Tag: color mixing

Stop creating ugly paintings: 4 color mixing tips in oil painting that work

I spent many years learning how to draw realistically and then how to use color in oil painting well. I’m not the best realist artist out there but I’m sharing what I’ve learned over the years to help you become a realist artist today. I must say that realist oil painting is a lot more challenging than drawing because color mixing in oil painting is not the same thing as shading in colored pencil or painting in watercolor. In drawing artists shade via subsequent layering to build up a range of values. In oil painting we have to “guess” correct color, value and color temperature in one stroke! What I’m sharing here has taken me years to learn. I spent thousands of dollars on classical painting education that was hard to come by two decades ago. We’re are lucky to have proper art education available today in a form of atelier schools and on-line classes.

How color mixing works

Artists have various approaches to color mixing in oil painting. Some paint in full color from the start, others work on detailed underpainting before moving to color. Some pre-mix colors, others don’t. There is no wrong or right way of doing it. The oil painting technique comes with experience and varies in accordance with the artist’s personality.

Over the years I learned different ways of oil painting and I usually use them in a combination. Color mixing is the hardest part to master in oil painting. Even when your drawing is pretty good, oil painting can still be a huge challenge because of a different approach to color mixing. That’s why even when you get the exact list of colors used in artist’s artwork, you can’t really re-create the same beautiful result you see on YouTube.

Artists have to match color, color temperature and value in one stroke as opposed to achieving the same result via layering in colored pencils or watercolor. Therefore, artists must have a system in place to make color-mixing easy. 
contemporary realism art oil painting with starfish by veronica winters
contemporary realism still life painting with starfish, 16×20" oil on canvas, silver frame, available

#1 Do underpainting in one color first

Underpainting serves three purposes.

  • First, you establish your drawing on canvas. So it stays in place.
  • Second, you put warm color underneath your painting. This process gives you a nice, warm tone that interacts with your colors at a later stage.
  • Third, you establish basic pattern of light and shadow. It becomes a guide for your painting to control values.

Use warm brown underpainting

I use W&N artist’s oil color burnt sienna for underpainting in warm brown. Sometimes I add a touch of ivory black to darken the darkest areas in the painting. I keep everything rather transparent. Caravaggio used this oil painting technique in his art.

color mixing oil painting
Here I’ve done the underpainting in burnt sienna (warm brown) and began using full color palette to develop my painting further.

Use grey underpainting

Sometimes I underpaint my work in grays.

It’s a mix of 3/4 ivory black+1/4 warm brown with the increments of titanium white. (More on that below). This oil painting technique was used by many classically-trained artists including Ingres.

Use green underpainting

Some artists prefer the underpainting in dull green. White skin has a lot of green in it and this kind of underpainting becomes great to reveal cool shadows in the face, etc. There are many classical artists who used this oil painting technique. Beautiful, natural greens are Natural Pigments’ Antica Green Earth and Gamblin Terre Verte.

#2 Use your palette knife for color mixing in oil painting

#1 Use your palette knife, not the brush to mix the color strings. It’s the only way to mix large, clean batches of color.

#2 Use the palette knife to compare and to match the color you want to mix.

color mixing in oil painting veronica winters
To match the color perfectly you need to use your palette knife. Mix the color on your medium-toned palette, rotate the knife and place it next to your color source to see if you’ve matched the color. In this picture you can see me try to match the blue of this card.

#3 Pre-mix your main colors

I premix batches of color for large areas to have consistency and color unity throughout my oil painting. It could be separate batches of color for my background, for a dress and the skin tones.

oil painting techniques color mixing

I premix color strings for skin tones as well. Colors vary depending on my project.

#4 Use grays to neutralize chroma in color mixing

It’s rare to see vibrant (high-chroma) objects around you. In fact, realist artists show restraint in using bright color because only one or two hues should be dominant with the other hues supporting them. So most colors must be toned down to give the realistic effect. Beginner artists and art collectors tend to paint and to collect very bright art. True understanding and appreciation of color mixing mastery grows overtime. By looking at Sargent’s & Bouguereau’s work you can see how muted yet realistic their colors are.

