What colors to mix to get brown? Shades of brown

In this article we will tell you about which colors to blend to get brown. This information will be interesting first of all for novice artists, because the professionals of painting are perfectly aware of all the mysteries of colors. Great, if you currently have gouache, watercolor or tempera at your fingertips, you can immediately begin to follow the recommendations from our article. Experienced you will see how easy it is to get different shades of brown.

The easiest way

Warm brown is a mixture of black and red. You can get it by simply mixing cinnabar and black paint. Only the proportions of these two ingredients should not be equal: red in such a mixture should somewhat prevail. Ideal: first squeeze a cinnabar or red cadmium into the palette from the tube and then start to slowly mix the black color.

If you prefer to draw with watercolor, then you can use another interesting method of obtaining the necessary colors and shades. First, the red is applied lightly on paper, and after it dries, a transparent and watery black is superimposed on top. The effect is as if two transparent glasses were stacked on top of each other.

What happens if you mix blue with orange?

What do you think? Yes, yes, it will be exactly the color that we need, that is, brown! We hope, you will not have difficulties with getting orange color. Just in case, we say that it can be obtained by mixing red (this color should be greater) and yellow paint. Happened? Excellent! And now add a bit of blue and stir, then add some more blue. As a result, you should get a beautiful chocolate brown paint.

If the shade does not suit you, and you want something brighter, then mix the orange more to get a light brown color. Blue can be in the form of ultramarine, Berlin azure or cobalt.

Experiment with green and red

First we get green by mixing blue and yellow. Remember: if the latter is too much, then the greens will turn out to be too bright, and if you go too far with the blue, then, on the contrary, it is unnecessarily dark. It is best to achieve the golden mean. To get the green you need to mix it red. You already know that shades of brown can be very diverse, and it depends on what kind of paint predominates in the compound color.

If, as a result of the manipulations done on the palette, a warm red-brown turned out, and this absolutely suits you, then the experiment can be considered complete. But in the event that you want something else, try adding more green (chromium or emerald green). Perhaps, you will be able to invent a recipe for your branded brown paint.

Purple and yellow

We continue to seek an answer to the question of what colors to mix to get brown. In our searches and experiments, we proceed to a mixture of yellow and purple. To begin with, we'll get a dark royal violet and merge in equal proportions blue and red. Is not it, the violet is very beautiful? And now there is nothing left - to mix in this beauty yellow paint.

If there is a lot of it, you will get a yellow-brown color, and if more violet, then the final result will turn out to be darker and deeper. Much depends on what kind of yellow paint you use: bright cadmium or, perhaps, restrained yellow light ocher.

Mix all the primary colors

Have not you found the right shade yet? Then we continue our creative research. We take 4 primary colors: black, dark blue, dark green and, of course, red. The process of creating brown begins with the connection of an equal amount of green and blue. Then mix them with black, then red and at the very end - yellow (the more it is, the more light brown color you will have).

Learning to use ocher

Once upon a time, artists made paints themselves and used only natural pigments for this. The most accessible and widespread paint was ocher (golden, yellow, red), which was extracted from ordinary clay. Look at the ancient Russian icons - they are dominated by a restrained color - brownish-golden. You, too, can learn to receive such shades of brown, if instead of yellow paint you will use when mixing ocher.

The main thing - the proportions

Take a ready-made set of watercolors and gouaches, in it you will find brown paint, sometimes not even one. Why do artists prefer to mix different colors, rather than use ready-made ones? The answer is very simple: nature rarely uses pure colors, it paints with thousands, millions of shades. Well, the artists can only take an example from it and, before embarking on creativity, find out what colors to mix to get brown, gray, purple, etc.

By changing the proportions of the blended colors, you can achieve amazing results. Try it! Sometimes it is enough to change the hue of paint, adding only one additional drop of any color. Mixing colors on the palette is a very interesting creative process.

Avoid dirty shades

Beginning artists often sin that in pursuit of originality when receiving a particular shade, they begin to connect too many colors with each other and instead of making a beautiful color, they spread ordinary dirt on the palette that can not decorate the picture in any way. Try to avoid dirty shades, adhere to those tips that are given in this article, they clearly indicate what colors to mix to get brown.

Finally

In the end I would like to wish all novice painters not only creative successes, but also courage in comprehending the new. Create, try, dare, mix different colors, look for your unique color combinations! This is what all the great artists did. They were not afraid of anything and always went their own way, not paying attention to criticism. How to know, perhaps, you are waiting for success ahead and deafening glory!