5-Minute Crafts
5-Minute Crafts

How to Make Brown Using Oil Paints

In order to master the art of oil painting, one of your first tools is to be able to mix colors using your creative skills in order to obtain the colors that you need for your work.

5-Minute Crafts wants to share how to obtain brown using primary colors and complementary colors.

Method 1: mixing white with primary colors

  • To make brown using only primary colors, you can mix medium cadmium yellow with alizarin red and ultramarine blue. Depending on how much you use of each color, you can create different shades of brown. For example, you can make ochre brown, roasted brown, reddish-brown, chocolate, light brown, caramel, etc.

  • If necessary, you can use white paint to lighten the shades obtained. You can see how it would look above. As you can see, the possibilities are endless.

Method 2: mixing orange and blue

  • Mix orange (which is made by combining yellow and red primary colors) with a small amount of blue.
  • The more blue you add, the darker the resulting brown will be.
  • Add yellow for a more ochre shade.
  • Add a tiny bit of red to obtain a reddish-brown color.
  • Add blue to get a darker and somewhat cooler color.

Method 3: mixing yellow and violet

  • Mix violet (which is made by combining primary colors red and blue) with a bit of yellow. If you want to get a dark shade of brown, just add a small amount of yellow. The more yellow you use, the lighter the brown will be.

Method 4: mixing green and red

  • Mix olive green (created by mixing yellow and blue, both of which are primary colors) with red. The result, in terms of intensity and shade, will depend on the quantities of yellow and blue you’re using.
  • For a darker and cooler result, add more blue.
  • For a warmer result, use more red.

Now that you know how to mix colors correctly, check out the video to learn other artistic techniques

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