You can mix brown from primary colors. This brown is a mixture of Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, and Ultramarine Blue
What Colors Make Brown? The Ultimate Guide to Mixing Brown
Click the image above to download the How To Mix Brown cheat sheet as a PDF (there’s also link in the third paragraph below).
In this post, I demonstrate how to mix brown, dark brown, and light brown. I include a video demonstration and a free PDF that contains all of the recipes for mixing brown. These formulas will provide similar results in acrylics, oils, watercolor, and gouache.
How do you mix brown? Brown is basically dark red or dark orange so the easiest way to make brown is to mix orange with black or Ultramarine Blue. To make dark brown, mix any pure red in with black or Ultramarine Blue. Another popular recipe for brown is to mix complementary colors, such as orange and blue or yellow and purple. Add Titanium White to any brown to make light brown.
Color mixing recipes can be useful but you really want to get to the point where you can mix any color that you need. That’s the goal of my color mixing course below.
Color Mixing Course
In this course I teach the color mixing techniques that I use in my social media color matching videos. It’s for beginners and advanced painters. It includes 60 minutes of video.
While the above answer may be enough to get you started, brown is a complicated topic. One reason for this is that brown isn’t on the color wheel so it’s not clear how to go about mixing it.
In this post, I explain why brown isn’t on the color wheel, how to mix brown from the primary colors, and from complementary colors. I explain why mixing red with blue creates brown instead of purple. I also identify the exact pigments that I use so you can easily replicate the results.
Learning how to mix brown will help you to better understand the basics of color mixing. You will be able to mix the exact shade that you need instead of settling for only the tubes of brown paint that you have on hand.
If you’re just getting started with painting and need help with learning how to mix colors, you may be interested in downloading my free acrylic color mixing chart. All of the color mixing recipes in the chart only require two colors and it contains 7 recipes for mixing brown.
Table of Contents
Color Mixing Demonstrations
Below are all of the color mixing demonstrations, you can also watch my YouTube video on how to mix brown which covers most the same material.
The Easiest Way to Make Brown and Dark Brown
On the left is a mixture of Pyrrole Red and Carbon Black. It makes a dark chocolate brown color. This works with other shades of pure red such as Cadmium Red Medium. You can achieve a similar result by mixing Pyrrole Red with Ultramarine Blue as shown at right.
The easiest way to make dark brown is to mix a small amount of black with red. The red will darken slightly, but then it turns brown as you add more black.
Any bright red will work. In this case I’m using Pyrrole Red, but you can also use Cadmium Red Medium, or Naphthol Red.
Color is subjective so when you only add a little bit of black you may perceive it as dark red. But as you continue to add more black it turns dark brown, similar to the color of chocolate.
For example, the shadow areas of the apples in the painting below are dark brown.
“Three Macs” Acrylic on canvas board 8″x10″.
It may help to paint a small swatch of it on a scrap of paper so you can view it in isolation. What may look like dark red on the palette will look more like brown when you view it by itself.
Another formula for mixing dark brown is to mix pure red with Ultramarine Blue. This will produce a brown that’s very similar to the brown that you can mix from red and black.
You may be thinking that mixing red with blue will create purple, but it actually creates brown. For an in depth explanation as to why this is, you may want to read my post about how to mix vibrant purple.
It may surprise you to learn that red is not a primary color and that you can mix your own red. In that post, I explain how you can mix red and elaborate on the color theory behind this.
Color theory isn’t as simple as what they teach in school which is why you may have trouble mixing purple or brown. Color mixing will become second nature once you learn how to deal with these surprises.
The Easiest Way to Mix Brown
You can mix a lighter brown that’s similar to a coffee color by substituting orange for the red in the above recipe. So you can make brown by mixing Cadmium Orange with Carbon Black or Ultramarine Blue.
You can make brown my mixing Cadmium Orange with Carbon Black or Ultramarine Blue.
