Mixing Browns in Watercolor

The art of mixing browns with watercolor is a crucial skill for painters, as shown in these tutorials. Artists demonstrate mixing primary colors to create a range of browns, moving beyond tube browns. These videos cover everything from color theory basics to applying these browns in different paintings. Whether for landscapes or detailed works, learning to mix your browns offers endless possibilities, making each painting uniquely vibrant.

Color mixing with watercolor How to mix colouful brown

In this watercolor painting video, Patrick addresses the challenge of running out of raw umber paint by demonstrating how to mix a similar shade using only the three primary colors: cadmium yellow, ultramarine blue, and cadmium red. The process begins with creating an orange base from yellow and red, then gradually adding blue to dull the mixture into a brown spectrum. This technique shows that by varying the amounts of each primary color, painters can produce a wide range of browns, including a color like raw umber.

To mix a color like raw umber, the artist adds more blue for an olive-brown, adjusting with red and yellow to achieve the desired warmth. While the mixed brown lacks the transparency of tube raw umber due to the blending of three colors, it serves well as a replacement in painting. By adding red and blue, the instructor shows how to make darker browns without using black, proving you can get deep, rich colors through watercolor mixing. This method offers a practical solution for when specific paints are unavailable and enhances color mixing skills.

Visit the artists’s youtube channel here.

Warm vs Cool Colors in Watercolor & Mixing Browns

In this watercolor tutorial, the artist dives deeper into the color wheel, showing viewers how to create a custom color wheel with their paints to understand their palette better. For example, to determine the complement of cobalt violet, a color viewer is used to find its precise location on the color wheel, which helps identify complementary colors for more dynamic color mixing. This technique helps choose colors that work well together and decide if a paint is warm or cool, which is useful for adding highlights and shadows in paintings.

The artist then discusses mixing browns using complementary colors, starting with yellow or orange hues and their complements to achieve various shades of browns. This method shows the depth and variety of browns created from a limited palette, offering an alternative to relying on pre-mixed tube paints. Through this approach, you will gain insights into manipulating color temperatures and mixing to enhance the visual impact of your paintings.

Visit the artist’s youtube channel here.

How to Mix Browns with Watercolor

Jean Larson addresses the challenge of mixing browns in watercolor painting, noting that while tube greens are readily available, few tube browns meet her standards, with burnt umber being the exception. She stresses knowing color theory to mix primary and secondary colors for making different browns. Using examples like mixing sap green with Windsor red or transparent pyrrole orange with sap green, Jean demonstrates how different combinations yield unique shades of brown. This method encourages experimentation with one’s paint collection to discover personal preferences for browns.

Jean uses these mixed browns in a painting demonstration, starting with a marsh scene. She layers different browns to create depth and variety in the landscape, from the sky to the trees and reflections in the water. By mixing phthalo blue-green shade with pyrrole orange and other combinations, she achieves dark browns suitable for tree details and lighter tones for the sky and grasses. Jean’s tutorial demonstrates the versatility of mixed browns in creating a cohesive and dynamic landscape.

Visit the artist’s youtube channel here.

I hope you enjoyed this lesson on mixing browns in watercolor. Find more watercolor painting tutorials and tips on our site here.