Mixing guide
Darks that stay clean
Mud comes from too many pigments, not from dark colors. Two pigments will take you further down than three.
Muddy is not a color, it is a symptom. It happens when a mixture contains enough different pigments that no wavelength survives, and the result is a dark with no character in it at all.
The cure is almost always fewer pigments. Two well-chosen colors will go darker and cleaner than four, and you keep control of the temperature while you do it. Every third pigment you add costs you saturation and gains you very little.
The other half of the problem is being too timid. Most paintings that feel weak are not muddy at all — their darks simply are not dark enough, and everything reads as middle value.
The mixtures
Each one worked out on a real palette with the spectral model. The number after the mixture is how far it lands from the target: under 2 you cannot see the difference, under 4 it does not matter in a painting.
Clean deep dark #2C2F35
Almost black, but still visibly cool.
10× Ultramarine +1× Ivory Black
7× Payne’s Gray +4× Burnt Sienna
Full wash.
1× Phthalo Blue
This palette cannot quite reach that color with 2 pigments in one mixture. What you see is the closest it gets, which is worth knowing before you spend an afternoon trying.
Warm rich dark #3A2E24
Deep enough for an interior shadow, warm enough to stay alive.
7× Burnt Umber +2× Phthalo Blue
5× Burnt Umber +3× Payne’s Gray
Full wash.
5× Phthalo Blue +4× Cadmium Red Light
This palette cannot quite reach that color with 2 pigments in one mixture. What you see is the closest it gets, which is worth knowing before you spend an afternoon trying.
Dark green #28382C
The darkest passage in a tree, where most people reach for black.
5× Phthalo Blue +3× Burnt Umber
5× Phthalo Blue +3× Burnt Umber
Full wash.
8× Phthalo Blue +1× Cadmium Yellow Light
This palette cannot quite reach that color with 2 pigments in one mixture. What you see is the closest it gets, which is worth knowing before you spend an afternoon trying.
Dark red #4C2224
Keeps its color at a value where most reds go brown.
5× Cadmium Red Light +2× Ivory Black
7× Burnt Umber +2× Quinacridone Rose
Full wash.
5× Phthalo Blue +4× Cadmium Red Light
Worth remembering
- Two pigments per dark. If you need a third, ask what the second one is actually doing.
- Keep the brush clean between mixtures. Most accidental mud arrives on the brush, not from the recipe.
- Judge your darkest dark against the lightest light before you commit. If the range is narrow, everything will look flat from a distance.
Your paints, your photo
These mixtures assume the palettes above. Tick off what you actually own and pick the color straight out of your reference instead.