Become a Color Mixing Wizard with This Quick Exercise

I really love gouache, specifically Winsor & Newton. A few years ago, I did a Holbein versus Winsor & Newton comparison and, to me, there was no contest. However, the one thing Holbein does have is more color options.

Holbein specifically has tons of color options in their Acrylic Gouache. While I’m not a fan of this medium (for me, it was too dry), I couldn’t stop drooling over their color offerings. Take a look at the swatches below that I pulled directly from the Dick Blick website.

Pretty great right? I almost pulled the trigger and purchased a bunch of these. However, I knew I probably wouldn’t use the paint since I don’t love the texture.

Suddenly, I had an idea! I realized I could probably mix up every single one of these colors using the Winsor & Newton paints I already had.

So, I challenged myself to a color mixing battle royale. And, guess what? I was able to mix every single shade above using very few tubes of paint. Once I was done, I felt like I’d learned so much. I can’t recommend this exercise enough to anyone looking to get better at mixing colors. I plan on doing this more in the future, any time I find a color swatch I love online.

My challenge for you, in order to earn your masters in color mixing, is to try to mix up all the shades above using your medium of choice - whether that be gouache, acrylic, oil paints or watercolors. Use as few tubes of paint as possible, meaning you probably need some version of the primary colors plus white.

Best of luck!