How to Mix Cadmium Orange in Watercolor

A bright, opaque, warm orange. Sits between cad yellow and cad red. This guide gives you the pigment ratios that land on #EB7B1C in watercolor, using the same solver that powers the Chromilla mixer.

Target

Cadmium Orange

#EB7B1C

Mixed result

96% match

From these pigments

#E57910

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. Cadmium Yellow
PY35
79%
2. Alizarin Crimson
PR83
21%

What colors make Cadmium Orange?

Cadmium Yellow and Alizarin Crimson, in roughly a 79:21 ratio.

How to make Cadmium Orange in watercolor

Start with Cadmium Yellow at about 79% as your watercolor base, then work in Alizarin Crimson in the order above. Adjust in 5% steps until the swatch reads #EB7B1C.

Why mix Cadmium Orange instead of buying it

Mixing Cadmium Orange yourself lets you approximate an expensive or hard to find tube from pigments you already own, match Cadmium Orange 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 Cadmium Yellow 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 Cadmium Orange + 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.