Brown is a versatile and neutral color that can be used in many painting projects. When working with acrylic paints, brown can be created by mixing together different paint colors. The specific combination needed to make brown will depend on the shade of brown desired. With acrylics, brown is easily made by mixing complementary colors from the color wheel.
Making Basic Brown
The simplest brown can be created by mixing together the primary colors red, yellow, and blue. As acrylic is opaque rather than transparent like watercolor, mixing the primaries will quickly create a dark, murky brown. Start with more yellow and red and add just a touch of blue.
Burnt umber pigment also makes an excellent warm, natural looking brown straight from the tube. Many acrylic brands carry this pigmented brown.
Orange and Blue
Since orange and blue are complementary colors opposite each other on the color wheel, they neutralize into perfect browns. Start with basic orange like cadmium orange and add its complement phthalo or ultramarine blue to dull it down towards brown.
The more saturated the orange and blue pigments, the quicker they will combine into deep brown shades. Muted earth oranges like yellow ochre will mix with smoky blues like indanthrone or Payne’s gray.
Yellow and Purple
Mixing yellow and violet will also create browns. Start with cadmium or lemon yellow and add dioxazine purple or mars violet. Yellow ochre and ultra violet are more muted pigments that blend well for softer browns.
Too much purple can make the mix lean towards gray so keep the ratios around 60% yellow to 40% purple for clean browns. Add more yellow to liven the shades into golden brown tones.
Green and Red
Since green and red are also complementary colors, pairing them results in natural, earthy browns. Leafy greens like sap green combine well with bright cadmium reds. Olive or forest greens work with mars red for more subtle earth brown tones.
When blending the green and red acrylics, start with more green and slowly work in the red to reach the desired shade of brown. Too much red can overpower into a pink or orange cast.
Warm and Cool Browns
The hue of browns can range from warm reddish-browns to cooler greenish-browns. Warm browns contain hints of orange, yellow or red. Mixing cadmium orange and mars black will create a rich warm brown.
Cool browns lean towards neutralized shades with hints of blue or green. Phthalo green and ultramarine blue blend together nicely for subtle cool brown tones. Ivory black can also be added to dull and darken acrylic mixes into cooler browns.
Light and Dark Browns
The tint or shade of browns can also vary from light to dark. Add titanium or zinc white to acrylic mixes to lighten them into tans. Mixing in black will darken brown paint colors towards rich chocolate and coffee shades.
Start with a mid-tone brown and adjust the tinting by slowly adding white or black in small amounts. Too much white can make browns appear washed out and chalky.
Adding Texture to Browns
The thickness of acrylic paint can be adjusted to create textured browns. Heavy bodied acrylics straight from the tube will have a buttery, thick texture for impasto painting techniques.
For smooth brown glazes, thin the acrylics with water or mediums. A gloss gel medium will create shiny, translucent browns while a matte medium results in flatter opaque shades.
Mixing in coarse pumice gel, sand or other aggregates can add rough, sandy textures. Use thick painting tools like palette knives to create ridges and peaks with the textured brown acrylics.
Creating Specific Brown Shades
With the versatility of acrylics, many specific shades of brown can be mixed as needed for paintings.
Here are some examples of browns that can be created by blending these acrylic colors:
| Brown Shade | Mix |
|---|---|
| Mocha | Burnt Sienna + Dioxazine Purple + Black |
| Hazelnut | Burnt Sienna + Yellow Ochre + White |
| Coffee | Burnt Umber + Ultramarine Blue |
| Chestnut | Burnt Sienna + Cadmium Red + Black |
| Taupe | Burnt Sienna + Prussian Blue |
| Cinnamon | Burnt Sienna + Cadmium Yellow + White |
| Sepia | Burnt Umber + Ivory Black |
Conclusion
With acrylic paint’s versatility, creating any imaginable shade of brown is easily achievable. Keeping complementary color combinations like orange and blue or red and green in mind is key to mixing browns. Adjusting the amount of white or black added will create the exact tint or shade of brown needed.
Understanding color theory provides a helpful guide when blending acrylics into signature brown tones. With a palette of primary colors and earth pigments like burnt sienna and yellow ochre at hand, a wide spectrum of rich browns can be mixed with ease.
