Mixing recipe
How to mix sage green
Target
#9CAF88
Recipe mixes to #96AF84
Sage is a green that has been greyed and lifted almost to a pastel. Start with a pile of white, add Cadmium Yellow to turn it pale lemon, then one part of Ultramarine Blue. The blue and yellow make the green and the white keeps it soft.
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 4 parts Titanium Whitepile #F6F6F4
- Work in 1 part Cadmium Yellowpile #FFEB74
- Work in 1 part Ultramarine Bluepile #96AF84
Another route
Cerulean Blue in place of Ultramarine, with a little Yellow Ochre, gets a shade closer and gives a cooler, more silvery sage. It takes four tubes instead of three. Use it for the underside of leaves or anything in shade; the Ultramarine version is warmer and sits better in sunlight.
What goes wrong
The yellow stage looks far too bright, and that is correct: the blue will knock it back. Add the Ultramarine in two halves because it is transparent and strong against this much white, and a full part dumped in at once turns the pile minty rather than sage. If the result is too clean, a touch more ochre greys it; do not reach for black, which turns sage to olive.
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.