What Colors Make Brown? 3 Mixes and 8 Shade Recipes

Brown + White Is a Corpse. Mix Skin Tones Like This Instead 21:12

The fastest way to make brown is to mix two opposite colors. Orange and blue is the pair to try first. You can have a usable brown in under a minute, and everything after that is steering it warmer, cooler, lighter or darker.

What colors make brown?

Any two complementary colors make brown: orange and blue, red and green, or yellow and purple. Complements are the pairs that sit opposite each other on the color wheel. Each one dulls the other, and that dulled color is brown.

• Orange and blue: the most useful everyday brown, and the easiest to control.
• Red and green: a rich, earthy brown. Add a little white and you’ll see how much color is still in it.
• Yellow and purple: a greenish brown, good for dry grass, moss and old wood.

Brown is really just a dark, dull orange. That’s why a little blue turns orange brown so quickly.

How do you mix brown from orange and blue?

Start with orange, then add blue a little at a time until it turns brown. Here’s the process in acrylic or oil:

1. Mix orange from red and yellow, or squeeze out a tube orange.
2. Add a small dab of blue and mix it in.
3. Keep adding small dabs until the orange turns brown.
4. Warm it with more orange, or darken it with more blue.
5. Lighten it with a little white.

Your blue changes the result. Check the name on the tube: ultramarine leans toward purple, and phthalo blue leans toward green. Phthalo is very strong, so use a speck of it at first. Need a better orange to start from? Here’s how to make orange.

How do you make brown from the three primary colors?

Mix red, yellow and blue, and you’ll get brown. Start with equal amounts of red and yellow, then add blue slowly. Blue is often the strongest of the three, so a full equal share can push the mix nearly black.

This is the same thing as the orange and blue method, since red and yellow are just orange before you mix them. It’s handy when you only have the three primaries out. For the wider logic, see how to mix colors.

How do you mix different shades of brown?

Start with one base brown, then change it with one more color. Make the base from about two parts orange and one part ultramarine. Treat that as a starting point, because paint strength varies by brand.

Shade	What to add to the base
Reddish brown	More red
Chocolate brown	A little more red and a little more blue
Dark brown	More blue, then a tiny touch of black if you need it
Light brown	A little white
Tan or beige	More white and a touch of yellow
Golden brown	Yellow, or yellow ochre (a dull golden yellow) if you have it
Cool or ash brown	More blue and a little white
Olive brown	No base needed: use yellow with a little purple

Add each color in small amounts. It’s much easier to darken a light brown than to rescue one that’s gone too dark.

Should you use brown paint from a tube?

Yes, as a starting point. Burnt sienna (warm and reddish), raw sienna (golden), burnt umber (dark) and raw umber (dark and cooler) all save time. Just don’t use them alone.

Use a tube brown as a base, then mix a little of another color into it. That small change keeps it from looking like every other tube brown.

You don’t even need a brown to start. In one of our live classes, a bright pink and a little green made a brown close to burnt sienna.

Why does your brown look dead or muddy?

Dead brown usually comes from too many colors in one pile, or from using the same brown everywhere.

• Start over with two colors. If you’ve lost track of what’s in the pile, a fresh mix is faster than a rescue.
• Stop while it still leans one way. Warm browns lean red or orange, and cool browns lean blue or gray. If you can’t tell which yours is, you’ve gone too far.
• Use several browns. Put a warmer one where the light hits and a cooler one in the shadow. A tree trunk in one flat brown looks like cardboard.
• Look for the color in it. One of our lessons paints a brown bear using marks of green, purple, blue and yellow, side by side. From a distance, it still looks brown.
• Keep white out of your shadows. It makes them chalky, so save it for the lights.

Why does brown and white look wrong on skin?

Brown plus white tends to look dead on skin. Put raw umber and white on a face and it reads like a corpse, even though the same mix is fine for a tan tabletop.

Mix complements instead, the same way you’ve mixed every brown on this page. Our guide to mixing skin tones walks through it, and the video on this page shows it on a portrait in oils.

How do you make gray from the same colors?

Take a red and green brown and add more white, and it moves toward a soft gray. That gray has far more life than black and white stirred together, which comes out flat and empty.

So the same two tubes get you both browns and grays.

Mix a brown today and paint a swatch of it next to a tube brown, then see which one has more color in it. We have more guides on paint and color when you’re ready. And if you’d like a teacher’s eyes on your mixing, our Two Week Challenge is a $99 online course with a color mixing lesson, five projects, and personal feedback from an artist coach.

Frequently asked questions

What two colors make brown?

Any pair of complements makes brown: orange and blue, red and green, or yellow and purple. Complements sit opposite each other on the color wheel. Orange and blue is the easiest pair to control, because more orange warms the brown and more blue darkens it.

What 3 colors make brown?

Red, yellow and blue. Start with equal amounts of red and yellow, which gives you orange, then add blue a little at a time until it turns brown. More red makes it warmer, and more blue makes it darker.

What two colors make dark brown?

Orange and blue, with more blue than you'd use for a medium brown. Ultramarine works well. For the darkest browns, add a tiny touch of black.

What colors make light brown?

Mix a medium brown from orange and blue, then add white a little at a time. Add a touch of yellow if it starts to look gray or chalky. More white takes it to tan and beige.

Does orange and yellow make brown?

No. Orange and yellow make a brighter yellow-orange, because neither color dulls the other. Add a little blue to that mix and it will turn brown.

Can you make brown with black?

Yes. Add a very small touch of black to orange and it turns brown. Black darkens fast, so add less than you think you need. A brown made with blue usually has more color in it.

Why is my brown muddy?

Usually too many colors went into one pile, or the mix got stirred past the point where it had any warmth left. Start again with two colors and stop as soon as you can name it warm or cool.

Is mixing brown the same in acrylic and oil?

Yes, the same color pairs work in both. Acrylics dry slightly darker, so mix them a touch lighter. Oils stay wet longer, which gives you more time to adjust the color on the canvas.