COLOR MIXING

ARTIST’S GUIDE
Enhance your color mixing prowess with fundamental

color tips and principles you can readily apply.

 A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO COLOR MIXING

Welcome, and thank you for your interest in Art Studio Life. You could spend an
entire lifetime exploring color as an artist. Which is why I’m so excited to share
this guide with you, so to help you have a better understanding and gain a clear
foundation in color right from the start!

As you may suspect, color is one of the most important and fundamental
elements in painting. Therefore, it is critical for us as artists to understand not
only how to work with color, but also how to mix the colors we need on a
deeper level.

Dealing with the nuances of mixing and applying colors in your art may seem
daunting at first. However, with patience, practice, and a spirit of
experimentation, you will begin to develop a profound understanding and
mastery of this realm!

This guide, will provide you with an overview of fundamental color theory and
mixing principles. That will serve as a stepping stone towards achieving a greater
richness in your paintings through the art of color mixing. Enjoy!

~ Elisabeth

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 COLORS WITHIN THE COLOR WHEEL

First off, let's take a quick look at the colors that make up the color wheel. We'll
go over some basic color theory before delving into mixing a few colors!

Use the color wheel for reference as you go through this guide for getting started.

Primary Colors

The primary colors yellow, blue and red are important because all other
colors stem from just these three. These colors cannot be made from other
colors – thus they are considered ‘parent’ colors.

Secondary colors

Secondary colors are those mixed from primary colors, such as; green,
orange and purple. They are mixed from the following primary colors:

Yellow + Blue = Green

Yellow + Red = Orange
Blue + Red = Purple

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 Complementary Colors

At the top of the color wheel you will notice red – directly below it at the bottom is
green. Green and red are both complementary colors. Now, let's look at the third
color to the right of the red – orange. Opposite of orange is blue as blue is the
complementary of orange and vise versa. Another complementary color would
be purple and yellow.

Whatever color is opposite of another color on the color wheel is its

complementary color.

Analogous Colors

Colors that are beside one another on the color wheel. For example blue, light
blue.

Triadic Colors

Three colors that form a perfect triangle on the wheel. An example would be red
– blue, yellow.

Tertiary Colors

When a primary and secondary color are mixed together a tertiary color is
created. As with secondary colors you must use equal parts of each to
successfully mix a tertiary color. You can always notice a tertiary color by name
as it is listed with its primary color first:

Blue Green · Blue Violent · Yellow Green

Red violet · Red Orange · Yellow Orange

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 TAKING A DEEPER LOOK AT
COMPLEMENTARY COLORS

Having a deep understanding of complementary colors, is one of the most

important things you can do when it comes to color mixing. We’ve already
touched on them briefly but we’ll go a little deeper into them now. These are the
colors that are opposite from each other on the color wheel. So, for example,
when looking at the wheel you notice that red is at the top – opposite the red is
green at the bottom of the wheel. Thus, green is the complementary color of red
and vise versa. The same holds true for blue and orange and purple and yellow
(as well as all other colors in between).

What are complementary colors good for?

When you pour your orange out of the tube, it is a very saturated color.
Therefore, it won’t serve you as well in your painting when you are trying to
achieve a hue that is more ‘true to life’. So, what do you do? This is where
complementary colors come in. As blue is the opposite of orange, when you add
some blue to orange it will make the orange less orange – therefore creating a
more muted color. Or, if you would rather have a more muted blue you would just
add some orange to the blue. The same principles apply for the other
complementary colors; green/red, yellow/purple etc.

Now you could technically add a brown (burnt umber) to these colors to mute
them. However, this creates very uninteresting colors and will not help you in the
long run. So, working on mixing the opposites of these colors will help you to
create much more beautiful and dynamic colors.

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 HOW TO MIX SHADES OF BLUE
Blue is a very important and one of the most often used colors on the painter’s
palette. There are many different shades of blues – light blues, dark blues, warm
blues, muted blues... the list goes on!

Let's look at how to mix a light and muted shade of blue.

You will run into many situations in which you will need to mix different shades of
blue colors that are lighter. Here is a simple color mixture to mix a nice light blue.

Mixing a light shade of blue

Cobalt Blue White Light Blue

Remember us talking about complementary colors? Well they are very important
and useful when it comes to mixing muted colors. Re-visit the sections earlier on
in this guide to see more about the power of complementary colors!

Using complementary colors to create

muted shades of blue

Ultramarine Blue Cadmium Orange

Cobalt Blue Cadmium Orange

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 MIXING BROWN
Simplified version of how to mix brown

Did you know that when you mix all the primary colors together you get brown?
The hue of brown you create will depend upon the ration of each primary color
you use to mix your brown.

Cadmium Yellow Cadmium Red Cobalt Blue

Primary Colors mixed together make brown

However, there are even more different kinds of yellow, red and blue colors
available. You can also just use whichever colors you might have on hand at
home.

MIXING BLACK
How to make a dark black color

Nearly any combination of two deep, dark colors will produce a black as
long as one is cool and the other warm. One of my favorite combinations for a
rich dark black that is super simple, is mixing together ultramarine blue and
burnt umber.

Ultramarine Blue Burnt Umber

© 2023 Art Studio Life

 MIXING EVEN MORE COLORS

So far, we have barely skimmed the surface! Most of what one learns from
color mixing, after you’ve learned the fundamental principles, comes from
experience. The best thing you can do for yourself in the process of learning
to mix colors, is simply to mix a LOT. All the time. Be experimental with color
and mix combinations that you would not ordinarily think of – the results
may surprise you.

Think of mixing colors in terms of cooking and adding spices – a little bit of this,
then a little bit of that… What I find accelerates the learning process is to
watch an experienced painter work and see how they mix colors. For myself,
this helped me to get outside of my own head and
think of more unusual color combinations. The result was that my ability to make
compelling color combinations on the canvas increased exponentially. Most
importantly, be patient with yourself as you learn (or re-learn) these principles!

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MIXING MASTER GUIDE, HERE:

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Thank You!
So glad you were able to join me in this color guide. I hope you can take
advantage of these few, important color mixing fundamentals we’ve covered
here. Keep an eye out for additional color tips and artist resources that will be
coming to your inbox in the near future!

© 2023 Art Studio Life