Psyche abduct_By William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Psyche abduct, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

I use the grays to neutralize my tube colors.

how to make oil underpainting
The strip of grays represents the value scale. It’s mixed from 3/4 ivory black+1/4 warm brown with the increments of titanium white.

Chroma is the brightness of a color.

The easiest way to tone down bright colors is to use a slightly warm gray. It’s mixed from 3/4 ivory black+1/4 warm brown with the increments of titanium white. The strip of grays represents the value scale.

To keep color mixtures fresh for more than one day, I wrap them up in wax paper. Airtight oil paint stays fresh for 2+ days on average.


video courses by veronica winters
Check out free previews of my video courses here:: https://veronica-winters-art-school.teachable.com/

Color harmony in oil painting from art history

There are different approaches to color mixing in painting. The Impressionists painted without the use of black. Their paintings taught me to see colors in the shadows. The old masters painted with black to create strong contrast.

Color unity or color harmony are present in all classical paintings. You’ll find explanations of color harmonies in classical oil paintings in this article 5 Tips that’ll make you better at oil painting: https://veronicasart.com/5-tips-thatll-make-you-better-at-oil-painting/

Video explaining color mixing in oil painting:


Basic Art supplies:

Panels & canvas:

Don’t buy the cheapest canvases at craft stores and online! Their gesso (white ground) is very low quality that affects everything from paint application to oil paint adherences to archival properties.


Other helpful articles about oil painting techniques:

5 tips in realist oil painting:

5 Tips that’ll make you better at oil painting

#1 Think of your idea & design

Idea, color, and design are three main variables of every painting I create. I sketch a lot and play with images in Photoshop to come up with my imagery. Nowadays I find that I’m more efficient when I use Photoshop to cut, paste and combine images to create a visual story that has visual balance, color and clarity.

As for images, I mostly use my references. As I travel, I collect my visual inspiration and organize them on folders on my computer. However sometimes I find a specific model/ picture on a copyright free sites- Pixabay, Unsplash. Freepick has beautiful images too. These are great free resources for artists! For example, I don’t do underwater photography and I can find the right reference there. So if you need pictures for reference or drawing, you may find lots of inspiration there.

sphynx cats art-veronica winters

#2 Study the anatomy daily

When I began my artistic journey two decades ago I thought I would never paint people. I sucked at it!!! I used to draw stick figures. Over the years I took more figure drawing classes than many of my peers in college. When I was in class, I saw how talented some students were and the only way for me to catch up was to double down on drawing the figure from life. I miss my studio time in New York. It was liberating and fun. A lot of learning happened there. I must say no art class can replace practice. Being alone in your studio painting for weeks, months, years is necessary to develop a unique voice.

Aphrodite, basic proportions of the female (and male) head

When you draw people, line up all the facial features, preserving proportions. This image shows you how to divide the face. It also shows how the eyes, nose, lips and eyebrows move because of the head’s tilt and rotation. You must keep checking the line up as you paint at all times. As the face turns, we see foreshortening of some features but the line up remains the same. One eye can’t end up on the forehead (move higher or lower) because of the rotation. I use my brush’s handle to check the line up when I paint.

oil painting techniques painting face
Here I check the line up of the eyes as I begin painting the face.

#3 Understand how color mixing works

Color is like a thread that holds all elements together to reveal beauty in art. I used to be a very chaotic painter with somewhat intuitive understanding of color and its importance in art…

Alone, 9×12″ oil painting close up

I think of my color scheme before I begin painting. It helps me create visual unity in the end. However, I also allow myself to deviate from the plan if I see it’s working in a new way. Sometimes I repaint the entire painting like that, and other times I just follow the reference photo 100 percent. My understanding of color and color harmony keeps evolving year after year. I discover fresh color combinations by extrapolating and simplifying the information I see in front of me.

oil painting techniques color mixing
I pre-mix batches of color and make color strings by adding the titanium white to every original color string. This painting technique is necessary to control values in art.

Study art history to create beautiful contemporary art

I often study paintings created before and during the 19th-century to understand the use of color harmony by great artists. There are different approaches to color mixing in oil painting.

