How to Mix Charcoal in Watercolor
A near-black charcoal grey with depth. This guide gives you the pigment ratios that land on #36454F in watercolour, using the same solver that powers the Chromilla mixer.
Target
Charcoal
#36454F
Mixed result
96% matchFrom these pigments
#30404A
Pigment recipe
Ratios calibrated for watercolour. Start with the dominant pigment, add the modifiers in the order below, and adjust in 5% steps to your target swatch.
1. Ultramarine Blue
PB29
87%2. Yellow Ochre
PY43
13%
What colours make Charcoal?
Ultramarine Blue and Yellow Ochre, in roughly a 87:13 ratio.
How to make Charcoal in watercolour
Start with Ultramarine Blue at about 87% as your watercolour base, then work in Yellow Ochre in the order above. Adjust in 5% steps until the swatch reads #36454F.
Why mix Charcoal instead of buying it
Mixing Charcoal yourself lets you approximate an expensive or hard to find tube from pigments you already own, match Charcoal across paint brands whose factory tubes differ, and rebuild the exact colour when you run out mid painting. The recipe above is the working starting point.
Common mistakes
Overshooting on Ultramarine Blue 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 Charcoal + watercolour pre-loaded and calibrate to your tubes.
Deep-dive guide
How to mix Charcoal, the long version
Common mistakes, per-brand recipes, and the honest limits when the target sits outside what real paint can reach.
Read the guideRelated mixing guides
Pigment mixing is subtractive, so small ratio changes matter. The mixer refines this recipe to your brand and updates on the fly.