Paint mixing
Mixing paint is subtraction: every pigment you add absorbs more light. Simulate mixes from a studio palette, check value and chroma as you go, see why some mixes stay clean while others turn to mud, and print charts to paint your own swatches.
Paint is not light
Screens mix colour additively: red, green and blue light add together towards white. Paint mixes subtractively: each pigment absorbs part of the spectrum, and a mixture reflects only what survives every pigment in it, so mixes move towards dark and grey.
A pigment particle both absorbs and scatters light. Kubelka–Munk theory describes an opaque paint film by the ratio of the two, K/S, at each wavelength. Mixing paints averages their K and S, not their screen colours, which is why blue and yellow paint make green: yellow absorbs blue light, blue absorbs red and yellow light, and the band that both reflect, green, survives.
Averaging the RGB values of the same two colours (see the four swatches) gives a pale, greyed colour, because averaging light cannot remove the red and blue components the way a pigment does. The simulated paint mix is darker and much greener.
Every simulation on this page applies Kubelka–Munk per sRGB channel, weighted by parts and by an estimate of each pigment's tinting strength. Real pigments have full spectral curves, so treat the results as a guide to direction and proportion, not a colour-accurate prediction: brands differ, and a screen cannot show paint's gloss, texture or transparency.
Mixer
Add parts of each paint (tap a paint to add one part) and watch the mixture change. The greyscale strip shows the mix's value on its own, which is the quickest way to check whether a colour will sit correctly in a painting.
Swatches are approximate masstones (paint straight from the tube). Tinting strength is built in: a little Phthalo Blue goes a long way, Yellow Ochre and Cerulean are weak.
- Hex
- Hue
- Value (0–10)
- Chroma (C*)
- Value scale
Tints, tones and shades
The four ways to change a colour's value and chroma, applied to the mix in the mixer. Ratios are mix : added paint by volume. Notice that white cools and chalks most colours, black dirties yellows towards olive, and the complement neutralises while keeping the colour alive.
Warm and cool primaries
No tube is a pure primary. Every yellow, red and blue leans towards one of its neighbours on the wheel, so painters keep a split-primary palette: a warm and a cool version of each. Choose the pair that leans towards each other for a clean secondary, and the pair that leans away for a deliberately muted one.
- Clean mixes: Cadmium Yellow Light and Phthalo Blue both reflect strongly in the green part of the spectrum, so their overlap is a strong green.
- Muddy mixes: Cadmium Yellow leans to orange and Ultramarine leans to violet. Each carries a trace of red, green's complement, so the mixture contains all three primaries and greys down.
- Use both deliberately: landscape greens often need the muted pair, or a clean green knocked back with a touch of red. Mud is only a problem when it is unintended.
Printable mixing charts
Choose 3 to 6 paints and print an A4 sheet to paint into. A mixing grid pairs every paint with every other; a ladder sheet steps each paint towards white and black. The small corner chip is the simulated result, so you can compare it with the real paint.