The_Inspiration_of_Saint_Matthew_by_Caravaggio
The_Inspiration_of_Saint_Matthew_by_Caravaggio By Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio – http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/caravaggio/matthew.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=136502

The old masters painted with black and browns for the most part, placing one strong color front and center to make a statement. Notice how red fabric revolves around the figure moving us around the painting in a spiral. In this painting by Caravaggio you can see that he creates strong contrast. White and red appear much stronger due to value and color contrast made with brown-black.

Diego_Rodriguez_de_Silva_y_Velázquez_-_Infanta_Margarita_Teresa_in_a_Blue_Dress s d
Velázquez, Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress | Here the leading color us blue…

I don’t know how Velasquez  or Caravaggio would have worked without the use of black. Their high-contrast paintings taught me to focus on placement of shadows, not the details. I also learned to have have 1-2 “leading” colors muting the rest of them with the use of greys and browns.

woman holding a balance Johannes Vermeer, 1664
Woman holding a balance Johannes Vermeer, 1664


Both Vermeer and Ingres had subtle, controlled palettes that revealed beauty through color unity and softness. Vermeer painted cool light coming from a single window illuminating the figure. His figures are not illuminated by the candle light, rather they bath in natural light.

Kramskoy_forest ranger close up , russian painting
Kramskoy, forest ranger close up | 19th century Russian art | This is one of the greatest Russian artists who painted life-like portraits of common folk. Here we focus on intense gaze of the man because his face has a lot of detail, light and color while the rest of the painting has soft edges and muted background.
ClaudeMonet-The-Houses-of-Parliament-at-Sunset-1903
ClaudeMonet-The-Houses-of-Parliament-at-Sunset-1903

The Impressionists painted without the use of black. Their paintings taught me to see color in shadows. Blues and purples in the afternoon shadows… Greens in the face…

mary cassatt
Sleepy baby, pastels, 1910 by Mary Cassatt. I like the energetic strokes in this painting and layering of colors.
Godward, lady in purple
Godward, Lady in purple

Painted by John William Godward, this painting is a great example of artistic excellence that shows us how the artist controls his color palette skillfully. Beautiful purples of the dress harmonize with the model’s scarf and flowers, blooming behind her. Her blue sash harmonizes perfectly with the color of the sea and the sky. White marble creates contrast and separates the figure from the background. Placed at a diagonal, a dark fan harmonizes with the woman’s large pillow set behind her.
The diagonals of her legs, torso and arms create a subtle movement inside the picture that lets us travel across the painting. Every element is in such balance and relationship to one another that we perceive it as an absolutely beautiful painting, admiring the realistic details we can all see. Such beautiful realistic paintings set a very high bar for any contemporary realist artist to live up to.

Color mixing in contemporary art painting

Color mixing is the hardest part to master in oil painting, in my opinion. Even when your drawing is pretty good, oil painting can still be a huge challenge because of a different approach to color mixing. That’s why even when you get the exact list of colors used in artist’s artwork, you can’t really re-create the same beautiful result you see on YouTube on in art museum.

Artists have various approaches to color mixing. Some paint in full color from the start, others work on detailed underpainting before moving to color. Some pre-mix colors, others prefer using tube colors. There is no wrong or right approach. The oil painting technique comes with experience and varies in accordance with artist’s personality.

Over the years I learned different ways of painting and I use them in a combination. I suggest learning from several artists that you admire by taking their workshops, classes or online courses. And then practice, practice, practice!

Harmony, 12x16in, mixed media on panel

Oil painting in full color is much harder than drawing. Why? Because artists have to match color, color temperature and value in one stroke as opposed to achieving the same result via layering in colored pencils or watercolor. Therefore, we must have a system in place to make these decisions consistently as we paint. 

Drawing in colored pencil leads to color vibrancy naturally because colored pencils don’t mix to gray. However, oil painting is a lot more complicated because the artist needs to give “light” to the paint. A few pure colors become beautiful by juxtaposing them with grays and neutrals, not by painting everything screaming bright with out-of-the-tube colors. This took me years to grasp!

1. To organize myself, I often paint in full color over the underpainting. Underpainting is like a good set up to establish line drawing and contrast.

