Color mixing is an essential skill that every artist should learn.

By knowing how to choose your colors coupled with basic color mixing theories, you can create stunning paintings like these.

Limiting your palette is challenging especially if you’re a beginner. I experienced that first hand and I ended up with lots of paint tubes and palettes that I don’t ever use.

Before learning color mixing, I was also limited by the colors I own. If I have a reference photo that I wanted to paint but think that I don’t have the colors for it, I give up on that project. And it’s sad.

Glad I devoted some time to study, experiment, mix and match three colors and expand that limited palette to find the colors that I need.

By learning how to work with three colors only, you will:

Achieve harmony in your paintings
No need to buy endless tubes
Build confidence as an artist
Paint anything you want
Applicable to other medium

What will we do in this class?

We will work with a limited palette consisting of three primary colors (red, yellow and blue OR magenta, yellow and cyan).

Through this class, we will learn:

why you need to learn color mixing;
how to choose your primary colors;
how to mix your colors to produce secondary and tertiary colors;
how to determine warm and cool colors and the benefits of doing so; and
why muddy colors appear in your mixture.

With the three colors that you will select, we will:

create a color chart to find the secondary and tertiary colors;
mix earth colors that can be used for a landscape painting;
expand that palette and find the specific colors you’ll need;
paint a simple landscape scene to apply what we have learned; and

know the different painting subjects where you can use this combination.

Who is this class for?

Artists from all levels are welcome to join the fun!

But learning how to mix your colors is an essential that I personally think every beginner should learn.

I wished I'd learned this earlier and not wasted my time and resources on buying every pigment I thought I needed.

What do we need to get started?

You’ll need to choose three primary colors to get started. Please prepare your usual watercolor materials including brushes, paper, jars, rag, pencil and eraser, too.

Here are some suggestions. (You’ll see more color combinations in the class)

Ultramarine Blue, Gamboge Nova and Scarlet Lake
Prussian Blue, Cadmium Yellow Light, Rose Madder
Turquoise Blue, Cadmium Yellow Light, Quinacridone Magenta

Make sure to download the Class guide in the Resources tab for your reference.

If you’re ready, grab your materials and let’s get started!

Music by Purple Planet.com

María Rubio

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