The result is similar to Yellow Ochre or Yellow Oxide.
The difference between adding black or blue is slight. Although, the Ultramarine Blue does make it slightly more green than if you were to use black.
Of course you can add small amounts of red to make it more reddish.
Orange and blue are complementary colors. I provide more examples of complementary colors that you can mix to create brown later in the post.
How To Mix Brown From Primary Colors
First, I have to address the fact that there’s been a long standing debate as to what the primary colors for painting are.
The traditional primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. The alternative primary colors are cyan, magenta and yellow. You can use either sets of primary colors to make great paintings.
Fortunately, you can also use either set of primary colors to mix brown as shown below.
Mixing Brown from Red, Yellow, and Blue
You can mix brown from primary colors. This brown is a mixture of Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, and Ultramarine Blue
The traditional primary colors for painting are red, yellow, and blue. There doesn’t seem to be a universal standard for which shade of red, yellow, and blue are the primary colors.
There are a number of factors that influence artists to choose different sets of primary colors. For example, some pigments are transparent while others are opaque.
In watercolor painting, there are other variables to consider such as whether you want to use a pigment that’s prone to granulation or maybe you prefer using staining colors.
Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, and Ultramarine Blue are often the colors artists use as the primary colors so I’ll use those for the demonstration.
The simplest way to make brown from the primary colors is to mix Ultramarine Blue with Cadmium Red as I demonstrated at the top of this post.
With those two colors you can mix dark brown. You don’t even need to add the Cadmium Yellow unless you want to make it lighter and more orange.
The real primary color is magenta, and red is a secondary color that’s the result of mixing magenta with a small amount of yellow. You can verify this for yourself by mixing Quinacridone Magenta with Hansa Yellow Medium–it yields a transparent red.
In a way, whenever you add red to a color mixture, yellow is going along for the ride. This explains why mixing Pyrrole Red with Ultramarine Blue produces brown. This is because the small amount of yellow in the red causes the purple to turn brown.
If you want to mix brilliant purple try using Quinacridone Magenta instead of red. Magenta doesn’t contain yellow so it creates a pure purple when you mix it with Ultramarine Blue.
The theory behind this isn’t as important as being able to produce results. You want to be able to mix whatever shade of brown or purple you need without a struggle.
Mixing Brown From Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow
You can still mix brown if you’re using cyan, magenta, and yellow as your primary colors. Even though they’re very brilliant and transparent, you can use them to mix a variety of Earth tones.
The primary colors that are used in the printing process are an alternative to the traditional primary colors. They do produce a wider range of colors, especially when it comes to mixing greens and purples.
The pigments that I find are closest to the printing primaries are Phthalo Blue, Quinacridone Magenta, and Hansa Yellow Medium.
There’s a variety of approaches to mixing brown from primary colors.
One method is to start by mixing orange by mixing Hansa Yellow Medium with a small amount of Quinacridone Magenta. Then slowly add very small amounts of Phthalo Blue to create brown. I should note that any magenta that contains white, such as Medium Magenta, won’t work as well.
If you want to mix dark brown, start by mixing Quinacridone Magenta and Phthalo Blue, then add small amounts of yellow to it.
These colors are very potent and transparent so adding too much of one of the colors is easy to do. Start by making small adjustments. You may have to practice a little to get the hang of it.
It’s possible to make pure black by mixing these colors, as I demonstrate in my video about mixing black at the bottom of this post.
You have to get the proportions correct in order to mix neutral black from these colors. Brown is what you get when the proportions are off. So you may want to practice mixing black and brown from these primaries.
Mixing Brown From Complementary Colors
Here are four examples of browns that you can mix from complementary colors. From left to right: Cadmium Red Medium and Light Green Permanent, Cadmium Orange and Dioxazine Purple, Dioxazine Purple and Cadmium Yellow Medium, Phthalo Blue and Cadmium Red Medium.
Many of the color mixing recipes for brown are based upon the idea of mixing complementary colors.
