Mixing guide
Orange is yellow plus red. The cleanest orange comes from a warm yellow and a warm red (both already leaning toward each other). Below are the core orange mixes, the pastels and shadow versions, and the earth-leaning oranges painters reach for in landscape and skin.
Both tubes should lean warm. A cool red (Alizarin) plus a cool yellow (Lemon) drifts toward brown instead of orange because they meet through grey.
The reference clean orange. Bright, opaque, sun-warm.
Lift orange with white for peach. Deepen with burnt sienna or burnt umber for shadow without going black.
Earth oranges are how skin, brick, pottery and autumn leaves actually read on canvas. They are mostly yellow ochre with red pulled in.
If yellow plus red gives you brown instead of orange, one of the two tubes is leaning toward blue. Alizarin Crimson and Quinacridone Rose both have a cool, blue bias, so they pull the mix toward grey-brown. Swap to Cadmium Red Light, Pyrrole Red or Vermilion for clean oranges. Also watch ratio: orange wants more yellow than red, roughly 2 to 1, because red is the stronger tinter.
Try it on your tubes
Sample a reference photo or paste a hex. Chromilla returns the tubes and ratio calibrated for your brand.
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