Whether you paint with watercolor, acrylic, gouache or any other pigment type for that matter, how to mix colors is a fundamental skill. Mixing pure saturated colors (those containing only two primary colors) requires a palette of two sets of primary colors.
  • A warm and a cool red
  • A warm and a cool Yellow
  • A warm and a cool blue.
We can then use the primary colors that lean towards the secondary we are mixing, thus keeping traces of the third unwanted primary out of the mixture.




How to Make a Watercolor Chart



Tools you'll need: 
  • Watercolors, tubes or pans
  • Watercolor paper
  • Paintbrush (round, size 2 or 3 is what I use)
  • Jars for Clean Water & Dirty Water
  • Ruler
  • Pencil  
  • Calculator (or a scratch pad if you like math)  

Step 1:   Gather your watercolors & count them.
Step 2:  Measure how wide you want your chart to be.  
Step 3:  Calculate how big your squares need to be. 
Step 4:  Plot out your squares.    
Step 5:  Label each row horizontally & vertically with the names of your watercolor colors.  
Tip:  Keep your watercolors in order.  Whatever order you go vertically, you will need to follow the same order horizontally.   (Like your X and Y axes in math class.  

Step 6:  The fun part!  Paint in your colors.
 
Begin with your first tube of watercolor.   Find where you have labeled that same watercolor on the horizontal and vertical lines of your chart.  Where they intersect is where you will plot your color...  like in the games, Bingo or Battleship (I loved Battleship!) 

Dip your brush in clean water, load your brush with that one color and paint in the little square.   Clean your brush and repeat for each tube of watercolor.

Then, start mixing.  Mix each watercolor with one other watercolor.  Plot that mixture on your chart.  Rinse your brush.  Repeat with one other color.