What two colors make olive green?

Chromilla's acrylic recipe uses 3 tubes rather than two: 3 parts Viridian Green, 1 part Yellow Ochre and 1 part Burnt Sienna. Viridian Green leads the mix. Chromilla's model predicts a 90% dry match against the target, scored against its own color model, not a measured paint-out.

Why does olive green look different when acrylic dries?

Acrylic binder looks milky while wet and clears as it dries, so the dried film reads darker. Chromilla's model applies a 10% value shift for acrylic, so the wet mix #5C6B2C is predicted to dry to about #566026. Dries slightly darker and a touch warmer.

What is the hex code for olive green?

Chromilla uses #5C6B2E as the target for olive green. The acrylic recipe is predicted to dry to about #566026.

Can I mix olive green without black?

Yes. Chromilla's acrylic recipe uses no black: 3 parts Viridian Green, 1 part Yellow Ochre and 1 part Burnt Sienna.

How to mix

Olive Green paint in acrylic, oil and watercolor, compared

Real pigment ratios for olive green (#5C6B2E) in acrylic, oil and watercolor. The recipes below come straight from Chromilla’s mixer, calibrated to real manufacturer paint data.

Quick answer

To mix olive green (#5C6B2E) in acrylic (oil and watercolor are compared below), use 3 parts Viridian Green, 1 part Yellow Ochre and 1 part Burnt Sienna. Chromilla's model predicts a 90% dry match against the target, scored against its own color model, not a measured paint-out. Chromilla is a web-based paint color mixer that turns any color, from a photo, the camera or a hex code, into exact paint-tube ratios for acrylic, oil and watercolor, using Kubelka-Munk pigment mixing and aiming at the color after it dries.

Olive Green in acrylic, oil and watercolor, side by side (dry match by Chromilla's color model, not a measured paint-out)
Medium	Tubes and parts	Predicted dry match	Drying
Acrylic	3 parts Viridian Green, 1 part Yellow Ochre and 1 part Burnt Sienna	90%	Dries slightly darker and a touch warmer.
Oil	3 parts Viridian Green, 1 part Yellow Ochre and 1 part Burnt Sienna	99%	Dries true to color.
Watercolor	3 parts Viridian Green, 1 part Yellow Ochre and 1 part Burnt Sienna	92%	Dries slightly darker and a touch cooler.

How we calculated this: Kubelka-Munk pigment mixing, then a per-medium dry shift, scored with CIEDE2000. Method and accuracy benchmark. Last checked August 2026.

Terms used here: Dry shift, Value, Kubelka-Munk, Delta E (dE2000), Transparency, Pigment code, Tint.

Target color

Olive Green

#5C6B2E

Live mixer

Open this color in the mixer

The Chromilla mixer is pre-loaded with #5C6B2E. Change your brand, medium or palette and the recipe updates instantly.

Open in mixer

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.

acrylic

Pigment recipe

90% when dry

Wet mix

#5C6B2C

1. Viridian Green (PG18)59%
2. Yellow Ochre (PY43)21%
3. Burnt Sienna (PBr7)20%

Dry-down

Dries slightly darker and a touch warmer.

oil

Pigment recipe

99% when dry

Wet mix

#5C6B2C

1. Viridian Green (PG18)59%
2. Yellow Ochre (PY43)21%
3. Burnt Sienna (PBr7)20%

Dry-down

Dries true to color.

watercolour

Pigment recipe

92% when dry

Wet mix

#5C6B2C

1. Viridian Green (PG18)59%
2. Yellow Ochre (PY43)21%
3. Burnt Sienna (PBr7)20%

Dry-down

Dries slightly darker and a touch cooler.

Common mistakes when mixing olive green

Olive drifts to mud faster than almost any other green, because it already sits close to neutral. Overshoot the yellow and it turns baby-food; overshoot the blue and it turns khaki-gray. The fix usually isn't more pigment, it's less: build olive from a warm yellow and a small amount of a dark, rather than two greens fighting each other. If your olive keeps going flat, you're probably reaching for white to lighten it when more yellow ochre would do the job better.

Exact single-medium recipes

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

Why the three mediums differ for olive green

acrylic carries a 10% value shift on drying in Chromilla's model (dries slightly darker and a touch warmer), so the acrylic mix is predicted to dry to #566026.
oil dries true to color in Chromilla's model, so the oil mix is predicted to dry to #5C6B2C.
watercolor carries a 8% value shift on drying in Chromilla's model (dries slightly darker and a touch cooler), so the watercolor mix is predicted to dry to #54622A.
In watercolor the paper is the white, so lighter versions come from adding water rather than white paint.

Acrylic recipe in detail

Olive Green in acrylic: tube ratios, and ml for a 100 ml batch
Paint	Pigment	Parts	Share	100 ml batch
Viridian Green	PG18	3	59%	59 ml
Yellow Ochre	PY43	1	21%	21 ml
Burnt Sienna	PBr7	1	20%	20 ml

Variations on Olive Green (acrylic)

Each variation is its own target (lighter and darker move OKLCH lightness by 0.08; warmer and cooler turn the hue 12 degrees toward red or blue), solved fresh.

Lighter Olive Green

#738345

11 parts Viridian Green, 4 parts Burnt Sienna and 2 parts Titanium White. Chromilla's model predicts an 89% dry match against the target, scored against its own color model, not a measured paint-out.

Darker Olive Green

#465415

55% Cadmium Yellow, 38% Ultramarine Blue and 7% Burnt Umber. Chromilla's model predicts a 93% dry match against the target, scored against its own color model, not a measured paint-out.

Warmer Olive Green

#676725

7 parts Viridian Green, 5 parts Yellow Ochre and 4 parts Burnt Sienna. Chromilla's model predicts a 91% dry match against the target, scored against its own color model, not a measured paint-out.

Cooler Olive Green

#4F6E38

6 parts Viridian Green to 1 part Burnt Sienna. Chromilla's model predicts a 90% dry match against the target, scored against its own color model, not a measured paint-out.

Olive Green questions

What two colors make olive green?: Chromilla's acrylic recipe uses 3 tubes rather than two: 3 parts Viridian Green, 1 part Yellow Ochre and 1 part Burnt Sienna. Viridian Green leads the mix. Chromilla's model predicts a 90% dry match against the target, scored against its own color model, not a measured paint-out.
How do you make olive green paint lighter without losing the hue?: Re-balance the mix instead of only adding white. For a lighter olive green (#738345) in acrylic, Chromilla mixes 11 parts Viridian Green, 4 parts Burnt Sienna and 2 parts Titanium White. Chromilla's model predicts an 89% dry match against the target, scored against its own color model, not a measured paint-out.
Why does olive green look different when acrylic dries?: Acrylic binder looks milky while wet and clears as it dries, so the dried film reads darker. Chromilla's model applies a 10% value shift for acrylic, so the wet mix #5C6B2C is predicted to dry to about #566026. Dries slightly darker and a touch warmer.
What is the hex code for olive green?: Chromilla uses #5C6B2E as the target for olive green. The acrylic recipe is predicted to dry to about #566026.
Can I mix olive green without black?: Yes. Chromilla's acrylic recipe uses no black: 3 parts Viridian Green, 1 part Yellow Ochre and 1 part Burnt Sienna.

Related colors

More colours to try once you have olive green sorted.