Your Complete Guide to Color Mixing With Watercolor

What happens when you hear the words color mixing?

If you’re like lots of my students, those words evoke a little fear or confusion. And you might just want to quietly back out of the room…

But wait!

Color mixing doesn’t have to be the big, confusing elephant in the (art) room. Yes, it can feel overwhelming. And yes, sometimes it’s a struggle to mix up that perfect color. But the truth is that it can be fun and there are some easy ways to simplify the process, which I’ll walk you through in this post.

Here’s something I want you to remember right from the start 👇

Color mixing is an experiment, not an exam.

You don’t have to memorize charts or color recipes to make beautiful paintings. There is definitely a methodology to mixing colors, but it’s not like you have to memorize hundreds of different ratios to mix colors well. In fact, the best thing you can do is to play. Swirl your colors together, see what happens, and notice what you love.

That’s what color mixing is really about. Curiosity, not perfection.

There are a few basics you need to understand so you don’t mix muddy colors, but once you have those down, you’ll be able to mix any color you can imagine. Let’s dive into the practical tips and mindset hacks that will make color mixing feel fun!

The Basics of Color Mixing

Color Theory Basics

Before we dive into the details, let’s get on the same page about basic color theory. Don’t worry, this won’t feel like art school. 😉

At its simplest, color theory just means learning how colors relate to one another and how they mix. That’s it! It’s a guide, not a rulebook. The basics of color theory are what we’re taught in school as kids (mixing red, yellow, and blue to make a whole rainbow of colors). But there’s some nuance to this with watercolor:

There are three primary colors, and these are the foundation for every other color you’ll ever mix:

Yellow
Magenta (we’ll talk about why this replaces traditional “red” in watercolor!)
Blue

When you mix these together, you create secondary colors:

Yellow + Magenta = Orange
Magenta + Blue = Purple
Yellow + Blue = Green

And from there, you can keep mixing to make an entire rainbow of new shades. Browns, peaches, grays, and beyond. The best part is that your versions of these colors might look totally different from someone else’s, because watercolor is all about how your paints interact and how much water you use.

What Paints Should I Use? (Less is More!)

You don’t need one of every paint, especially when you’re just starting out. Having too many tubes or pans of paint might seem like the perfect way to have every color at your fingertips, but in reality, it can paralyze us.

Also, some of those colors don’t play nicely together, and so I’d encourage you to start with fewer than 10 different paints.

But if you want to keep things super simple (and affordable), you can mix almost every color you’ll ever need with just three paints.

All you need is a yellow, a magenta, and a blue.

If you’re ready to start with a simple, professional-quality palette, here’s what I recommend:

These three are vibrant, transparent, and single-pigment colors, which means they play beautifully together without creating murky or dull results.

Wait… Magenta Instead of Red?

Yep! This one surprises a lot of people. 😂

Most of us were taught that the “primary colors” are red, yellow, and blue. But the thing is, red pigments can have sneaky undertones in them that create brownish, muddy tones when mixed with yellow and blue.

Magenta, on the other hand, is closer to a true primary, and its undertones don’t counteract the hues in most yellows and blues. When you mix magenta and blue, for example, you’ll get rich, vibrant purples instead of dull ones. It’s a small shift that makes a big difference!

If you’ve ever felt frustrated with muddy colors when you mix, using exclusively red paint as your primary red could be the culprit!

Color Mixing Recipes & Tips for Trickier Colors

Some colors just seem harder to get right. Here are a few of the ones my students ask about most often, and how to approach them.

How to Mix Green in Watercolor

By far, the question I get asked about most often is how to mix realistic greens for botanical watercolor painting.

Start with your yellow and slowly add blue until you reach your desired shade. Explore different blue shades to get different results.

Want it more natural? Add a touch of red or magenta to neutralize the brightness.

If you want to purchase tubes of pre-mixed green, those are also great to have in your back pocket if you paint a lot of flowers like me. My favorites are QoR Hooker’s Green and QoR Green Gold. Though mixing your own greens will always result in a rich, complex hue that you can’t get out of a tube!

(I have a full video tutorial on mixing greens if you want to dive deeper. Watch it here!)

How to Mix Brown With Watercolor

Browns are created by combining all three primaries, yellow, magenta, and blue. Adjust the balance to make warm, golden browns or cool, neutral ones.

(Here’s another YouTube tutorial walking you through this process step-by-step!)

How to Mix Purple With Watercolor

The key to mixing a vibrant purple is to use (you guessed it!) magenta! Mix magenta and blue, and experiment with how much water you use. More water will give you softer, lavender tones, while less water creates deeper violets.

Tips to Help You Get Comfortable With Color Mixing

Make It Fun

Instead of stressing over finding the perfect shade of violet, have fun mixing your paints.

You don’t need to worry about exactly how much blue goes with exactly how much pink. Mix your colors in your palette, swish your brush around in the water, grab a little more pink, mix it in, and see how you like it. See what happens when you re-activate a little puddle of purple next to it that you used on a painting last week and loop it into your mix… be flexible, notice what is happening, and have fun.

If you want to make sure you remember the colors you come up with as you’re experimenting, swatch your colors on a scrap piece of watercolor paper and jot down some notes about how you achieved that mix. You can put a little star next to the ones you love and use it as a reference later.

A Little Goes a Long Way

This is especially true when you’re mixing darker colors into lighter ones.

Colors like Phthalo Blue or Quinacridone Magenta are very strong. If you add a big blob of them to a light yellow or peachy color, they can completely overpower the mix.

So, try this simple rule: Always start with your lighter color and slowly add the darker one.

That gives you more control and helps you achieve those beautiful, balanced mixes without frustration.

Mix Slowly, Bit by Bit

When you start mixing, it’s tempting to just dive in and swirl equal parts of each color together. But color mixing is one of those things where a little patience pays off.

Start with small amounts of paint and mix bit by bit. This gives you more control and allows you to observe the color you’re mixing as it’s coming together. It gives you a chance to adjust and see how the paints work together.

And if you end up with a color you don’t love, it’s not a failure! You’ve just created a new brown, gray, or shadow tone that will come in handy later.

There’s No Such Thing As An Ugly Color

I’m sure some of you are mentally arguing with me about that right now, but that’s okay because I think it’s important to hear this.

Say you’re trying to mix up a gorgeous peachy color and you end up with something that looks like a moldy piece of fruit. Obviously, that is not ideal. 😂

But now you know exactly how to mix up a great brown color that will be super useful for painting stems and shadows. (And even a moldy piece of fruit, should that be something you’d like to paint 🤷‍♀️)

All colors are useful, and all the knowledge you get about mixing colors can be useful to you, too.

And if you’re still trying to get that perfect peachy color? Just take a paper towel to your palette and swipe it out and try again. (Hint: pink plus yellow and water it down!)

Keep Exploring

Color mixing is one of those skills that feels confusing until it suddenly just clicks. The more you practice, the more you’ll start to see patterns and understand how your paints interact.

In The Garden Studio, we dive deep into this topic through my five-part Practical Color Mixing series, plus plenty of live sessions where I demonstrate how to really get to know your paints.

If you’re not a member yet, click here to join the waitlist so you’ll be the first to know when the doors open again! I’d love to see you inside!