Mixing Greens For Watercolor Landscape Paintings

Mixed Green Samples

Two color charts with various mixed greens

The ability to mix a variety of greens is an essential skill for any artist whose repetoire includes landscape scenes.  The range of greens found in the landscape as it transitions from spring through summer and into fall is surprising in its breadth.  The range includes light, bright greens of budding trees in spring, through rich, deep greens in summer, and the weary, faded greens of fall.

There are two primary options for creating the variety of greens needed for a versatile landscape painting palette. One is using a 'tube' green - one of those greens that is available pre-made. There are many different green colors available. The four most common are Viridian, Pthalo Green, Sap Green and Hookers Green. Each is a good starting point but require mixing with another color to make them suitable for natural looking landscape scenes.

In my experience, mixing greens from blues and yellows is a fundamental skill that allows for a much more nuanced and realistic palette than simply using pre-mixed green paints. The range and variety of green hues is much greater than is possible when starting with a 'tube' green.

Like all other hues, green isn't a single color, but includes a wide range - from the vibrant, "electric" greens of new spring growth to rich, deep summer greens, to the muted greens found in mature forests and in the autumn landscape.

Follow along this breakdown on how to mix greens effectively. The information below includes both the mixing process practical tips. 

A Formula For Mixing Greens

Mixed Greens Color Chart

It’s easy to create your own color charts with mixtures of various blues and yellows.

Basic color theory identifies Green as a Secondary Color, created from a mix of Blue + Yellow.  This simples equation is enough to get you started.

It's important to know that combinations of specific blues and yellows create dramatically different greens. This actually where the magic happens!

It's important to know that virtually none of the blues and yellows you can purchase are 'true' or pure. All have some amount of another hue. This makes them lean toward one of the Secondary colors.

• Blues: Some blues leaning towards green (these have a some yellow in them) and some lean towards purple (these have some red in them).

• Cool Blues: These blues have yellow in them and create more vibrant greens.

• Warm Blues: These blues have some red in them and create more muted greens.

• Yellows: Similar to blues, some yellows lean towards orange (these have some red in them) and some lean towards green (these have a some blue in them).

• Warm Yellows: These are the ones with a red component and produce more muted greens.

• Cool Yellows: These are the yellows with a blue component and produce brighter greens.

Download this handy guide to common watercolor paint colors identified by temperature.

Useful Green Mixes for Landscape Paintings

Having a variety of green mixes in your arsenal will help you paint  convincing landscapescens. Here's how to achieve them:

1. For Vibrant Greens Like Those Found In The Spring Landscape:

Use: Aureolin or Lemon Yellow with Cerulean Blue

• Result: Very bright, "electric" green. These mixtures are almost unnatural looking but are just right for capturing the fresh leaves of a young tree, new grass in a field, or the sunlit parts of a lawn.

2. For Rich Summer Greens:

• Use: Cadmium Yellow Light and Cobalt Blue.

• Result: A beautiful, rich summer green that is muted just a bit by the warmth (red) component of Cadmium Yellow. This color can be the workhorse for summer scenes, especially when the separate yellow and blue hues are allowed to mix and mingle on the paper.  

3. For Deep Shadow Greens:

• Use: Cadmium Yellow Light and Cobalt Blue again but allow the blue to be more prominent and add with touches of Permanent Alizarin Crimson

• Result: A a muted, dark, cool green that is effective for shadow areas in the summer landscape.

4. Faded, Neutral Greens For Late Summer and Fall:

• Use: Cadmium Yellow Light and Ultramarine Blue. Both colors have a red component that neutralizes the green.

• Result: A muted, olive green that works well for the weary greens of late summer and early fall. The combination also works well for representing distant trees in a hazy landscape.

The Drawback Of Tube Greens

Modifying Tube Greens

Tube greens can be modified by mixing with various other colors including earth colors, blacks, and complements.

It's a common mistake to use a single tube green throughout the entire painting - even when mixed with a modifying color. Landscape scenes are usually a tapestry of greens. A single tube green used in various mixtures will struggle to represent the range of greens in most landscape scenes. The dominant undertone can easily create a monotonous look that detracts from creating a realistic look in your painting.

Observe And Absorb

One of the best ways to acquaint yourself with the range and variety of greens in the landscape is to spend time sketching landscape scenes. In this case, sketching is an observational exercise meant to sharpen your visual sensitivity to the landscape and to build a mental inventory of colors that will work in your sketches and paintings.   

When sketching and observing on location, pay attention to these conditions that affect the colors.

• Light and Shadow Effects: A grassy field might appear to be vibrant green, even more yellow-green in the sun, and then seem to be darker and cooler(meaning bluer) green in the shade. The same effect can be seen on trees, with light struck foliage richer and warmer, while shadowed foliage darker and cooler.

• Light condition: Morning light tends to appear cooler than mid-day. Likewise, evening light  tends to be warmer than both. These different light conditions affect all colors in the landscape, including greens of the fields and trees. Work outdoors, on location in different light condtions - at different times of day - to get a sense of how the 'color' of light shifts the greens of the landscape.

• Variety Of Plants: Individual trees, grasses, and weed have varying hues of green. Noting and capturing even slight shifts of hue from one field to an adjacent one make for a more interesting scene.

Suggested Paint Colors For Your Landscape Painting Palette

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This set of colors, with the variety and range of blues and yellows is sufficient to mix any conceivable green along with warmer, cooler, darker and neutral verisions of each.

• Blues: Ultramarine, Cobalt, Cerulean and Indanthrene Blues

• Yellows: Cadmium Yellow, Aureolin (Cobalt) Yellow, Indian Yellow, Quinacridone Deep Gold

• Earth Tones: Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, Burnt Umber

• Red: Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Red Light, Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet

By combining these base colors, you can mix an infinite variety of greens tailored to the specific needs of your landscape painting, making your work more dynamic, realistic, and visually exciting.