Hebblewhite, Ian; Artists’ Materials; Phaidon Press Limited, Oxford, England, 1986
Color Mixing Guide
Throughout history, painters and authors have recommended various palettes of color. While some give insight to the painter’s working style, others offer a simple palette for mixing, but typically limit color possibilities. GOLDEN has created a palette of eight professional acrylic colors to provide you with the potential to mix the widest range of colors.
For this palette, the three mixing primaries are Benzimidazolone Yellow Medium, Quinacridone Magenta and Phthalo Blue (Green Shade). Our standard recommendation is Quinacridone Red, but we chose Quinacridone Magenta for mixing a broader range of violets and purples.
Naphthol Red Light helps balance the Quinacridone Magenta. Mixtures with Benzimidazolone Yellow Medium reveal a wider selection of intense reds and oranges. Mixtures with Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) allow deep reds and maroons.
Phthalo Green (Blue Shade) assists Phthalo Blue (Green Shade). Mixtures with Benzimidazolone Yellow Medium produce a great range of greens, particularly subtle yellow greens. This green is also useful for creating a diverse range of earth tones.
Yellow Ochre, a natural earth color, helps warm color mixtures and subdue the brightest colors.
Titanium White is an opaque white for creating light pastel tones. Zinc White is a very transparent white for subtle tinting and glazing.
THE QUALITIES OF COLORS
To describe color, we need to understand three qualities: Hue, Chroma and Value.
Hue is another word for color. It describes the actual color of something. Red, Green and Blue are hues. A cucumber and a lime are both hues of green.
Chroma is also referred to as saturation or intensity. It describes how brilliant or subdued the color looks. For example, within the hue of yellow, a lemon has more chroma than a banana.
Value refers to how dark or light a color is compared to white or black. Yellow is lighter in value, or closer to white, than dark blue. Sometimes it is difficult to determine the value of middle toned colors like orange and green. We easily understand value when we look at the range of Neutral Grays on the Virtual Color Guide. Try squinting while looking at colors to determine their value. Squinting helps the eyes’ black and white receptors make value determinations, or make a gray scale to place next to the color in question.
THE QUALITIES OF PAINT COLOR
Pigments are the particles in paint revealing hue. Every pigment is classified into two basic categories based on chemical composition – Organic pigments and Inorganic pigments.
ORGANIC PIGMENTS
Organic pigments are formed from complex carbon chemistry and are synthetically derived in laboratories.
Most organic pigments offer high chroma, high tinting strength and exceptional transparency. A transparent organic pigment, like a small piece of stained glass, allows light to pass through practically undisturbed. This characteristic allows mixtures with relatively high brilliance and clarity. Our mixing set includes five colors made from organic pigments: Benzimidazolone Yellow Medium, Quinacridone Magenta, Phthalo Blue (Green Shade), Phthalo Green (Blue Shade) and Naphthol Red Light.
INORGANIC PIGMENTS
Inorganic pigments are not based on carbon chemistry, but instead are derived from natural minerals or ores. These materials are oxides, sulfides, or various slats of metallic elements. Examples include iron oxide, cadmium sulfides and titanium dioxides.
Most inorganic pigments offer relatively low chroma, low tinting strength and a moderate to high degree of opacity. (Zinc White is the exception.) Using inorganics for blending color yields mixtures with low chroma, but excellent opacity. Our mixing set includes three colors made from inorganic pigments: Titanium White, Zinc White and Yellow Ochre.
OTHER PAINT COLOR TERMS
In order to more fully understand how to mix acrylic color we need to define other important attributes of paint color including: Masstone, Undertone and Tinting Strength.
Masstone
The masstone, or main paint color, is paint applied so it completely covers the surface and underlying colors cannot show through. For example, when Phthalo Blue is thickly applied, the masstone appears near black.
Undertone
The undertone of a color is visible when we spread the color very thinly over a white surface. This can be done by scraping the color over a surface or by thinning the colors dramatically with acrylic medium or water. Certain colors, such as the Cadmiums and Cobalts, have similar masstones and undertones. With the transparent organic colors like the Quinacridones or Phthalos, the undertone can be quite different from what might be expected by looking at the masstone. These shifts in hue positions provide some of the incredible richness and magic to working with color.
Undertone is important when using acrylic in a watercolor style, as the brilliance of watercolor comes from the white paper transmitting through the transparent layers of color.
Tinting Strength
Tinting strength is the ability of a color to change the character of another color. We determine this by adding the same amount of Titanium White to each color and observing the resulting strength of the color mixture. Weak tinting colors create light pastel mixtures. Stronger tinting colors create more saturated blends.
What Colors Make Green?
To make the color green, you will first need the two primary colors blue and yellow. If you mix equal amounts of blue and yellow paint, you will have what is referred to as ‘pure green.’ However, we know just by looking at the trees and grass around us that there are many different shades of green that we might decide to use. To get these different shades of green, you simply vary the ratio of blue to yellow paint in your mixture. If you want a cooler shade of green, you should mix more blue into your mixture; alternately, if you want a warmer shade of green, you will need to add more yellow.
