Colors in watercolor

Watercolor is a physical medium, so the primary colors are red, blue and yellow.

However, these can be broken down into warm and cool hues This is important because it affects color mixing. The TL;DR of this is:

• Mix colors with matching subtones (i.e. warm blue with cool red, cool yellow with with cool blue, warm yellow with warm red) to get vibrant, colorful mixes.

• Mix colors with mismatched subtones to get muted, less saturated mixes and grays.

Note: Some colors are more on the neutral side, like Cobalt Blue or Winsor Yellow.

Reds

Warm reds have a yellow subtone, and are good to mix oranges. Some warm red colors include:

• Cadmium Red
• Pyrrol Red
• Burnt Sienna

Cool reds have a blue subtone, and we can use them to mix purples. A few cool reds are:

• Alizarin Crimson
• Permanent Rose

Yellows

Warm yellows have a red subtone, and mix beautiful oranges. Warm yellow examples:

• New Gamboge
• Hansa Yellow Deep
• Raw Sienna

Cool yellows have a blue subtone and they are good for mixing greens. Cool yellows include:

• Lemon Yellow
• Hansa Yellow Light

Blues

Warm blues have a red subtone and are good for purples. Some warm blue colors:

• Ultramarine Blue

Cool blues have a yellow subtone and we can mix greens with them. Cool blues include:

• Phthalo Blue (Green Shade)
• Cerulean Blue