How to Avoid Muddy Colors in Watercolor 

"To shade while maintaining intensity, use a cooler analogous color." POW. MIND BLOWN. Thank you, Sensei.

I really appreciate the depth of your tutorials. Not just how to avoid muddy colors, also the technical aspects like what creates luminosity.

Thank you ! Now I understand better the difference between neutrals tones that we aim for and muddy colors. 👍

Reminded me to go back through my homemade color charts of my various watercolors and mark each as Transparent, Semi-Transparent, Opaque, Semi-Opaque. Really helpful. Did it with Winsor Newton, now need to do it with Daniel Smith, Sennelier and Schmincke. I was just being lazy about it. And so easy to find all the properties on the manufacturers’ websites. Thank you for reminding me, Steve, the more information I have, the better my work will be.

I love teachers who, regardless of how 'perfect' an analogy may be, are able to convey the solutions to that problem that has been plaguing me as a beginner. It is particularly helpful when I am able to leave the video with an understanding rather than rote. Well done.

🖒🖒 Thanks. Another great lesson. Just like weeds in the garden - there's nothing wrong with any of them, until they're in a place you don't want them. Continue your good works. I've learned much.

But, but, but....I like to play with mud.... just not on top of expensive watercolor paper :)

Don't be scared of "mud"!! Check out Yong Chen's watercolor channel and watch how he uses "mud" to create beautiful shadow colors especially in skin tones. This video however is still important for people who are not trying to get that same effect. It's all up to the artist what colors they choose to use. Great video thanks

steve, i can not tell you how much I enjoy your videos. I am so happy to have found you on RU-vid, and am so happy for your success.

When I clean my pallette, I take it to the sink and wash it off with a sea sponge and water. The pigment washes right out of the sponge with cold water, and it saves on paper and cloth towel use.

I think it's time to stop painting & start studying the color wheel & learning color. You've taught me understanding color is step one. I guess it's like cooking..i have to understand the ingredients BEFORE I use them...using salt instead of sugar can ruin a good cake. Thanks for directing me back to square one...building a good foundation is always important.

Thank you! I haven't been painting for long! May 2020! i'm 74 yrs young, love your teaching on colors and what they do! I surprise myself on the small paintings I do with your info! Thanks again, also enjoy your Scriptures!

The joy of learning from Steve's talent & experience

excellent video. and i learned how to clean the pallette properly... it's the little things that make a difference.

You have answered in this video questions I've had for years and years - specifically using analogous cooler colors for shading. Also avoiding mixing opaque colors with other colors. Thank you!!!!

Great info. This explains a lot for me. I now understand why I have been disappointed with the effects of some of my colours. I have avoided the mud being careful not to mix complimentary colours but after seeing this I realise that many of my colours are opaque. Thank you so much. x

I've never believed in "muddy colors". Colors are only muddy if they're not in harmony with the whole of your composition. Still something great to keep in mind for beginners; awesome video!

Super helpful! So easy to understand the differences when you explain and demonstrate. I have only ever painted w oils and I loved the Cadmium and cobalt shades. 40 years later I am learning watercolors and the color names are so new and unusual to me. I am also learning that convenience colors in the watercolor world aren't so convenient, I need to mix more and study color theory a bit more.

I like using muddy pinkish colors for some skin tones to make them look more sad and dull, and intensify other areas.

Ah love the explanation of compromised intensity, thank you!

love how you talk with your hands! I will now; proof my palette!!

Another excellent video packed with useful info and... always your little bit of the comedic to start with a smile. Thank you Steve for sharing your experience.

Brilliant video! It sounds very obvious (and similar to using complimentary colours), but not full understanding colour temperature also leads to muddiness. Probably more of a beginner's problem than the things you mentioned in your video though! It is something it took me a while to understand, for example ,using a warm yellow with a cool blue is not going to make a vibrant green. Also, making sure your water is clean is very important too. Only recently I started using two separate jars of water for painting. Definitely helps with keeping colours purer and more vibrant :D

I very much appreciate this video. I have often noticed areas of my paintings looking muddy, and this video is very informative and will help me avoid the problem. Thanks!

Thank you so much for your amazing helpful videos! Whenever I have a question about watercolor, I come to your channel to look for the answers in your videos. Have a happy holidays!

Thanks for a very interesting video Steve. I too tend to use a lot of neutrals, especially for shadows, rocks etc. I never use black but M. Graham Pthalo Blue, Quinacridone Rust and Quinacridone Red mixed in the right proportions make a lovely dark colour to add some depth to a painting.

This video was extremely helpful to me! I am a self-taught painter working with extremely limited color resources (what I can afford of the artist-quality stuff) and I hadn't realized the issues that might have come from Yellow Ochre and Cadmium Red. I have them both in my palette. Thankfully, it seems like from the brands I have, the only one I need to watch for carefully is Cadmium Red - my yellow ochre is lovely. Thanks so much for your hard work and generosity with instruction in your videos.

