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Practical Colors Tutorial
Published: 2007-10-19 06:20:40 +0000 UTC; Views: 147085; Favourites: 3309; Downloads: 2186
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Description
Practical Traditional Paint Color Mixing TutorialI made this with my watercolors, but it can be used as a guide for acrylic paints and oil paints.
I had a very hard time with watercolors for a very long time. When I started reading websites and books on some color mixing techniques, it started to click. This is my small contribution to the community that will hopefully be of some value.
Update 28-10-07
Tweaked some readability issues
Gave some suggestions on other common names for the paints I recommended
Added a mini description on how to mix color progression samples
Additional Resources
New to watercolors? Check out this news article for some great dA resources.
handprint - an exhaustive watercolor resource
Don't know the names of your colors? try these steps and discover the perfect mix of your colors.
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EDIT OMG a DD?! I am honored that =IBinsanity and ^bleedsopretty felt this would be valuable to share in this manner.
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Comments: 291
Very concises- makes a good quick reference!
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I'm glad, let me know if you have a question.
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Very good resource, not too overwhelming with info, still packed with smarts! thank you for making this!
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amazing and very useful tutorial! You definitely deserve that DD!
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Your wonderful tutorial has been featured here.[link]
Thank you for providing the gallery with such awesome Resources.
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This is awesome! Thanks for sharing! <3<3
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glad I could help! Let me know if you have any questions.
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This tutorial is surely very useful.
A couple of days ago I was tempted to buy a book that shows the possible misture of colors and the effect they have on paper.
Thank you very much.
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Glad to be of help! 
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Yes, good advice. I'm always too scared of making a mess
Thanks again and see you soon.
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Thanks! I've been searching for AGES for a tutorial xD
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Oh I'm so glad!!
I do have a question, did someone tell you about it, or didn't know it's name? What were some words you used to find it? I wondered if I have enough words in my keywords.
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I searched "Watercolour Tutorial" and found it ^^ but I nobody told me about it.
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Glad it could be of help!
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Of course!
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wow! thanks a lot! I just visited our local art store and found watercolor blocks and the brands I saw are: canson, montval, arches and I forgot the others. Hmmm... I am using Prang watercolors right now (in cake) and I feel like switching to tubes.
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Ah! I know those brands. Arches is a highly respected brand, but can be very expensive. Canson and Montval should work just fine for a student. You can afford more paper to practice. Once you get more practice, maybe buy one pack of Arches to try it out. But that is not necessary, the other 2 are just fine for paintings.
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:0 Hey!How didn't I see this before?
It's a incredible tutorial, really helpful 
Thanks for the contribution!
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Thanks thanks thanks!
You're a great person!
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this is awesome! for all of the classes that i've taken on color theory, i can never remember a dang thing from it. but, this is so nice and simple, i love it! thanks so much
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Oh goodness! Thank you.
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Great tutorial!
I needed some help with mixing colors for a project :3
<333
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My pleasure!
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I'll be sure to do so thank you for the support
; 3;
I really appreciate it <333
Q: what kind of pencil should be used when sketching when your going to use watercolors?
Is it any kind of pencil or do you suggest a hard pencil like the 4H or so?
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Great question!
Actually, for a long while, I thought that you should use a hard lead like a 4H, but for myself, I ended up pressing into the paper too much. With a softer lead, you do not need to press so hard onto the page to get the lead on it, like a 2B. A softer lead will also lift off with an eraser easier. (a kneaded eraser is best for watercolor paper) I say use what you are comfortable with.
Also, if you have noticed, some pencils if you wash water over them move and spread some tint of the pencil lead around! Which is usually not a wanted effect! I buy these pencils . (they are available at like Michael's and HObbyLobby too) They do not move when you wash water over them. Though if you already have a pencil that doesn't move, I'd just stick with that.
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Hrmmm...
okay
thank you for answering my question (even though it wasn't about colors ^___^;
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This is a great tutorial, thanks for the helpful tips!
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Oh my pleasure!
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This is really nice...I faved it a while back, but don't know if I commented.
