Q&A for How to Make Paint Colors

You can make every color by mixing some combination of the primary colors and white.

You can make white paint by mixing a white pigment, such as chalk or zinc oxide, with a binder or glue. Some good binder options include vegetable oils (for oil painting), gum Arabic (for watercolors or gouache), or egg yolks (to make egg tempera).

The easiest way to do it is to mix the darker color with a lighter hue. For example, you could mix a dark red with pink to make a lighter red. Mixing in a little white will also work. You can also dilute the paint with water or paint thinner to make it paler and more translucent.

You can mix the paint with a darker paint of the same color family. For example, mix in a little dark blue with a lighter blue to create a darker shade of blue. You can also add a little black or dark grey, but keep in mind that this will make the color look more muted or greyish. If your paint is translucent, adding more layers may make it appear darker.

Blue is a primary color, meaning you can’t mix anything else together to get it. However, you can create different shades of blue by mixing blue paint with other colors. For example, mixing blue with green will create a teal or aqua color, or you can add a little pink or red to create a purplish blue.

Keep experimenting with blues and greens until you get the color you like.

To make light brown, with the help of a brush, mix some (very little) white paint to the shade of brown you have, it will give you light brown. Add more white paint to lighten the shade, until you reach the shade you want.

Mix yellow and blue in equal amounts. Mix a little blue with more yellow to get light green, and more blue and a little yellow for dark green. Add a little white to the green to make it very light in color.

A safari sand color can be reached by mixing yellow-orange with a small amount of red. From there, add a small amount of this paint into white paint. A little goes a long way, so be careful when mixing.

If you have a dark blue and a white paints, start with a good bit of white then slowly mix in the blue until you have the shade you're looking for. If you don't have white, you can instead use a light blue and just use a little less dark blue. Another option, though this doesn't work as well, is to add a bit of black to light blue.

Red, yellow, and blue are primary colors, so you can't make them out of other colors. What you can do, however, is make primary colors lighter or darker by mixing in a little bit of white or black.

Start with white, then add small amounts of red, blue, green, or whatever color you want your pastel color to be. Keep mixing and adding until you get the color you want. Remember, a little bit of the darker color (blue, red, green, etc) will go a long way.

An avocado color can be reached by mixing a yellow-green color, and skewing it toward a lighter hue by mixing in some white or additional yellow. Mix to your liking!

Lincoln log green can be achieved by mixing a green or yellow-green with a small amount of blue. This green skews deep and dark toward blue, but be careful not to add too much blue.

To make brown, mix a primary color with its complementary color (opposite color on the color wheel), for example red and green, blue and orange, or purple and yellow.

If you have red and yellow, mix them together to get orange. If you don't have yellow, mix red and green to get yellow. Depending on the porportions in each color, you will get different shades of orange.

Experiment with different colors, but dark blue with a bit of green should work.

You can't technically make blue, since it is a primary color. If the gray is blue based, you could add some black to get a deep royal blue color. You could also add more blue to the gray to get a blue-gray.

No. Orange is a secondary color and was discovered by mixing yellow and red together, so if you don't include the red, it can't become orange.

Red, yellow, and blue are basic colors. You can never make basic colors by mixing colors.

Yellow, brown and white make gold.

Whether you mixed your purple paint by using red and blue, or magenta and cyan, adding white will make it lighter and brighter. Add just a little paint at first, then gradually mix in more to achieve the hue you want. Adding as much white paint as purple will create a pastel color.

To get turquoise, mix a one-to-one ratio of blue and green. If it looks too green, add more blue, and vice-versa.

Red and yellow. Add more or less of each color to perfect the shade.

Mix a little bit of brown into your orange paint until you achieved the desired shade. (You can even add a drop of red, but not too much.)

A touch of black or some dark brown would do it.

This will simply desaturate your lilac, make it lighter. It can be interesting to obtain a large range of color that way.

Mix an orange color (red + yellow) with blue and red to get brown, then add black to darken the brown. If you want a more reddish brown, then add red to the brown color.

Since peach is a shade of orange, add some orange, brown, and salmon pink. To give it a sandy texture, add salt or sand to it.

You can suggest the gold color on a canvas by using a variety of colors: You can use yellow, orange, nearly red and some black, to create the illusion of gold. Feel free, however, to buy a tube of golden paint if you'd rather have the glittery part. Yet, you can always mix up glitter with paint for that effect.