Colour Mixing for Beginners: The Colour Wheel Made Simple

Posted by

Haanz Team

2026-10-18

On 2026-10-18

Haanz Art GuideFree, practical advice from the team at Haanz Art & Craft Materials

Knowing how colours work saves paint, money and frustration. With just a few tubes you can mix hundreds of colours. This guide explains colour mixing using the colour wheel: primary, secondary and complementary colours, warm and cool colours, tints and shades, and practical recipes for greens, browns and skin tones. It works for acrylic, watercolour, gouache and oil paint.

The colour wheel

Primary colours: red, yellow and blue. In traditional painting, these are the colours you mix others from.
Secondary colours: mix two primaries. Red + yellow = orange, yellow + blue = green, blue + red = purple.
Tertiary colours: mix a primary with a neighbouring secondary, such as yellow-green or red-orange.
Complementary colours: opposite each other on the wheel: red and green, blue and orange, yellow and purple. Side by side they look vivid; mixed together they make greys and browns.

Why some mixes turn muddy

Every paint colour leans slightly warm or cool. A blue that leans towards green (such as phthalo blue) and a yellow that leans towards green (such as lemon yellow) make a bright green. A blue that leans towards purple (such as ultramarine) mixed with a warm yellow makes a duller, olive green, because each one contains a little of the third primary. For the cleanest purples, try magenta with blue rather than an orange-red.

Warm and cool colours

Warm: reds, oranges and yellows feel sunny and seem to come forward.
Cool: blues, greens and purples feel calm and seem to move back.
Use warm colours in the foreground and cooler, lighter colours in the distance to add depth to landscapes.

Tints, shades and tones

Tint: a colour plus white, lighter and softer.
Shade: a colour plus a little black or a dark complementary colour, darker and deeper.
Tone: a colour plus grey, more muted.

Add dark colours to light ones a tiny bit at a time. A drop of blue changes a lot of white, but white hardly changes blue.

Useful colour recipes

Bright green: lemon yellow + phthalo blue.
Natural greens: add a touch of red or brown to tone down bright green.
Brown: mix complementaries, such as orange + blue or red + green.
Skin tones: start with white plus a little yellow ochre and red, then adjust with a touch of blue or brown for shadows.
Rich black: dark blue + dark brown, often livelier than tube black.

Paints to practise with

Art Ranger Acrylic 75ml in Lemon Yellow, Magenta and Phthalo Blue, plus Ultramarine Blue.
Mont Marte Acrylic 75ml in Brilliant Red, Lemon Yellow, Phthalo Blue and Titanium White.
A Mixing Tray with Thumb Hole and an Artist Palette Knife for clean mixes. See our palette and palette knife guide.

Prices change, so see each product page for today’s price. Browse all acrylic colours, or start with our acrylic paints guide.

A colour mixing exercise

Paint a circle divided into 12 sections.
Fill the three primaries, evenly spaced.
Mix and paint the three secondaries between them.
Fill the six gaps with tertiary colours.
Below the wheel, paint a row showing each primary with more and more white added.

Frequently asked questions

How many colours do I need to start?

A warm and cool version of red, yellow and blue, plus white, will mix almost everything.

Why does my purple look brown?

The red probably leans towards orange. Use magenta or crimson with blue instead.

Should I use black to darken colours?

Use it sparingly. Darkening with a complementary or a darker colour often looks more natural.

Do you deliver islandwide?

Yes. We deliver across Sri Lanka in 2–5 working days, with cash on delivery, card or bank transfer. You can also visit our shops in Boralesgamuwa and Horana, open every day from 9 AM to 6 PM.

Not sure what to choose? WhatsApp the Haanz team on 0711 515 515 and we’ll help you choose a starter set of colours for mixing.

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