Mixing recipe
How to mix green
Target
#4A8C3F
Recipe mixes to #4C8936
A plain mid green, the one a child would paint grass with. The surprise is that it is built on blue: Cerulean Blue lifted with a little white, and one part of Sap Green to swing it over. There is no yellow in it, because Cerulean already leans green and the Sap Green carries the rest.
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 9 parts Cerulean Bluepile #0066A1
- Work in 2 parts Titanium Whitepile #3D8BC0
- Add 1 part Sap Greenpile #4C8936Strong tinter. Add it in knife-tip doses and mix fully before adding more.
A simpler mix
Cadmium Yellow and Cerulean Blue, two to one, is the classic blue-plus-yellow route and gets to a good match with two tubes. It comes out a touch yellower and lighter. Use it if you have no Sap Green; the three-paint mix is a little cooler and deeper.
What goes wrong
The pile is a bright sky blue until the Sap Green goes in, and the green arrives fast. Sap Green moves this mix hard for its share, so add it in halves. If the green looks too blue, resist adding Cadmium Yellow straight in, which makes it chalky and neon; a little more Sap Green keeps it clean. Sap Green (flagged by the mixing guide as moving a pile hard for its share) is the paint to be careful with here: it goes in last, a knife-tip at a time, and a little too much cannot be mixed back out.
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.