Mixing Beautiful Greens from Black

Previous | Next

The Man in the Golden Helmet Oil Rembrandt

The color green is nearly everywhere we look, and once one begins to notice its presence, the search begins in earnest to figure out the different combinations which make beautiful greens. The absolute best way to become intimately familiar with all the various guises of green is to mix them. Most of us start by seeing what kinds of greens can be made from our blues and yellows, and the first discovery is that our greens can lean either to the warm side, or the cool side, depending on the amount of blue or yellow in the mix. Further experimentation reveals that any green can be both lightened and cooled by adding white, or, conversely, darkened and warmed by adding black. These few simple methods give us an impressively vast palette of green hues and tones to work with. Additionally, numerous distinct hues of green are available premixed in tubes, and in a pinch, are a convenient way to quickly ge…