Mixing recipe
How to mix brown
Target
#6F4E37
Recipe mixes to #73513D
A plain brown, the color of wet earth or coffee with milk. Yellow Ochre and Burnt Umber in near-equal parts make a dull brown; one part of Cadmium Red warms it so it does not read as grey. All three are earths or near enough, and all are in a common box.
The recipe
Step by step
Build the pile from the biggest, lightest component and work toward the strongest tinter. Check the pile against each swatch before moving on.
- Start with 6 parts Yellow Ochrepile #B8813F
- Work in 5 parts Burnt Umberpile #6C533D
- Work in 1 part Cadmium Redpile #73513D
A simpler mix
Yellow Ochre and Burnt Umber alone, seven to five, get to a good match with two tubes. The result is slightly cooler and more olive. Use it for soil and bark in shade; add the red for anything in warm light or for a brown that has to sit next to skin.
What goes wrong
This is one of the forgiving mixes: all three pigments are gentle and opaque. The common mistake is reaching for black to darken it, which turns brown to a muddy grey. To go darker add more Burnt Umber; to go lighter add ochre before white, because white makes brown chalky.
Related colors
Results vary with brand, lighting and medium. Acrylic dries a touch darker than it looks wet. Treat this as a mixing aid, not a lab instrument: it tells you which tubes to reach for and roughly in what proportion. Fine-tune the last stretch by eye.