Complementary colors are usually defined as the colors that are opposite of each other on the color wheel.
There’s also the concept of mixing complements that are two colors that create a perfectly neutral gray when you mix them. I demonstrated this in depth in my video about how to mix black.
If the two colors aren’t perfect complements, they will create what’s known as a “near neutral” which is also known as an achromatic color. This is what you’re looking for because that near neutral is usually some shade of brown.
Since we’re not trying to mix a perfectly neutral gray, try mixing a warm color with a cool color. See the free PDF at the top of the post for some ideas.
What Colors Make Light Brown?
The simplest way to make light brown is to mix Titanium White with brown paint from the tube as shown in the next section. But if you don’t have brown on your palette you can mix one using any of the formulas on this page and then add white to it.
Burnt Sienna and Titanium White
Add Titanium White to Burnt Sienna to make a light brown. It makes a skin tone color when you add more white.
The most obvious way to mix light brown is to mix brown from the tube with Titanium White.
If you have Burnt Sienna you can mix it with Titanium White to create a light brown that has a reddish tint to it. Adding more white creates a warm tan that’s similar to a flesh color.
Add a very small amount of Ultramarine Blue to the light brown if it’s too warm for your preference. Another option for achieving a cooler brown is to start with a brown that is less warm.
One thing to keep in mind is that Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna are mixing complements. When you combine them in the right proportions it will create a neutral black.
In this case, since you’ve added white to the Burnt Sienna, adding more Ultramarine Blue will create gray.
Burnt Umber and Titanium White
If you want a more neutral light brown then try mixing Burnt Umber with Titanium white.
Some browns have more neutral appearance than Burnt Sienna, and Burnt Umber is such a brown. Mixing it with white will create a light brown that’s more neutral than Burnt Sienna.
The result is a light brown that’s cooler than what you can achieve with Burnt Sienna.
Keep in mind that Burnt Umber is different than Raw Umber. Raw umber will produce a warm gray when you mix it with white.
This can be useful if you want you mix grays that have more life to them than a completely neutral gray.
Cadmium Orange, Ultramarine Blue, and Titanium White
If you don’t have brown on your palette, you can use any of the formulas in this post to make brown and then add the white to make light brown.
Some of the formulas work better for mixing light brown than others. The dark browns that you can mix from red don’t work as well as the warmer browns that you can mix from orange.
This light brown is a mixture of Cadmium Orange, Ultramarine Blue, and Titanium White.
The color swatch above is a mixture of Cadmium Orange, Ultramarine Blue, and Titanium White.
The result is a color that’s a good substitute for Yellow Oxide.
If you’re trying to mix beige or tan, you may want to add some Ultramarine Blue to neutralize the orange so it’s less saturated.
How much blue you should add depends upon how much you want to neutralize the orange. It depends upon if you want a light brown that’s warm or cool. Either way, be careful to not add too much blue or it will turn green.
You can use any set of primary colors plus white to make light brown. On the left is a mixture of Phthalo Blue, Quinacridone Magenta, Hansa Yellow Medium, and Titanium White. On the right are the more traditional primary colors. It’s a mixture of Cadmium Red Medium, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Ultramarine Blue, and Titanium White.
You can also add white to any of the browns that you make from the primary colors. The examples above contain a variety of light browns made from primary colors.
What’s the Difference Between Beige, Buff, Tan, and Taupe?
These colors are variations of light brown. According to Behr, the manufacturer of house paint, these are all variations of light brown with different undertones.
For example, Behr explains tan is light brown that has yellow undertones, beige has orange undertones, and Taupe has blue or black undertones.
However, most of these colors aren’t available as tubes of paint. For example, I don’t have any tubes of “Taupe” in my studio.
The only exception is Buff Titanium, which is also known as Unbleached Titanium. It’s similar to Titanium White but it has a warm tone to it.
