How to Make Brown Paint in 4 Steps

To make brown paint, mix complementary colors. Complementary colors are found opposite each other on the color wheel. Complementary color pairings include blue with orange, red with green, and yellow with purple. Follow these steps to mix brown paint:

1. 1. Gather your materials. Select your acrylic paints, watercolors, or oil paints. You can combine a variety of colors to mix brown paint—you’ll just need two, ones opposite each other on the color wheel. These will consist of a primary color (red, yellow, and blue) and its complementary secondary color (green, purple, and orange, respectively). You’ll also need a palette knife or paint brush for mixing, and your mixing surface or container.
2. 2. Mix colors in equal proportions. To create a basic brown paint, mix two complementary colors in equal amounts. Choose a red paint and a green paint (or yellow paint and purple paint, or blue paint and orange paint) and dab a little bit of each onto your surface to mix. Stir the different colors with your palette knife until it becomes a smooth brown.
3. 3. Play with proportions and color mixing. You can add in different paint colors, or varying amounts of each, to create cooler and warmer or darker and lighter shades. For beginners, an easy way to play with this is by adding in a dab of white paint to make the brown lighter, or black paint to make a dark brown color. Mix thoroughly.
4. 4. Record your proportions. Different colors make brown, and when you find the brown hue you want to use, record your proportions of paint and batch it to the amount required for your project. Then, paint away and create more brown paint as needed.

For each type of brown, start off with your base of complementary colors; then, expand your color palette by adding in certain other pigments to control the temperature and brightness of your brown paint. You can mix colors to create a tint of brown paint specific to your needs:

• Light brown: Start with a yellow and purple base. Add a bit of titanium white paint to your mixed brown to create a lighter shade, and add in more as needed to achieve your desired color. If you want a brown that is a combination of light and warm, adding some cadmium yellow makes a slightly brighter brown.
• Cool brown: To make a colder brown, start with blue and orange and then add in cool colors like greens and purples. Adding blue colors like ultramarine blue will create an almost foggy color, like brackish water. Combining dark blues will create a color akin to slate, while adding purple colors will make for a lighter brown that feels like dusty lavender.
• Warm brown: Warm browns can contain earth tones like russet or yellow ochre. Whether you start with a red and green, yellow and purple, or orange and blue base, add in more of the warm colors to achieve a warmer brown. Adding cadmium red will create a brighter, reddish brown that approaches a sienna color, more orange can create a burnt umber, and mixing more yellow can make for a light, muddy brown.
• Dark brown: To make a darker brown, mimicking a rich chocolate brown, you can combine your two complementary colors (red and green may work best) and then spiral in a little bit of black paint. For warmer darker shades, you can also add in some reds; for cooler darker shades, add in blue.

Grab the MasterClass Annual Membership and plumb the depths of your creativity with the help of modern artist Jeff Koons, abstract artist Futura, and stage designer Es Devlin. Our exclusive video lessons will teach you to do things like utilize color and scale, explore the beauty in everyday objects, and so much more.