These instructions are assuming that the yellow and blue paint you are using initially are pure yellow and pure blue. If the yellows and blues you are working with have been altered from their pure forms, it will consequently alter your green as well. For instance, if you are looking to make a light green, you should mix yellow with a light blue instead of a pure blue. Adding black or white to your green will also darken or lighten the shade of green.
Note: Adding black or white to any color will darken or lighten the shade of that color.
What Colors Make Purple?
The second secondary color in the palette is purple. Purple can be created by mixing the primary colors of red and blue. An equal mixture of pure red paint and pure blue paint will result in a pure purple. However, this ‘pure purple’ is often darker than most people like. To get a nice, bright purple, you will want to use a magenta color instead. You can then mix the magenta with a blue or a cyan, and voila! You will have bright purple.
If you do not have access to the less common colors, such as magenta and cyan, another option for creating a brighter or lighter purple is to combine your blue and red paints and then add in a bit of white to lighten the darker color.
What Colors Make Orange?
The color orange is created by mixing red and yellow together. As with all of the other secondary color combinations, creating equal parts yellow and red will give you ‘pure orange.’ For a lighter, brighter shade of orange, add more yellow to the mixture. For a darker, more fall-colored orange, add more red into the mixture. Once you have the shade you want, remember you can further lighten or darken it by adding white or black, respectively.
Now that you know how to create the secondary colors, we will move on to other colors.
How to Make Different Shades of Blue – A Technical Guide
I’ve covered how to make different shades of blue when mixing paint. But you might be wondering how to make blue on your computer. Maybe you need a specific color for graphic design, illustration, or video editing.
Here’s a detailed guide to making blue technically. It contains both the details of the RBG color mode and the CMYK color model. So, it’s quick and easy to find the information you need to mix the perfect shade of blue.
Make sure to bookmark this page so you can refer to it whenever you need to!
| Shade of Blue | Hex Code | RBG | CMYK | |
| Oxford Blue | #002147 | (0, 33, 71) | 100%, 53.5%, 0%, 72.2% | |
| Prussian Blue | #003153 | (0, 49, 83) | 100%, 41%, 0%, 67.5% | |
| Navy Blue | #000080 | (0, 0, 128) | 100%, 100%, 0%, 50% | |
| Cobalt Blue | #0047AB | (0, 71, 171) | 60%, 60%, 0%, 0% | |
| Cerulean Blue | #2A52BE | (42, 82, 190) | 98%, 10%, 0%, 20% | |
| Denim Blue | #1560BD | (21, 96, 189) | 61%, 33%, 0%,33% | |
| Turquoise | #40E0D0 | (64, 224, 208) | 71%, 0%, 7%, 12% | |
| Baby Blue | #89CFF0 | (137, 207, 240) | 42.9%, 13.8%, 0%, 5.9% | |
| Azure Blue | #007FFF | (0, 127, 255) | 100%, 50.2%, 0%, 0% |
How to Make Blue Paint with Other Colors – FAQ
What two paints make blue?
If you need blue paint but don’t have any, you can create your own if you know what you’re doing. You can mix cyan and magenta to make a lovely shade of blue. But you might not be familiar with these colors, so let’s take one step back.
Cyan is a color that is often described as greeny-bluey. It has a lot of similarities with blue, but it couldn’t be described as true blue.
And magenta is a shade of purple, although it looks very pinky. Sometimes, it can even look reddish-purple or hot pink.
But when you mix these two colors together, you get an unexpected result. You’ll end up with a fantastic shade of blue.
Once you have your new shade of blue, you can experiment with it. You could add more white, black, gray, etc. It’s up to you to lighten or darken the shade, depending on what you want to paint.
Do yellow and green make blue?
It’s well-known that yellow and blue mixed together make green. But does that mean that yellow and green mixed make blue?
That sounds straightforward, but unfortunately, it’s not true. You’ll get a yellow-green shade when you mix yellow and green together. The exact color will vary depending on how much of each color you use.
Does red and green make blue?
You can’t make blue with red and green because it’s our primary color. Mixing red and green together will get a muddy brown or gray shade. The exact result will depend on which shades of red and green you use. At least, that’s true in subtractive color mixing used for traditional art such as painting.
Additive color mixing is the method used on computers and other technology. It involves combining different shades of light to get a specific color. And it works quite differently from regular subtractive color mixing. In additive color mixing, you’ll actually get yellow when you mix red and green.
What primary colors make blue?
Blue itself is one of the primary colors. And that means you can’t make blue with the remaining primary colors, red and yellow. You can lighten or alter an existing shade of blue by adding a little red or yellow. You can make the blue lighter, darker, warmer, or cool.
However, by combining two secondary colors, magenta and cyan, you can make blue. This method is described in detail above.
The Wrap Up
By now, you should be an expert on the color blue. So, you won’t need to worry about how to make blue paint if you ever run out again. And if anyone ever asks you, ‘how do you make blue,’ you’ll be able to pass on your knowledge.
As an artist, gaining a deeper understanding of how colors work will pay off. You’ll come to understand color science and psychology and have a better eye for color. Not to mention that you’ll always be able to make the exact shade you need for your painting!
Let me know if you have any questions about mixing the color blue in the comments below. And make sure to follow Proactive Creative on Pinterest for more useful resources. You’ll find handy tips, tutorials, and reviews for everyone here, from hobbyists to pros!
