step by step
- Identify the hue family: is it basically a red, orange, yellow, green, blue or violet? Start with the tube closest to it.
- Adjust the value: lighten with white (opaque media) or water (watercolour); darken with a darker colour of similar hue or a little of the complement.
- Adjust the chroma: if your mix is too intense, add a little of its complement or a grey. If it is too dull, you need a cleaner, more saturated starting colour.
- Shift the hue with a neighbour: a green that is too blue gets a touch of yellow.
- Test the swatch by holding it next to the subject (or the photo) — a palette knife or a strip of paper helps. Paint dries differently: acrylic often dries slightly darker, gouache values shift, watercolour dries lighter.
- Mix more than you need and add small amounts of the strong colour to the weak colour — not the other way round. Phthalo blue and phthalo green are very strong tinting colours.
Mixing recipes
Starting points using common oil or acrylic paints. Pigments vary between brands, so always test on scrap first.
| Colour | Recipe |
|---|---|
| Natural skin (light) | White + yellow ochre + a touch of cadmium red; cool with a speck of ultramarine if too pink |
| Natural skin (deep) | Burnt sienna + burnt umber + a little ultramarine; warm with cadmium red; lift with ochre and white |
| Neutral grey (chromatic) | Ultramarine + burnt umber (or burnt sienna) + white — warmer or cooler by adjusting the ratio |
| Rich black | Ultramarine + burnt umber, or phthalo green + alizarin crimson |
| Sky blue | White + ultramarine, with a touch of phthalo or cerulean nearer the horizon |
| Foliage green | Ultramarine + cadmium yellow (or yellow ochre for a duller olive green) |
| Bright spring green | Phthalo blue + cadmium yellow light |
| Violet | Ultramarine + alizarin (or quinacridone) crimson — not cadmium red, which gives a muddy brown-violet |
| Earthy orange / terracotta | Burnt sienna + cadmium orange or red + a little white |
| Shadow on white objects | White + a little ultramarine + a speck of burnt sienna, adjusted to the light's temperature |
Common mistakes
- Adjusting hue, value and chroma all at once.
- Adding white to every colour, which makes everything chalky.
- Mixing tiny amounts and being unable to remix the same colour.
Practice exercise
Choose five colours from a photo. Use the Colour Mixer tool for a starting recipe, mix each one, and paint the swatch beside a printout of the original.