Mixing your Greens and Greys

Although you can buy a large range of off the shelf ready mixed colours, I always think that the colours that I have mixed myself enable me to best reflect the subtleties of the natural landscape.  This is particularly so with the greens and greys.

Painting green

Although green is nature’s most widely used colour it can also be a challenging colour for the landscape painter.  Most landscapes have a variety of different greens and it can often prove difficult to distinguish between them and to then transfer them successfully onto your paper.  You may find that your eyes do not easily pick up on the different greens over a distance and that the colour appears de-saturated and not the green you were expecting to see.  This is a common experience, and you may need to experiment a little to get the right green for your painting.

Mixing your green

I believe that mixing your own greens will give you the variations in colour that you will need and the opportunity to experiment.  You can either mix them on your palette or just put them on the paper together to mix themselves by bleeding gently into each other.  And before too long you will see how your bluish tree with a bit of yellow dropped in places looks far more natural than the old solid green one!

Of course, it is well known that blue and yellow make green and it is usually regarded as a cool colour.  You can however get a warm green by adding a yellow that is towards orange on the spectrum or by using ultramarine blue which has a red tinge to it.

Green mixes

Mid foliage green  -  cadmium yellow + ultramarine blue

Dark green  -  cadmium yellow + ultramarine blue + a touch of burnt umber

Light green  -  cadmium yellow + prussian blue

Light green  -  lemon yellow + cerulean blue

Olive green  -  yellow ochre + ultramarine blue

Sea green  -  lemon yellow + prussian blue

And if you do decide to use the premixed colours but you feel they are too saturated it may be a good idea to tone them down by adding a touch of red (greens’ complementary colour and opposite on the colour wheel).  Or if you want an earthier green try adding a touch of red/ brown like Burnt Sienna.

Mixing your grey

There is so much more to grey than diluted black or black and white.  Try mixing your own greys and you will find some beautiful greys which are as variegated as you will find in nature.  Try combining equal quantities of the three primary colours (red, yellow and blue) and this will give you a flat grey which you can tint by adding a little more of one colour than the other.  By adding more red or yellow you will get a warm grey and by adding more blue you will get a cool grey.

Grey mixes

Of course, instead of mixing the three primary colours you can always use one of these popular two colour mixes:

French Ultramarine + Burnt Sienna ( warm)

Indigo + Burnt Sienna (warm )

French Ultramarine + Burnt Umber

Indigo + Burnt Umber

Have fun experimenting and finding your favourite combinations.

Happy painting!

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