Tips for Mixing Purple Watercolor

Purples are so useful!

Purples are a great color to use for shadows in watercolor painting. I also love using purples in floral paintings.

Supplies Needed:

Watercolor paints in both cool and warm tones Watercolor brush Water

Color Temperatures

Colors are either warm or cool, but each did you know that each color can have warm or cool undertones as well?

Warm reds lean more orange and cool reds lean more purple (or pink.)

Warm blues lean more purple and cool blues lean more green.

Vibrant purples are made by mixing cool reds and cool blues.

Muted purples are made by mixing warm reds and warm blues.

Pastel purples can be made by diluting the color. You can also add white, but it makes the color more opaque. 

Some of the most interesting purples can be made in unexpected ways. For instance, mixing a cool red with a cool green creates a moody purple. 

Experiment for More Colors

Premade Purple Watercolors

There are also premade purple watercolors available.

Learn more about color mixing

Off-White Arrow