Mix Colors in Photoshop as if they were Paint

By Dawn Pedersen · 06/10/2009 ·

Mixing Red and Green

If you mix red paint and green paint, you get brown because they are complimentary colors in that color mode. In Photoshop, you get mostly green, with some browns toward the red side. In the middle area is an olive green.

Mixing pure red and pure green

Mixing Blue and Green

Here we get a predictable teal color when mixing pure blue and pure green.

Mixture of pure blue and pure green

Mixing Red and Yellow

Here we get a beautiful orange from pure red and yellow.

Mixture of pure red and yellow

Mixing Blue and Yellow

When mixing blue paint with yellow paint, you usually get some version of green. In Photoshop, these two colors are opposite to each other on the RGB color wheel. What you get when you mix these two is pretty muddy. Somewhere to the yellow side there are some dull greens. What you get right in the middle is gray.

Mixture of pure blue and yellow

Mixing White and Red

A nice pink results from pure white and pure red. Hues mixed with white are called tints. You will get similar lightening results from mixing other colors with white.

Mixture of pure white and pure red

Mixing Black and Red

Richer, darker red tones result from pure black and pure red. Hues mixed with black are called shades. You will get similar darkening results from mixing other colors with black.

Mixture of pure black and pure red

Mixing Three Colors

You can get some interesting mixtures, similar to mixing paint, when you mix three or more colors.

Here I’ve mixed pure black, pure red, and pure blue. In the middle of the mix is a dark violet.

Mixture of pure black, pure red and pure blue

Here I’ve tried pure white, a light blue with a hint of gray, and a muted green.

Mixture of pure white, light gray, and green

Finally, I mixed yellow with a raw sienna color and a spring green.

Mixture of yellow, raw sienna, and spring green

Smudge that “Paint” Around

After you’ve mixed some colors, get the Smudge tool at 50% strength. Use a large brush size, and you can achieve some lovely painterly effects.

Smudge tool applied at 50% strength

Mixture of light violet, magenta and burgundy

If you have any questions or feedback, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below. What cool color mixtures did you come up with?

Done

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Category: Photoshop, Tutorials

Tags: color picker, color theory, color wheel, Gaussian blur, Photoshop, Smudge tool

Comments

4 Comments

By georgeina, 06/11/2009 @ 12:26 am

Dawn you are an angel for putting together this tutorial. I’m going to have *so* much fun with this – but only once I stop work and start playing (in about 10 hours). x
By Dawn Pedersen, 06/12/2009 @ 4:58 pm

I’d glad you like it, Georgina!
By Steupz, 06/12/2009 @ 5:14 pm

I really came here to see if you were using the author highlight plugin, but having come here, this site is fantastic.

Do you design logos for other sites?
By Dawn Pedersen, 06/12/2009 @ 5:32 pm

Absolutely! Give me a buzz at 916-320-13741 or dawn@blulob.com.