I'm going to begin teaching art soon, and I think I'll incorporate a version of this in my classroom (or make my own) because teachers just teach the color wheel--not what minerals and chemicals make what in painting! So much more convenient.
Thanks a bunch for putting this up...as you can see by all of the comments, it's been quite a help to many!
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Oh that is wonderful to hear! Best of luck on your future teaching!
I made this tutorial for a very basic intro to this. You may want to look at some other sources to round out the information better. I kept this piece VERY bare bones. The palette this is from is called the "Color Bias Palette". This is a palette type popularized by painters roughly 200 years ago. It is described wonderfully in the book "Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green" by Michael Wilcox. I highly suggest you read it. Also the handprint website I link in the comments is a valuable resource, but it almost has too much information, and can be difficult to casually read (at least to me 
In this piece I also left out any discussion about types of paint pigments/minerals (wilcox's book goes over it very well) and their qualities (lightfastness, transparency) Though this info is not important to an elementary student, but may prove useful to an advanced high school art student.
I hope this bit of info helps you in your cirricullum.
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Thanks! I'm going to look up that book--I'm always looking for books to add to my "art library," as it were. It sounds interesting--as does that handprint site. You're right--too much info for elementary, but it could also prove useful for a science inclusion. We're always looking for ways to incorporate core classes in the art classroom.
I'm sure it will help greatly--thank you again!
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That's so nice to see how you mix colours! Btw it's a very good tutorial, you have a good teaching style. I hate when the writer of the tutorial does not care about beginners, and you are not like that.
Anyway it made me want to paint with watercolour, but I think I should buy some new paints, because all i have is My Big Collection Of Paints Hated By Mom
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Oh I am so glad! I learned this from combining information from a couple different books and my own experience. Once I figured out how to mix the colors I wanted, painting became easier to me. I could worry more on putting the paint on right (which I still don't do
Ah! You can make a lot of neat colors from brown and green 
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we learned to mix colours in school but that was very horrible, mostly because we had to use low quality paints and when you mixed blue and red it became brown
I think you paint in a really beautiful way and the best thing is, that when i look at one of your pictures, i can see that you have fun with painting
i like brown and green a lot but i don't want to be boring, so i want to paint with other colours too
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oh I remember that in school! I think it is mandatory for all schools to have red and blue mix like that.
Yeah, just ask for a set for Christmas, or if you get money, I can tell you what would be good tubes of paint you can buy separately as well.
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yeah, but i went to a 'visual culture' class and i guess that's a shame to have paints like this with four drawing classes and some more art classes in a wwk
oh, that would be really helpful if you could tell me what is good to use. anyway, what's the difference between dry and liquid watercolour? i mean, will the colour be different or more vivid with liquid? i've used only dry paints and i don't know a lot about the differences.
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Of course!
Liquid (tube) watercolors:
pro: make very intense colors, easy to mix
con: harder to paint on the go
Dry (pan) watercolors:
pro: small, easy to move, trasport, great for painting outside
con: harder to mix large amounts of color, harder to mix vivid, intense colors
Most artists use the liquid (tube). Though they love to paint outside with the dry too. Some artists have both kinds.
For brands, Winsor&Newton makes very nice colors, the Cotman line (it is a student line) is nice because it is inexpensive and the colors are still nice quality (though still not as nice as the artist quality paints). Sennelier has nice colors and so does Schminke, but don't buy Schminke liquid, many artists do not like them, but many people love their dry colors.
If you want to buy your paint separately, read this comment for my list of paints that are great to use. You can also add to that Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue, Raw Sienna.
Hope this helps. let me know if you have more questions!
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thank you very much, this was very helpful
i guess i'll try liquid, i don't like to paint outside and i like vivid colours
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Good luck! I have never used van Gogh, but I think it is a good brand too.
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This is really helpful - I can't say I haven't known about what you explain here before BUT I tend to forget about it and your tutorial here is a good thing to go back to and freshen up on that knowledge still! It just helped me yesterday with some pictures XD
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thanks for posting this added it my faves so i can find it faster when i paint
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