Color theory teaches us that green is not a primary color, and it is created by mixing a yellow pigment with a blue pigment.
This is great lesson to learn, and you’ll find there are many choices to create an almost limitless array of hues with all the different yellow and blue pigments.
However, there are a number of paths to follow to arrive at green.
You’ll find that understanding how each of these formulas work will help you in creating the perfect green for every project.
1. Mixing Blue And Yellow Pigments
This is one of the first lessons in color theory. Since there are many paints that are incarnations of blue and yellow, each combination has the potential for a different shade of green. The ratio of yellow to blue also determines whether the green has a yellow tint or a bluish tint.
2.Alter An Existing Tube Of Green Paint
It’s nice to have a ready-made green tube of paint in your tabouret. You may even have several choices. However, these paints probably aren’t ready to use right out of the tube.
Adding a small amount of another color to enhance or mute the hue can turn an artificial green into one that’s worthy of your painting. Yellows from flowers or undergrowth in your painting or a bit of blue from your sky will tone the tube green to blend with your existing color palette.
3. Neutralize Your Greens
When you add a complementary color to green you’ll wind up with very useful green-grays and brown grays. These colors are often seen in nature, perhaps more often than the bright and intense greens you may currently be using.
Add red or purple tones in small doses to achieve the muted look you’re after. You can even blend a dull green by mixing orange to blue.
4. Let Your Eyes Do The Mixing
Use a translucent glaze of yellow over blue, or try the opposite and paint a blue tone over a yellow area. This layering give a depth and richness to the area that you can’t achieve with a single layer of paint.
If you’ve applied a poor choice of green, don’t be too quick to remove the offending color. When the paint is dry, try glazing it with a yellow or blue to see if you can save the work by altering the color.
5. The Magic Of Black And Yellow
You may not use black often in your painting, but if you have a tube languishing in your drawer, pull it out and see what kind of greens it can produce when mixed with yellow.
Different hues of blacks and yellows will produce distinctive shades of green. When you find one you like, make sure and put in in your color chart with the names of both paints. You can also add a smidge of white to the mixture to bring out the greenness of the paint.
When you’re mixing yellow and blues, it’s a good idea to write down which colors you’re using and paint a sample patch next to it. If you compile a sheet of color swatches and their components, you’ll be able to easily choose the green you’re looking for and speed up your painting process.
This color chart is a very useful tool in helping an artist recreate favorite color combinations. Making a color chart is a good exercise for painters of all levels and grows as a student learns about color theory and paint mixing.
