Watercolor Wednesdays: How To Mix Green Paint

Mixing green paint is one of the most challenging watercolor techniques to beginning students but once you learn some simple recipes, it can be easy. Every year, I show my students how to mix green and review the demo in class. The trick is to keep it simple and I will reuse the same recipes over and over again. In this blog post, I will show you how.

Pepsico Ducks, Watercolor by Mriiam Schulman ©SchulmanArt (→collect duck prints)\ Green is an indisputable and indispensable component of painting watercolor landscapes. Learning how to properly mix green paint will improve all your watercolor landscape paintings.

Green Recipes 1) Although Phthalo Green ( also known as Winsor green) looks artificial on its own, it makes a terrific base to use in mixing vibrant greens. 2) My favorite combination is to combine Winsor green with Burnt Sienna.  3) The brownish sienna softens the bottle green to a natural olive green applicable to many watercolor landscape paintings 4) For more variety I sometimes substitute Quinacridone Gold instead of Burnt Sienna or use Viridian Green as the base instead of Winsor Green. As you see, all these greens are soft, vibrant and natural. Are you interested in getting video lessons on exact mixing techniques? Check out my beginner class, Watercolor Secrets where I will show you step by step how to mix greens with natural vibrancy.

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