Avoiding Mud

Accidentally making mud can be so frustrating. There we are, happily painting away, and then the next moment everything looks dull and muddy. Our once bright colors have lost their joy. Muddiness has come.

What happened???

Luckily, there are just a few things to know, and then with a bit of practice, this will never happen again. (Like magic, but really, just understanding color. Which is pretty magical, I think.)

Mixing the Wrong Color

First, I would like to tell you about how many years I spent mixing beautiful and interesting colors that were not the color I was trying to make! Oh my goodness. This took up so much of my time. I want to save you from that. Secondly, I want to tell you that you are not alone. Every painter learns this.

• All three primaries added together make brown. (Red + Yellow + Blue = Brown) Often we end up with a muddy version of the color we are trying to mix because we used the wrong primary for the task at hand. When we try to make a purple and we use cadmium red and ultramarine blue we get a dull purple. Because the red was on the orange side of the red spectrum, it was like we added yellow to mix.
• Once you reduce a color intensity, it is hard to bring it back. If we add other colors, or neutralize the hue with white or black, we will not get back to the pure hue we started with. We can adjust it slightly with ease. But, too much will require large heaps of paint to hide the other hues. Just start fresh and remix

Wet-on-Wet Issues

When we are painting with wet paint layers, the bottom layers affect the top layers. For example, if I have wet blue paint, and I paint white on top, I will create a lighter blue where the two mix. This can be a really fun effect. However, it can create mud easily when not accounted for while painting.

What to do if muddy colors are showing up uninvited?

First, stop fussing. Fussing is where you are going over the same spot, expecting a different result. Pause, take a breath and evaluate. What you do may also be controlled a bit by the medium, but here are some general options:

• Let that area dry, then paint more layers on top later
• Scrape off that area and repaint it again
• Run around, scream and shout? Okay, maybe not. Or, yes(!), and then one of the top two ideas.
• Mix the final color you want, and apply it thicker on top, with a light-weight stroke, so that it doesn't blend the bottom layers

Colors Becoming Opaque

When a beautiful transparent paint has an opaque added to it, it can feel more muddy as well. If you are working with transparent colors and then this happens, evaluate if the issue is not "muddy" colors, but rather losing the transparency. To combat this, look at the white you are using and see if there is a more transparent alternative. Double check your other colors and see if you are using an opaque version of that hue.