2. I premix batches of color for large areas to have consistency and color unity throughout my painting.

The strip of grays represents the value scale. It’s mixed from 3/4 ivory black+1/4 warm brown with the increments of titanium white. I use the grays to neutralize my tube colors! It’s rare to see vibrant (high-chroma) objects. So most colors must be toned down to give realistic effect.

3. I premix color strings for skin tones as well. Colors vary depending on my project.

oil painting techniques color mixing
Color strings. Use palette knife to pre-mix the colors

4. I use few colors to achieve colorful result. Less is more in oil painting. So, I know what color mixes I get by mixing them with each other daily. I used to keep color strings to remember my results. Now it’s intuitive based on my experience.

5. Use your palette knife, not the brush to mix the color strings. It’s the only way to mix large, clean batches of color. 

6. To keep color mixtures fresh for more than one day, I wrap them up in wax paper. Airtight oil paint stays fresh for 3+ days on average.


Glazing is one of the old masters techniques when artists glaze transparent colors over the refined underpainting to build up hues in progression. One area can be glazed several times to increase depth and to enrich colors. Artists wipe off the extra paint to increase transparency and even application. Glazing darkens the surface, so artists must think of the end result in advance of using this technique. I show this oil painting technique in detail in my online class. Click on the link to see a preview.


7. I step back from my painting often to see major shapes and contrast as opposed to focusing on details.

8. I use a wide, soft brush to blend the strokes in the end of every painting session.

#4 Use good brushes

If you’ve tried painting, you know how hard it is to find a good set of brushes. Many of them are flimsy or too soft to spread the paint around. Or they shed hairs like a cat.🐈 Others don’t keep the fine point necessary to paint the details. I went through so many brushes trying to find something that really works for oil painting. You have no idea!

1. Use stiffer, synthetic brushes for your underpainting because the first layer doesn’t go smoothly and can be spread out with a bit of a solvent (Gamsol), not the medium. Both the solvent and textured canvas surface wear out fine brushes super quickly!

2. When you layer oil paint over the underpainting, it layers smoother but still needs just a bit of medium to have the flow. This is the stage when having good brushes is critical to painting subtle transitions and details. Here are a few cheap buys that work. I find that Simply Simmons brushes are cheap but durable and have a good spring to them for painting. For detailed work I really like Ebony Splendor by Creative Mark. This brand has a variety of small brushes. Rosemary brushes are fabulous. Also I find that painting on large canvas is much easier with W&N Galeria brushes.

3. I find that the length of the brush handle makes no difference in painting. In fact, if you do detailed work, you want to minimize your hand’s movement to remain precise. I don’t see how long handles help artists with that.

4. I keep a wide, super soft brush (3/4 or 1″) for blending large areas to soften everything before I quit painting for a day. It doesn’t matter what brand it is as long as it’s soft like watercolor brushes are.

5. It’s important to take care of your brushes to make them last. I’ve noticed that solvents tear them down quite quickly. That’s why I take the paint off with a paper towel and then use a soap bar to clean them after every painting session.

#5 Be kind to yourself

If you’re like me, I’m very hard on myself doing, well, anything. I try to do my best and if it doesn’t come out any good, I often feel devastated. By being aware of this problem, I try to refocus and see what I actually did right. I also enjoy the very act of painting. Every painting makes me one step closer to my goal. I’m lucky I can paint and it makes me feel grateful that I have this opportunity. What about you?

Basic Art supplies:

  1. Transfer paper:

Loew-Cornell C101-1 4-Piece Grey Transfer Paper https://amzn.to/2Zx3Wyv

White transfer paper: https://amzn.to/3gAaPFo or https://amzn.to/2XMdBPg 

Da Vinci pro Panels: https://amzn.to/36qrgQf

Jack Richeson panels: https://amzn.to/3gfk6CI

Linseed oil: https://amzn.to/3ebrixQ or https://amzn.to/2LWkdoP

Varnish for oil and acrylic paintings only: https://amzn.to/3bUJ2fh

Messenger, colored pencil drawing with glitter and resin, 16×20 inches, a close-up

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