September 4, 2026

How do you mix beautiful greens in watercolor?

To mix beautiful greens in watercolor, I don't use any green tube at all: I mix a yellow and a blue, and I choose a forgiving blue. With new gamboge and cobalt turquoise, I can create apple greens on the go without worrying about the exact ratio. With phthalo blue, a tiny bit too much pushes the mix into a flat pine green.

Why shouldn't you use a green tube in watercolor?

This is one of the first mistakes you can make with greens in watercolor. If you buy a green tube, you only have 1 hue, 1 color. By adding water to it, you will create light greens and dark greens, but you will only work in 1 dimension with this single color.

In my palette I have no green. I only use a mix of a yellow and a blue. By doing so, you create many more nuances in your greens, because you can change the ratio of the yellow and then the ratio of the blue. You are no longer working in 1 dimension, you are working in 2: the yellow dimension and the blue dimension.

Which yellow and which blues do I use to mix greens?

The question came from one of my students during a live session. We were interpreting a photo she had taken, a kind of Japanese garden with lots of green, and she asked how to create vibrant greens in watercolor.

Here is what I showed my students on my palette:

• New gamboge as the yellow
• Phthalo blue, at the top of my palette
• Cobalt turquoise
• Ultramarine blue

New gamboge plus phthalo blue gives a beautiful green. New gamboge plus cobalt turquoise gives a different hue, a kind of apple green. As I add more cobalt turquoise, I come closer to the first green I made with phthalo blue. And if I take only a small portion of phthalo blue with the new gamboge, I get the same apple green as with the cobalt turquoise.

So even with 2 different blues, you can land on the same colors.

If both blues make the same greens, what's the difference?

You might ask: what's the point of having 2 different blues if they create exactly the same greens? The difference is in how much of each blue you need to get there.

Picture a line with pure new gamboge on the left and pure phthalo blue on the right. If I put a mark where the apple green sits, it is very close to the yellow side. You need a lot of new gamboge and a very small quantity of phthalo blue to get that apple green.

Now do the same line with cobalt turquoise. The apple green sits much further to the right. You can take a lot more cobalt turquoise and still end up with an apple green.

This is the big difference between those 2 blues:

• Phthalo blue is what I call an unforgiving color. A very small quantity has a huge impact on the final color once you mix it with the new gamboge.
• Cobalt turquoise is a much more forgiving color. Even if you take a lot of pigment, you still end up with an apple green.

Why does an unforgiving blue ruin your greens when you paint loosely?

To create beautiful greens, you need to master the art of creating apple greens on the go, without spending too much time thinking "I have to get the right ratio, I must not take too much phthalo blue."

This is very tricky, especially if you want to paint loose watercolor and learn to let go. When you paint loosely, you make your color mixes on the go, and it's very easy to take too much phthalo blue and end up with a flat pine green.

This is exactly why I'd rather use cobalt turquoise with new gamboge to create beautiful greens: it's a much more forgiving color.

How do you add more nuances to your greens?

Once you have your apple greens, you can go further:

1. Add a little red. With a bit of permanent rose, you get green-gray colors that add many more nuances to your greens and make them beautiful.
2. Switch blues. Knowing that cobalt turquoise is the easiest way for me to reach beautiful apple greens, I can then switch to phthalo blue or ultramarine blue to create even more nuances.

As a result, you can reach a much wider range of greens. In my painting of the Japanese garden, this allowed me to create the landscape with the trees in the background, and then I just added some reflections.

This is how my students succeeded in creating their own greens by themselves, without any tutorial and without spending too much time crafting the right ratio of the blue.

FAQ

Do I need a green tube to paint greens in watercolor?

No. I have no green in my palette. I mix a yellow and a blue, which gives far more nuances than a single green tube that only works in 1 dimension.

Why do my watercolor greens turn into a flat pine green?

Often it's because you are using an unforgiving blue like phthalo blue. A very small quantity has a huge impact, so when you mix on the go it's easy to take too much and end up with a flat pine green.

What is a forgiving color in watercolor?

It's a color you can take a lot of and still land on the mix you want. With cobalt turquoise and new gamboge, even a lot of pigment still gives an apple green.

Read next

• How to make a watercolor sky shine
• How to break down any photo before painting it in watercolor
• Why do my watercolors look dull?