🎨 Mix Lab
Choose two pigments (artist RYB mixing, not screen RGB). Slide to change the ratio — the result updates like real paint.
Red + Yellow = Orange. Add more yellow for marigold, more red for burnt orange.
Steps left→right: 80/20, 60/40, 50/50, 40/60, 20/80. Tap a step to preview it.
Harmony Finder
Pick a base color — get palettes that won’t clash. Perfect for choosing a limited palette before you start.
Stick to 3–5 colors per painting. Use your harmony as the whole palette — cohesion comes free.
Recipe Library
Real mixes artists reach for daily. Parts are by squeeze / brushload — e.g. 3:1 means 3 parts first color to 1 part second.
Value & Temperature
Color gets attention. Value does the work. If it reads in grayscale, it will read in color.
Slide to preview values. Photograph your painting in black & white — lights and darks should still separate.
Value 5: Middle gray. Most skin in shadow, foliage in sun.
Advances forward. Sunlight, skin, autumn.
Recedes back. Shadows, water, distance.
Trick: warm light = cool shadows. Cool light = warm shadows. Paint that and depth appears.
Fix-It Clinic
Every painter hits these. Here’s the rescue — no starting over.
🟤 My colors turned muddy / brown-gray
You mixed complements (opposites) or three primaries at once. Mud = Red + Yellow + Blue in near-equal parts. Fix: pick a dominant hue and lean into it. Add more of your main color, or rescue with a touch of white + that hue. Start with 2 pigments, then add modifiers a speck at a time — and mute with a near-complement, not the exact opposite.
🎈 Color is too bright / looks like candy
It needs muting, not darkening. Add a tiny speck of its complement (e.g. a dot of purple into yellow) or mix in a little burnt umber / raw umber. Avoid black — it kills chroma without muting cleanly in brights.
🌫️ Too dark, but adding white makes it chalky
White cools and desaturates. Instead lighten with a lighter analogous color: lighten blue with cerulean + white, lighten red with orange + white, lighten green with yellow-green. Or glaze a lighter opaque layer on top once dry.
🍃 Greens look fake / neon
Tube green + yellow is too pure. Mute with a speck of red, burnt sienna, or ochre. Nature greens are almost always yellow-leaning and slightly brown. Try: Sap Green + Yellow Ochre + touch of Burnt Umber.
👤 Skin tones look orange or ashy
Orange skin = too much red/yellow, not enough blue. Add a whisper of blue or purple. Ashy skin = too much blue/black. Warm it with burnt sienna + yellow ochre. Always mix skin from Red + Yellow Ochre + White + speck of Blue — adjust, don’t restart.
💧 Watercolor got dull when layered
Overworking and too many layers. Let layers dry fully, use fewer glazes (2–3 max), and mix on the palette not on damp paper. Use transparent pigments for glazing; opaque ones go muddy fast.
1) Start with 2 pigments, add modifiers gradually • 2) Mute with complements, darken with umber • 3) Check value in grayscale