The main colors I use to create my greens are Cobalt Turquoise, Winsor Lemon, Raw Umber and French Ultramarine. However, I also use Cadmium Yellow Light and Cadmium Orange, as well as Cobalt Blue and Cerulean Blue from time to time.
How to Mix More Interesting Greens
Green is a color that students often take for granted. When painting greens, many kids will default to just using the green in their paint set. This results in paintings that lack depth and interest. With some basic color mixing instruction, kids can paint a variety of greens and greatly improve their paintings at the same time!
- 9×12 white construction paper or watercolor paper
- Watercolor set (I like the Prang OVL-8 set)
- Watercolor brush (#8 – #12 round is good)
- Water and container
Directions:
First, help kids “see”
1. The first step is to help kids “see like artists” by recognizing the vast array of greens that are all around us in nature. Bring in plant and leaf samples, take a nature walk, examine the work of famous Plein Air painters like Claude Monet, or simply look out the window! Point out the subtle and not-so-subtle variations in the variety of greens that most people (not just kids!) may otherwise overlook. The photo below is one example of the variety of greens you’ll find in nature:
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| Imagine if you used only the green in your paint set to paint this picture! |
Next, show them the color wheel
2. Use a color wheel to show how green (a secondary color) is created by mixing yellow and blue (primary colors). The color wheel will show how by varying the ratio of yellow to blue, you can change the green that results.
Then, let them experiment with paint
3. Now, paint some greens! Mix as many different greens as you can by varying the amounts of yellow and blue as you mix them together. Each time you mix a new variation of green, paint a small swatch on your paper.
4. Next, try adding yellow and/or blue in varying amounts to the green that’s already in your paint set, for an even greater variety of greens.
5. Then, take your greens a step further by mixing a green and adding a tiny amount of black to it. Do the same with red, orange, purple, and brown. (Just make sure that each new color still looks “green-ish“!) The goal is to paint as many different greens as possible. See who can paint the most greens!
Now, use those new skills in a painting
6. Now use your new color mixing knowledge to paint a jungle (or another nature scene) using as many different greens as you can. Notice how much more lively your paintings look when you use a variety of greens and not just the green in your paint set!
Even very young children can be taught to mix a range of greens that more accurately reflect the amazing variety of greens all around us. Try this exercise with your students…. they (and you!) will never take greens for granted again!
Finally, protect your paint sets by teaching proper clean-up
All this color mixing can leave paint sets looking a little “worse for the wear”. Paint sets need to be properly cleaned to be ready for the next students who receive them. Imagine how discouraging it would feel to open your paint set, ready to paint, and find a dirty, sticky mess. A student shouldn’t need to clean their paint set in order to use it!
When students learn that cleaning up is an essential part of the painting process, it becomes a healthy habit. You don’t just close the lid and walk away when class is over. Students are happy to comply once they understand this process ensures they will get a clean set next time, too!
Cleaning their watercolor set is no big deal once students know what they’re expected to do. You can read the do’s and don’ts of my simple and effective watercolor clean-up process here and here.
How to mix greens – my process
I usually start by adding a little Cobalt Turquoise with a lot more Winsor Lemon (or any other cool, green leaning, yellow). This produces a vibrant green.
I then usually add a little Raw Umber to dull it down, as I find really bright greens quite rare. By adding even more Raw Umber, I can produce a dull green-brown color.
To make a darker green I add French Ultramarine to the mixture of the other three.
Obviously the above is not intended to be an exact formula. Depending on my painting, and the section I am working on, I will use different ratios of these four colors. By adjusting the amount of water in my mixes I can also create a very wide range of tones for any one mixed green.
It is more important that you understand my process, and why I use it, rather than to try and remember a rote formula. In this way you will be able to create your own greens, either using my basic colors or others you are more familiar with.
Here are some of the properties of my colors and why I use them:
Chart showing how to mix greens with my palette of colors.
Cobalt Turquoise
This a blue/green color and I use it as my base starting point when I want to mix greens. Usually I only use a very small amount, relative to the other colors of the mixture, as it can overpower the mix and produce a very cool green, leaning towards aqua. So use this sparingly.
Winsor Lemon
Winsor Lemon is a cool yellow, meaning it leans slightly towards green. When it mixes with Cobalt Blue, it can produce a vibrant green, usually too bright. For this reason, I almost always add some Raw Umber to the mix to dull the vibrancy.
Raw Umber
This is one of the earth colors, it is a slightly yellowish brown. When mixed with French Ultramarine it produces a dull green color. I mainly use it to dull a bright green or to mix a strong dark green. I also use it in dry grass fields to warm up the foreground.
French Ultramarine
This is a warm blue, because it has a tiny bit of red in it. I use it to create darker and cooler greens which are also duller. The red in the blue slightly greys off any green mixture, as red is the complementary color of green. When I am painting a tree, I use some of this to mix the green I use in the darker shadow passages of the foliage.
Cadmium Yellow Pale
A warm yellow, as it has a little red in it. It mixes with Cobalt Turquoise to produce a nice green. When mixed with French Ultramarine, the result is a slightly dull green suitable for many types of foliage.
Cadmium Orange
I do not often use this color for mixing my greens but I do from time to time. If I have plenty of orange in the sky section of my painting, I will most likely use this pigment in mixing my greens.
Using pre-mixed greens
If you do want to use a pre-mixed green, then make sure you also add some other colors to it to create a broader range. Using tube colors can give you a purer, stronger green, but they can look unreal if you do not modify them with other colors.
Here is a chart of some of the greens I found in my watercolor paints collection, mixed with various other colors:
Modifying tube greens to add interest
Paint consistency
In addition to the various green colors, by adding more or less water you can create lighter or stronger tones of your greens.
If you just paint with the same amount of water in all your mixes, you will have quite a flat looking painting, as your tonal range would be quite limited.