Learning so much from your videos! Yours are by far the best watercolor videos on you tube! I love the way your videos end with a bible verse. Thank you!

A big help about opaque colors. Thanks.

thanks for the lecture on mixing transparent watercolors. Perhaps the reason why some paintings remain vibrant

been experimenting and painting with watercolor for over a year, mostly trial and error, but this video is really helpful!! it explains and defines issues i have come across but didn't know how to verbalize. Thank you so much!

Something worth mentioning: I let my colours dry out some before I proof them so I don't lose a lot of paint. I'm pretty OCD about keeping my colours pure. Great tips in this video dude. Love it

Thanks for this presentation! In other places, I've heard/read a lot about choosing single pigment paints as much as possible, to help avoid "muddy colors". A fair number of commercial paints are combinations of 2 or even 3 pigments, so that when mixing two paint colors, one could actually be mixing 4 or 5 different pigments! And in this way, mud can result. I've decided to buy only single pigment colors moving forward -- after first using up the many very lovely multi-pigment colors bought as "the kid in the candy store" when first starting :-)

So grateful that you teach in such a clear manner - I am a “minder”

Thank you , Steve! I am still learning after 4 years of tutorials and practice. 🖌🎨🙏

I love aaaallllllll of your videos. Clear. Great examples of right and wrong. Well organized. Light-not heavy. I have learned a ton from you. Thank you sooo much. Keep them coming. :)

You describe exactly my process of over-working! :)) Thank you so much for showing mistakes as well, it unlocks my 'stucks' :))

Excellent summary, thanks very much. I'm what I call a "lapsed botanical artist", but keen to get back into it. I mostly use W&N watercolours and keep my transparents to the opposite of my palette from opaques, but it's easy to slip into bad habits. Love your videos. Very encouraging.

I made the best example of compromised intensity yesterday. Much better than any of your examples. I did all the mistakes, using compliments, opaque's, overworking and a few new ones I invented on my own. After working for years away from watercolor I am trying to start back painting but I get too excited and in a hurry! Some of the things I used to know are still there but practice and discipline must be out the window. Hopefully I will settle down and think and plan better before I ruin more paint and paper and time! Thanks a million for the videos! They are informative but best of all inspiring! If you need examples of mistakes I can come up with some good ones. Keep it up Steve! Love your work!

Wow, that was very helpful! Didn't know that cerulean blue makes mud for instance and the ochre! Thanks!

Black is great for monochromatic value studies. 😉🙂

Very helpful ty,ty. Particularly the written list.

You are such a good teacher! thanks

Love the way you present each lesson. I have learned a lot from you and appreciate your talent.

I painted my grandson last, mouth open at a park water fountain. I finished the entire painting almost to completion before doing the flesh tones in his face and hands. I used a mixing recipe from a watercolor book that had Naples yellow. The kid died on the page at the fountain. Inspite of the good areas of the painting, it became a study and I had a do over on another piece of 300lb Arches paper. I will never use anything but transparent colors on flesh tones again.

Thank you! I just ordered a set of DS colors. I'll look at their website! You are very helpful!

this has been my biggest issue! thank you for sharing your knowledge and helping us newbs

Good tips! The American Journey transparent earth oxides are nice alternatives to a few of the more opaque pigments.

Really Helpful! I love your lessons :) I'm 69 now and just starting up again. Thanks so much for this series!

I so appreciate your kind, soothing tone and the instruction you so generously share...! Most helpful and informative. Thank you also for the extra special inspiration at the end of all your videos as well... :)

Thank you!! Great description 😊

Here's another "big duh": TRULY clean rinse water. Recently, I completely cleaned the "lump" of Lemon Yellow on my tray, then applied pigment to to my paper, only to see "light mud." Trying to eliminate causes, I finally realized that althought my rinse water LOOKED clear, it wasn't. Only after I got into the jar with a soapy sink brush and removed the slight amount of blue residue at the bottom of my container did I refill it. Lemon-Yellow problem solved.

Thank you Steve!

Very helpful and showed me some of my errors.

Great video Steve! 😆 Awesome explanations. I still like playing in the mud! My body & brain may be adult, but my heart is only 4.3 years old. 😉

Now I know why I am Miss Muddy. Those are the colors I’m mixing with. I have stopped adding black. I was using it to get Nature colors more realistic vs. pastel baby-bedroom light colors in my landscapes, but I learned to quit that. Without this teaching I would have kept using Yellow Orche, etc.

I have been prone to use too many browns, and only recently becoming more aware of the effect of opaque colors. I am painting some very colorful fall leaves and trying not to muddy up the colors, needless to say it is a good exercise.

