Acrylic Painting Tutorials

Acrylic Paint Mixing Made Easy: Beginner’s Guide

Discover how to mix acrylic paint with just six primaries. This beginner guide shows you how to chart, tint, and shade colors — and shares the travel-to-online story that made tutorials like this possible.

When I was refreshing this acrylic paint mixing post and eliminating the shameful AI-written copy, I was reminded of how I first started teaching online. So before we get into all the nerdy color-mixing stuff, let me share that short story.

Back when I first started teaching, I was invited to lead workshops in places like California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. It was exciting, and I loved the teaching part. But our first child, Olivia, had just been born — and every trip meant missing time at home.

That’s when I realized I didn’t want to live on the workshop circuit. I still loved teaching, but I needed a way to share my ideas without being gone all the time. So I switched to teaching online. And honestly, if I hadn’t made that decision, tutorials like this one — and all the other full courses on this site — wouldn’t exist today.

👉 Acrylic Hub– Your go-to guide for tutorials, tips, and resources.

The Six-Primary Palette

You don’t need 48 paints to start mixing. With six primaries — a warm and cool version of each color — you can mix just about anything.

Reds

Cool: Alizarin Crimson
Warm: Cadmium Red Light

Yellows

Cool: Cadmium Yellow Lemon
Warm: Yellow Ochre

Blues

Cool: Cerulean or Cobalt Blue
Warm: Ultramarine

White

Titanium White for tints

Side-by-side comparison of acrylic paint mixing charts showing six-primary palette sketch and completed painted color wheel

Step 1: Build a Color Chart

Creating your own chart is the best way to understand how these paints interact.

Label your six primaries.
Mix secondaries (orange, green, violet) by combining warms/cools.
Add tints with white.
Add shadows by mixing with complements.

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Step 2: Two Ways to Mix

Palette Knife

Keeps colors clean.
Great for large mixes.

Brush Mixing

Faster and intuitive.
Just be careful to wipe your brush often.

Examples of tinted, shaded, and neutralized acrylic colors created from primaries

Step 3: Tints, Shades, and Neutrals

Tinting: Add white to lighten.
Shading: Add complement (red + green, blue + orange, etc.) to darken.
Neutrals: Mix near complements to mute intensity without muddying.

Step 4: Other Harmony Tricks

Analogous: Three colors side-by-side on the wheel (calm, natural).
Complementary: Opposites (dynamic contrast).
Triadic: Even triangle on the wheel (balanced, colorful).

These aren’t rules — just starting points. Play, experiment, and take notes.

Wrap-Up

Color mixing doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With a simple six-primary palette, you can:

Mix every secondary and tertiary you need.
Control tints, shades, and saturation.
Build harmony in your paintings without buying more tubes.

This tutorial is just one piece of the bigger picture. Because I shifted from traveling workshops to teaching online, you now have full access to in-depth courses right here — at your own pace, no plane ticket required.

So start simple, make a chart, and enjoy the process. Every mix you make builds confidence.