BROWN, the color of mud in our paintings, can be beautiful. I have a few tubes of various browns that sit in a drawer and eventually dry up.
raw sienna
burnt sienna
raw umber
burnt umber
sepia
Over the years, I have found various ways to create my own browns. Sometimes, they have been that dreaded MUD. When I analyzed the colors within the brown, yellow, red, and blue kept appearing.
Aureolin, permanent rose, and cobalt blue
Cadmium yellow, cadmium red, and ultramarine
Gamboge, cadmium red light, and indigo
Quinacridone gold, permanent rose, and cobalt blue
Aureolin, alizarin crimson, and cerulean blue
I have discovered that it is easier to mix a brown by first mixing the yellow and red components to create a dark orange and then to gradually add the blue. Try different combinations of yellow, red, and blue to find many kinds of brown.
When I looked at my palette, I found other ways to make browns. I searched for colors that were a mix of the primaries.
This example shows MAGENTA (red& blue) mixed with yellows and oranges.
aureolin
quinacridone gold
gamboge
cadmium orange
When the two colors contained a dominance of red, the resulting brown was warm.
In this example, I have used SAP GREEN (yellow & blue) and mixed it with a variety of reds.
These browns are dark and muted. They contain a dominance of blue.
Look at your palette and choose any two colors that contain the three primaries. Try mixing your own browns. More importantly, look at the colors that you have chosen for your painting and look for the brown mix possibilities.
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