How to Mix Burnt Sienna in Watercolor

A rich earthy red-brown. The workhorse warm earth for skin, wood, and shadow. This guide gives you the pigment ratios that land on #8A3B21 in watercolor, using the same solver that powers the Chromilla mixer.

Target

Burnt Sienna

#8A3B21

Mixed result

98% match

From these pigments

#8B3D24

Pigment recipe

Checked August 2026

Ratios calibrated for watercolor. Start with the dominant pigment, add the modifiers in the order below, and adjust in 5% steps to your target swatch.

1. Yellow Ochre
PY43
47%
2. Burnt Umber
PBr7
36%
3. Cadmium Red
PR108
17%

What colors make Burnt Sienna?

Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber, and Cadmium Red, in roughly a 47:36:17 ratio.

How to make Burnt Sienna in watercolor

Start with Yellow Ochre at about 47% as your watercolor base, then work in Burnt Umber and Cadmium Red in the order above. Adjust in 5% steps until the swatch reads #8A3B21.

Why mix Burnt Sienna instead of buying it

Mixing Burnt Sienna yourself lets you approximate an expensive or hard to find tube from pigments you already own, match Burnt Sienna across paint brands whose factory tubes differ, and rebuild the exact color when you run out mid painting. The recipe above is the working starting point.

Common mistakes

Overshooting on Yellow Ochre is the usual failure, add it in 5% steps and compare against the target between each pass.

Get this recipe for your paint brand

Open the live mixer with Burnt Sienna + watercolor pre-loaded and calibrate to your tubes.

Open in mixer

Related mixing guides

Pigment mixing is subtractive, so small ratio changes matter. The mixer refines this recipe to your brand and updates on the fly.