How to Mix A Variety of Greens

Mixing Greens Demo

We all know that yellow and blue make green. But what type of green you want determines which blues and yellows you will start with. The demo in the video below is done with oil paints, but it would hold true for acrylics as well. In this video, I show the different greens possible using 5 paint colors: Cerulean Blue and Ultramarine Blue, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow Deep Hue, and Lemon Yellow.

Leaning Colors

That is not a typo. I’m not talking about “learning” colors, but “leaning” colors. If you visualize a color wheel, there are several blues, several yellows, and several reds and each of them leans a little bit more to the analogous color or the color next to them. In the video, I mention that some blues will lean more toward either purple or green. Those are the two colors adjacent to blue on the color wheel. If I want a very vivid pure green, I’m going to select a blue and a yellow that lean toward green. If I want more of a dull green, like olive, I’m going to select a yellow and or a blue that leans away from green. The reason for this is that they will have more red in them which is a complementary ( or opposite ) color. In the color wheel below, the complementary color combinations are Red and Green; Cadmium Yellow and Violet; Orange and Pthalo Blue; Yellowish Green and Magenta. If I have a tube of Ultramarine Blue and a tube of Cerulean Blue and I want to make a vivid pure green with Lemon Yellow, I’m going to choose the blue with the most green in it…or the blue that leans more toward green which is the Cerulean. However, if I’m trying to make a dull more olive green, I’ll go with the Ultramarine. This is because the Ultramarine has more red in it and leans in that direction instead.

Out of the colors in the video demo above, Cerulean Blue and Lemon Yellow both lean toward green. Ultramarine Blue leans in the opposite direction toward Violet. Cadmium Yellow Deep Hue leans in the opposite direction toward Orange. Yellow Ochre leans toward Deep Orange or Brown away from green as well. If I am painting and I want a duller or olive or almost brown-green, I’ll use blue and yellows that lean away from the green. If I want a vivid, pure green, I’ll use colors that lean toward it.

What if I want a beautiful vivid purple? Which tube of blue leans more toward red? The ultramarine. I’ll cover that in a different post.

The Color Wheel

Most color wheels you buy from art supply stores are not going to have the actual tube paint names on them. They are helpful for understanding color theory. However, I prefer to just keep this “leaning colors” idea in my head while I am painting.

If you like the color wheel above, I actually got it for free in this disposable paint palette pad! I purchase the Grey Matters Paper Palette pads to mix my paint on and believe it or not this color wheel is on the inside cover of the pad. These are a great size for mixing paint on and toned grey to help you get the correct value in your mixes. I love the convenience of just being able to throw away my page from the pad when I am finished. Or, if I’m not finished, I can fold it up into a ziplock bag and save it in my refrigerator until I’m ready to paint the next day. You can find these at your favorite art supply store or in the link above on Amazon. It’s a great product with the perfect color tool included.

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