Sometimes Titanium White can be too stark and artists use Buff Titanium instead to give their paintings an overall warm tone.
According to Wikipedia, “buff” is a reference to the color of buffed leather.
The names of colors that are popular in the fashion or interior design industries don’t often apply to painting.
As a painter, the names for the most common artist’s paints are worth learning and becoming familiar with. Manufacturers are generally consistent with the names of colors when it comes to the most common pigments.
Mention Ultramarine Blue or Burnt Sienna to an artist and they’ll know exactly what you’re talking about.
Three Types of Colors That Make Brown
Now, let’s get into how to make brown. There are three main types of colors that can make a brown color.
We can figure out how to make brown color by mixing a few colors of the color wheel that range from red to yellow.
You will know how to make brown paint from doing the following simple trick.
A simple trick is to add two primary colors such as red and green or a primary color (blue) with a secondary color (orange).
In addition, to determine the intensity of the colors, complementary colors are used that cancel each other’s effect and increase or decrease the brightness and intensity of one another.
In fact, mixing a variety of color combinations to get brown is quite easy but getting an exact shade of brown takes a little more effort and perfection.
Here, in this blog, we will help you with what colors make brown and with how to make brown paint.
We will show you how you can make different shades of brown such as dark brown, light brown, warm brown, cool brown, greenish or reddish-brown when considering how do you make brown.
Moreover, you will also come to know how primary colors are added with secondary colors and how you can mix paints to create a basic tone of brown.
Are you ready to produce any hue you desire? Do not go anywhere and follow along to learn the secrets of how to make the color brown including all the beautiful shades of brown!
Read Also:
- 85 Easy Acrylic Painting Ideas on Canvas for Beginners
- 18 Awesome Acrylic Painting Techniques on Canvas
What two colors make brown?
Are you working with limited art supplies? Then you might want to know what 2 colors make brown.
Do you have a few colors and now you want to make brown by using those limited colors?
So, how to make brown? It is possible to make brown from only two colors.
But for this, you need to understand the basics of color theory so you can mix colors to get the desired color palette for what colours make brown.
Primary colors such as red, blue, and yellow are used to create other colors on the color wheel.
When considering how to make brown color, you’ll have to go further.
Here’s a visual list to know what two colors make up brown:
- red and blue are combined to make purple
- blue and yellow are combined to make green
- yellow and red are combined to make orange
So, purple, green, and orange become secondary colors but don’t answer the question of what 2 colors make brown..
To make brown from two colors, you need to mix one secondary color with its complementary primary color.
It means you need to mix purple with yellow, green with red, and orange with blue.
Let’s get a closer look at this formula for how to make the color brown::
Purple + Yellow = Brown
Green + Red = Brown
Orange + Blue = Brown
If you want a lighter shade of brown, take an opaque white color with you and make necessary adjustments.
Get the FREE Improve Your Paintings Right Now Ebook
We’re now moving on to how to make dark brown paint. To know what colors make dark brown, it is important to add those colors that are darker than the primary colors.
For example, you can add black or purple color to create a dark effect, the same as the color of chocolate.
If you are using red, yellow, and blue, you can add more red and blue colors than yellow.
For a darker tone of what colors make dark brown, you can mix red with ultramarine blue or black color.
This will create the same effect that you get from mixing red and black.
The tones for red may vary when considering how to make dark brown paint. A bright shade of red usually works better.
For example, you can use cadmium red, pyrrole red, or naphthol red.
All these options will give a smooth darker shade of how to make dark brown paint!
According to expert artists, if you are adding black or purple to get dark brown, you need to understand the difference between the results obtained by adding both colors and what colors make dark brown.
For example, adding black color gives a smoother look and feel and can make the mixture look brighter as compared to adding purple.
Pro Tip:
If you want to draw a tree bark, a brick, a tree in sunlight or paint a gleam in antique wood, these primary colors will be used to get a reddish-brown and a blackish-brown shade with more or less of using white.
