Mixing recipe
How to mix ochre
Target
#CC9A3F
Recipe mixes to #CD9B3A
An ochre lighter and brighter than the tube. Yellow Ochre is the base, Cadmium Yellow lifts the chroma, and a single part of white lifts the value. The match is within a ΔE, and all three tubes 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 7 parts Yellow Ochrepile #B8813F
- Work in 4 parts Cadmium Yellowpile #C08F33
- Work in 1 part Titanium Whitepile #CD9B3A
A simpler mix
Cadmium Yellow and Yellow Ochre in equal parts, with no white, is a two-tube version that comes out a little darker and more saturated. Use it when the ochre has to stay rich, in a shadow or against a pale ground. The white version is better for a sunlit wall.
What goes wrong
The one part of white is small and easy to overshoot: a second part turns the ochre to a pale tan. Add it with a knife-tip. If the mix looks too bright, the fix is more Yellow Ochre rather than a brown, which greys the yellow instead of deepening it.
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.