Exploring Green: How Blue and Yellow Create Different Greens 🌿🎨 (Patreon)

We all know the basics: to mix green in watercolor, we need blue and yellow. 💙💛

But once we start digging a little deeper into color mixing, things get much more interesting! One of the things that makes such a big difference is color temperature.

For this little experiment, I used five different shades of blue and mixed each of them with two yellows:

🎨 Aureolin — a cooler yellow🎨 Hansa Yellow Deep — a much warmer yellow

Even though I used the same blues, the results look quite different depending on which yellow I paired them with. You can see how the temperature of each color influences the greens we get!

Blue colors from top to the bottom:Phtalo Blue by Daniel Smith

Cerulean Blue Chromium DS

Cobalt Turquoise by Schmincke

Prussian Blue by DS

French Ultramarine by DS

And there’s another thing worth experimenting with: the ratio of blue to yellow.

Adding more yellow generally makes a green mixture warmer and more yellowish, while adding more blue can shift it toward a cooler, bluer green. Of course, the exact result also depends on the pigments you use.

In my previous post I showed how I created Green Gold color with mix of Cobalt Blue and Aureoline.

That’s why I love making color charts like this. They help us understand our palettes better and make it easier to choose the right green when painting leaves, grass, trees, or any other subject from nature. 🌿

A little tip: use Ultramarine for color mixes if you want to create green color with granulation.

✨ A little exercise for you: Try mixing your favorite blue with two different yellows and compare the results. You might be surprised by how much variety you can get from just three colors!

Do you usually mix your own greens, or do you prefer using ready-made green pigments? 💚