Now, I understand why some colors on paper turn muddy. I am a beginner. Thank you.

Dang, this was eye opening. I really resembled many of these problems. Thanks a million for the video.

Awesome video! I learned a lot thanks.

Thanks again from Australia. I always learn something new from you.

Thanks for your clear explanation re mud! So appreciate you sharing your experience and knowledge.🇨🇦😍

Great video!!! Thank you so very very much!!!

Very helpful and answers some of my own questions and experiences...

A very good, informative video. Thank you. I only have M. Graham transparent watercolors. Mainly because of your lessons/ videos, but I just love the depth, you have taught, that can be achieved by layering transparent watercolors. I took art in school for four years and never absorbed so much great information as I do with your videos. Thanks again. Save the mud for mud packs and pies. LOL Hugs!.

Thank you. from Barcelona (Spain)

Thank You Extremely good information 👍

Such a helpful video! I had no idea my yellow ochre was the culprit. Definitely going to be using Indian yellow mixed with other colors a lot more. Also, going to be looking for a possible replacement for cerulean blue. I really only use it for skies, and use other blues for mixing, but it might be worth swapping out for more versatility.

Brilliantly instructed--so clear and precise! Thanks much!

SO. HELPFUL.

Super helpful!

Discovered the problem with cerulean blue recently. In an attempt to create continuity/harmony in my paintings, I try to use a limited palette and use the blue I use for the sky when mixing greens. This usually gives quite good results as I usually use cobalt (semi transparent) or ultramarine (transparent). Following the advice of an online tutorial recently, I decided to use cerulean for the sky - a bit "dull", but I quite liked the result - but when I started to mix greens with it, yuck! I then checked the colour chart and discovered it was opaque. Won't be using it again, I think!

Thankyou for the tips! Especially for wet-on-wet part..

great video packed with tons of helpful info. THANK YOU !

Thank you a lot (from Moscow, Russia). Love your videos :)

I have this concept in my head about what it means to actually "master" watercolor as an art medium, to really understand it. I am learning that there is more to pigment than just hue and value - the Daniel Smith website lists lightfastness, tinting, clarity, vibrancy, undertone, particle size, density, and viscosity. I think to master watercolor, to really "get it", these things need to be explored. I don't think removing ALL the opaque paint from your palette FOREVER is the only answer for everyone - but that IS a choice, and a tactic to avoid muddy colors. Opaque colors are valid watercolor pigments for many uses, some of which have been used by artists for centuries The point is to learn how opacity affects luminosity, and how that can be a culprit if you are getting unwanted muddy color mixes. The cliche comes to mind, "use the right tool for the right job." This video has excellent information about what mud is and how it happens, and I agree that many "mud" color mixes would be EXACTLY the color you want in SOME circumstances. So again, it is about mastering the paint, and knowing what to do when. Mud in watercolor is a mysterious daunting perplexing frustrating effect, and I am glad you put this video together to make understanding it much easier.

Thank you so much for this, Steve! I learned so much from your videos!!!

Very helpful. Yes it would be very helpful to define the warm and cool versions. My brain understands the concept but my eye can't see it (yet I hope). I know that knowing which is which improves colors when mixing.

Great tips. I'm learning more and more each day.

you crack me up!! Love all your videos! I appreciate all your knowledge and sense of humor!

Fantastic! Super helpful for me! Thanks!

This channel is awesome :D

The problem is that when I try to paint mud... it doesn't look muddy. But when i try not to paint mud it looks muddy lol.

great vid!! my problem is sometimes being too impatient to wait for the painting to dry before continuing!!!

I have learned so much watching your videos. Thanks a million ❤️❤️❤️

So helpful, thanks for doing this demo...

Aha! Transparency! That's what I need to pay attention to! Everything I do looks like I'm using acrylics when I'm actually using watercolors. I need to get to know the colors & stop using black..ive been mixing black to make my colors darker. Duhhh! Ok..im learning ALOT from you. Now..how much water..how much paint?? ALOT of water..a little bit of paint..is that a good "wash"?.

Thank you for explaining this!

I really like the neutral colors that one can get by mixing complements. I have never thought of them as being mud.

fantastic help !

Thank you so much. I really learned so much.

Having two buckets of water allso helps. Allways have a clean brush in the paint :) I mix my shadows from the color in the painting if I dont have the same shade in darker color, or dilute less :)

excellent artist plus advice

Great info for us newbies. Thanks.

This is the video I've been waiting for! thank you

Fantastic tips thank you for sharing

Thankyou

You're such a great teacher! I feel pretty confident about watercolor but I'm still watching your videos.

just stumbled across your site.. very excited..

His pallette looks better than my paintings.