How to mix Brown paint

Recipes by medium

Checked August 2026

Generic pigment ratios, the same ones the Chromilla mixer solves for. Open the mixer to swap in your own brand and tubes.

Common mistakes when mixing brown

Brown is what you get from mixing complementary colours together, not from a special 'brown' recipe, and painters who reach straight for a tube brown miss how much range is available by mixing their own from a red and a green, or an orange and a blue. Mixing your own also means the brown relates properly to the rest of your palette instead of sitting apart as an unrelated colour. If your brown looks muddy in a bad way rather than a good way, you likely have too many pigments fighting each other, aim for two or three, not four or five.

Answer page: What colors make brown paint

Short recipes by medium

Straight-to-the-ratio versions of brown in each medium, from the Chromilla mix library.

• Brown in acrylic
• Brown in oil
• Brown in watercolour

Related colours

More colours to try once you have brown sorted.

• How to mix Chestnut/guides/how-to-mix-chestnut
• How to mix Mahogany/guides/how-to-mix-mahogany
• How to mix Rust/guides/how-to-mix-rust
• How to mix Taupe/guides/how-to-mix-taupe
• How to mix Ochre/guides/how-to-mix-ochre