MIXING GREEN Paint Colours (5 MORE Ways to Mix Green Watercolour)

There's NO MAGIC FORMULA for mixing a good watercolour green. Let me share how I test and adjust until it works.

In this video I show how I begin with a couple of base colours and how I then adjust and change things to match my reference photo. There's a lot of trial and error involved and a lot of testing out - even as a professional artist, you can't avoid that! Green is a colour with so many shades, hues and variations, just a slight increase in one colour can change the whole look. I hope watching how I go back and forth until I am successful, will help you feel more confident in your own colour mixing ability. Sometimes people think there is a magic formula - but the formula is test, adjust, test, adjust and then test and adjust some more!

🕒 Timestamps 🕒
00:00 5 ways of mixing green watercolour
00:11 Payne's grey & lemon yellow
04:41 Olive green & cerulean blue
08:49 Olive green, gamboge hue & indigo
12:42 Vivid green, olive green & phthalo blue
16:34 Gamboge hue, phthalo blue & burnt umber

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My videos are copy protected and are fully owned by myself. They are for your use and enjoyment on YouTube, I hope you like them.

📸 With grateful thanks to Terje Grimsgaard & Terry Laws from Flickr for additional reference photos.
🎵 With grateful thanks: Audionautix - Short Guitar Clip & Aakash Gandhi for various lovely background pieces.

#PaulHopkinson #TheDevonArtist #WildlifeinWatercolour

[TheDevonArtist]

We all use green watercolour, but *how do you mix it* ? Let me share 5 of my favourite recipes for mixing green!

[jenniefrench]

Very informative. I love to mix my greens. Cobalt turquoise deep and PB16 make awesome awesome greens, the later completely transparent. And it is nice because some fear the Phalogreen when it really is wonderful. Thanks for sharing your favorites . PB16 made it to my permanent palette and it’s transparency is awesome. It’s a Cerulean when watered down but without the granulation in the sky and with new gamboge, or quinacridone gold an eye appealing green and scarlet pyrol red is it’s neutral. It makes purple with magenta. Very lovely teaching.

[NicoleRoy-Artist]

Great tips, my sweet friend....I love experimenting, mixing my own greens or any color with acrylics and watercolors also...I will definitely try some of these...thank you my dear!... HUGZ...XOXO

[maryalgar]

You have such a good eye for colour. Perylene Green is a very dark green - one brand shows it is PBk31 (so some black content). But you seem to be able to mix it with raw umber etc. I really enjoyed watching this video and all the mixes.

[CC-holw]

Love your excellent vids Paul! Thank you.

[punjabpainting]

Awesome painting dear, keep it up, stay connected, keep supporting us 👌👍💖💖

[fds]

You read my mind!! This week I was stuck with mixing green colours. now I have hope again!!
One question, which brand is the vivid green you used in minute 12:42?

[creativecolours]

I mix my greens with primaries. Blues and Yellows and some Red in order to make the colours warmer or duller.
My standard blues are Ultramarine or Smalt, Cobalt Blue or Light Ultramarine Blue ( these two have the exact same hue and mixing properties so if your run out of the more expensive Cobalt you can switch to the Light Ultramrine). I use also Prussian Blue or Phthalo Blue Green Shade. and I make my own watercolour by Ercolano blue pigment that has similar hue with the now discontinued Manganese Blue. I don't use Cerulean Blue instead of Manganese as some fellow artists suggest because I can't see why and how can Cerulean be and alternative of Manganese. I really don't know why they consider it as an alternative. Cerulean is also opaque and granulating.

I also include in my blues my own made Indigo hue that is made by Phthalo Green mixed with Quinacridone Magenta PV19. These two give the exact colour of the original Indigo dye, but in a more lightfast version.

As for my yellows I use Lemon, my new favorite PY128 from Van Gogh that is a very transparent medium yellow, Tarnsparen Gold Ochre and PY129 that is Azomethanine Yellow ( or Green Gold from W&N) that is a must if you want to mix greens.It is the ultimate green mixing ... agent!! lol

Regarding Payne's Gray as a darkener and a colour for mixing greens: Most Payne's Grays contain black. A good mix for a Payne's Gray that doesn't contain black and is great for mixing Greens too is to mix in equal parts Phthalo Green PG7 with Pyrrole Red PR264 . The one neutralizes the other and then you get a fantastic Payne's Gray that doesn't contain black at all. And as it is made with green instead of blue and black with the addition of something else is great for mixing greens too.

Now if you add to the above mix a bit of B. Umber you are going to get a nice Sepia that doesn't contain black too.

[Simplycharlotte-s]

More great instruction, thank you. I’m using W&N lemon yellow hue and when mixed with W&N Paynes grey I get a very different green more olive colour not bright like yours. Is there another yellow that will give that vibrant green? 🙂

[louisemcmillan]

great tips, but I couldn't watch the video all the way through, the music was too distracting while you were talking, sorry