Oil paint mixing recipes, colour by colour

Every recipe below was calculated by the PaintMixLab paint mixing tool for three common oil paint sets — Winsor & Newton Winton, Gamblin 1980 and Magicfly — and given in parts you can measure. Pick a colour to see the recipes, a two-tube alternative and how to mix it by hand.

Paint recipes

Sage Green#8A9A6B Payne's Grey#40485B Light Skin Tone#E8B893 Medium Skin Tone#C68E6A Burnt Orange#CC5500 Teal#2A7F7F Olive Green#6B6B2F Dusty Rose#D9A5A0 Lavender#B4A0D2 Navy Blue#1F2A4D Forest Green#2F5E3B Terracotta#C4663F Mustard Yellow#D7A62A Turquoise#40C7C0 Sky Blue#8FC1E8 Peach#F5C3A0 Cream#F3E7CC Charcoal Grey#3A3A3C Neutral Mid Grey#8C8C8C Mauve#9F7A93 Moss Green#6A7F3A Coral#FF7A59 Rust#A8431F Sand#D8C3A0 Maroon#6E1C2B Brown#6B4A2B

How these recipes are made

PaintMixLab models each tube’s pigment with a Kubelka–Munk mixing engine, calibrated against swatches painted with the real paints, and searches every two- and three-tube combination for the one closest to the target colour. The result is a ratio in whole parts and a match rating (ΔE 2000) so you know how close the mix will get before you squeeze a tube.

Recipes differ between brands on purpose: a Winton Cadmium Yellow Hue and a Gamblin Hansa Yellow do not tint the same way, so the same colour needs a different recipe from each box. In the app you can also build a custom palette from the tubes you own.

Mix any colour, not just these

Photograph the colour in front of you and PaintMixLab writes the recipe for your own paint set. Free for 3 days on iPhone.