Oil Painting Color Charts - How to Mix Green

While not part of the original color studies- I thought it would be a good idea to learn more about options for mixing greens. There are so many possible combinations, it would be hard to get them all on 1 chart so I had to narrow them down. I also had to forgo adding white to the mixtures ( I tried dividing the squares but the 1 inch squares divided in two became too small to really get a good read on things.

This was a different set up than the other charts.

 Here I picked a range of greens and blues down the vertical axis and then mixed them white( column 2)  and then a range of warmer colors- yellows, oranges, reds on the horizontal axis.

 The colors I used were as follows:

Cadmium Green  Pale( Winsor & Newton)

Cinnabar Green Deep( Rembrandt)

Olive Green( Rembrandt)

Viridian(Holbein)

Pthalo Green (Gamblin)

Sevres Blue(Rembrandt)

Ultramarine Blue(Rembrandt)

Indigo(Winsor & Newton)

mixed with each of the following:

Titanium White( Lefranc)

Naples Yellow Light( Winsor & Newton)

Cadmium Lemon Yellow(Rembrandt)

Cadmium Yellow Pale( Winsor & Newton)

Cadmium Yellow Medium(Rembrandt)

Indian Yellow(Winsor & Newton)

Yellow Ochre( Winsor & Newton)

Cadmium Orange( Winsor & Newton)

Cadmium Red Light( Holbein)

Terra Rosa( Winsor & Newton)

Transparent Oxide Red( Rembrandt)

Generally, when mixed with yellows, the greens and blues yield  brighter, more springlike greens. When mixed with the oranges, reds, browns, you get more earthy, darker, rich greens. Also mixtures with Cadmium Lemon, Cadmium Yellow Pale and Cadmium Yellow Medium were not radically different so relax if you don't have the specific color you are looking for. You can get pretty close with some minor adjustments. A great array for landscape and floral paintings. However, I view this as a first cut on green, because I expect the addition of white to these mixtures will yield many options which may be subtler perhaps- more neutralized and a bit cooler. Thats' an experiment for another day.

For those interested in mixing greens in watercolor, I have a shot video posted on you tube.  Many of the pigments are the same, so similar principles apply.  Click on Painting Natural Greens in Watercolor