Scrape areas of the blue down until you have an uneven layer of blue paint over the upper half of the paper. Put a blob of yellow in the left bottom corner and then a blob of Zinc White in the right bottom corner. Something else you can try is to run a thick line of blue oil paint across the top of a page with a palette knife. Keep your brush clean before starting to mix each new color on the chart. Put a blob of each color of oil paint on each square of the chart, clean your brush and then blend the colors in each square together. Mix a chart to help you, just use primed paper. Oil paint stays wet for longer so it is easier to mix.

Just make sure the paint underneath is dry before you try to apply any dry brushing. Dry brushing with similar tones can also help, don’t be frightened to use both techniques if needed. Water the washes of acrylic paint down until they are very thin and add them little by little. You will need it for mixing colors and to wash your brush when you’re finished.Īdding thin washes of the Zinc White will lighten the tone and a thin wash of dark blue, dark grey or even Burnt Umber will help you get the color of the shadows. Don’t forget to keep some clean water handy. After that you can fine-tune the exact colors you want on the painting itself. Mix a Sage Green base color first with Cobalt Blue, Zinc White and Lemon Yellow. Mixing green with acrylic paintsĪcrylic paint dries quickly, so you’ll have to work faster than with other types of paint. The idea is to give you an idea of the different effect that mixing slightly different colors can have on the mixed color. Computers will render them according to set up so the colors will vary from one screen to another. Please note, the colors in the chart are representative. That understanding will make mixing the right color much faster in the long term.

Depending on how much blue or yellow you use, the colors you create will be different but they will all be cooler than greens mixed using Chrome yellow or Cadmium Yellow.Ĭreating a chart to document the differences will help you understand how each primary color affects the final mixed color. You will need to add white to some of the combinations to get the color you need though.Ĭombining these colors to make green will give you cool greens. Lemon yellow, Yellow Ochre or Naples Yellow are usually the best yellows to start with too.

Use a selection of cool primary blue colors like Cobalt Blue, Prussian Blue and Pthalo Blue to start with. Making a Sage Green color chart will help you understand the effect of combining different colors. A little Prussian blue will help you get the darker tones and adding a little more Zinc White will give you the lighter tones you need. If you look carefully at a landscape painting where Sage green is used you will see different tones not just one green, so think about the main color you need as the one that is the most common in the picture. Prussian blue or possible even Payne’s Grey will help you when mixing the Darker tones for shadows. Yellow Ochre will warm the green up a little for highlighted areas, especially in the foreground. Any green is a secondary color so you have a wide variety of tones and colors you can create. Try some different combinations to get the exact color you need.

Sage green color