Apparently, green is one of the most soothing colors. But for painters, it’s really a challenging color because it requires effort and care to produce the desired depth.
So, if you ask ‘what two colors make lime green?’ yellow & blue is the answer.
But if you want to know how to EASILY make the paint without making thousands of mistakes, continue reading the article as it contains:
- The right way to mix yellow and blue to get lime green
- How to make several shades of green
- How you can darken and lighten any green color
- And, some common questions that are related to the topic.
So, ready for the jump? You’ll get a great insight through the article, trust me!
Table of Contents
What Colors Make Lime Green?
Green is a secondary color and you can make different shades of green (including lime green) by mixing two primary colors. Mixing yellow and blue together will result in lime green paint.
If we are more specific with the colors, you’ll need lemon yellow and ultramarine blue to do the job.
But above all, you must mix them in the right way.
What I meant by that is, if you can’t maintain the right ratio and follow an inappropriate approach, you won’t love the outcome. So, here are the steps you should follow to make lime green paint.
Step 1: Take A Measure of Yellow Paint First
Start with pouring an amount of yellow paint into a container/mixing tray. How much yellow you take will depend on how much lime green you’re going to make. For your information, ¾ yellow and ¼ blue will make a perfect lime green shade.
Step 2: Pour The Blue Paint Into The Tray
According to your preferred measurement, pour blue paint into the same mixing tray where you put the yellow paint. If you’re still confused about how much blue to add to the yellow, you can use an equivalent amount of blue paint to the yellow.
Let’s say, you’re using one cup of yellow paint, then you can add one cup of blue paint to it.
Step 3: Mix The Paints
To mix the paints thoroughly, use a utensil like a wooden spoon or spatula. Keep mixing the paints together before you get a consistent green color.
And, once you get green paint, add more yellow to the mix for creating a lime green color.
How to Make Lime Green Color Without One Primary Color of The Two?
Let’s say you don’t have yellow or blue near you but you want to make the lime green color. Is it even possible to do so? The answer is yes. You can still make the color. Let’s see how!
If Blue Is Missing
So, you’ve run out of blue and you’re going to make lime green. Since blue is a primary color, you’re overthinking whether you can make blue or not. Well, in such a situation, do one thing from the two:
- Mix cadmium yellow light and burnt umber together
- Or, add Payne’s grey to cadmium yellow
Any of the options will work great as an alternative to blue.
If Yellow Is Missing
Lime green is the lighter version of green and yellow is the main component to make green. So, how can you possibly make green without yellow? Here’s how you can make it happen:
- Combine raw sienna with Prussian blue
- Or, mix orange and ultramarine blue
Both of these options will give you the green color so you can easily make lime green.
How Can You Make Different Shades of Green?
Lime green is such a refreshing color, ha? But green is a challenging color for painters. They work on different series of green abstract artworks and admit that building up green layers requires a great deal of care.
So, if you’re on the same page, don’t worry this section of the article will wow you. Look at the table below and see how you can make tons of green shades pretty easily!
| Color 1 with Proportion | Color 2 with Proportion | Additional Color | Results |
| ½ Blue | ½ Yellow | – | Perfect green |
| ½ Blue | ½ Yellow | – | Neon green |
| ½ Yellow | ¼ Blue | Red and Black (A tiny bit of) | Olive green |
| ½ Yellow | ¼ Blue | Some red and black | Forest green |
| ½ Yellow | ¼ Blue | A small amount of red | Sage green |
| ½ Blue | Over ¼ yellow | Under ¼ red and A small amount of black | Emerald green (teal) |
| 65% Blue | Red | Yellow | Blue-green |
| ½ Blue | ½ Yellow | – | Turquoise green |
| ½ Blue | ½ Yellow | – | Aqua green |
As you can see, we are emphasizing being careful about the color ratios. This will help you to get your desired result and not get distracted from what color you want to make.
To make olive green, you can simply follow the value we added to the table.
Another way is to mix cadmium yellow with ultramarine blue together first. This is for making the basic green first. Then, add yellow ochre to the green you just made. It will give a slight brown tone to the green.
After that, add a small amount of dark purple to get a bit deeper olive shade.
For other great shades of green, follow the instructions we put on the table. However, there are multiple options to make one particular shade. So, you can feel free to experiment but do it somewhere else before you start painting.
Here are some other options to make different green shades.
Forest Green
We already showed you how to make forests green. But there’s another way you can try to make this color.
- Take premixed green first
- Then, add some reddish-brown color to it
Sage Green
About sage green, it’s a cool color but fairly light having a muted tone. You can start with a warm blue and then mix it with a cool blue. After that, add gray or purple to the mix. Further, add a little amount of white to lighten the color a bit.
Other green shades you can make are moss green, Lincoln green, pastel green, and the list can go on. Here’s how to make pastel green:
- Start with Jade green
- Add white to have a light green color
- Add pastel yellow to the mix
Moss Green
To make moss green:
- Begin with cobalt blue
- Add some Canary yellow to it
- Add a little purple and gray
Lincoln Green
The last green shade we’re going to talk about is Lincoln green:
- Mix cyan and canary yellow together
- Try to reach a bit darker shade by adding a tiny bit of black
See? You’ve learned tons of ways to make different green shades!
Read More: How to Make Blue From Green at Home?
How to Darken and Lighten Green Paint
Knowing the right ways to darken or lighten a paint is crucial for someone who deals with paints. This information will help you in this case:
- For a lighter and brighter green, add more yellow to the existing green.
- For a lighter but pastel-like green, add white instead of yellow.
- Use blue to darken the green.
- Add black to darken the green and get a duller green shade.
- To tone down the green, add red.
Final Words
Isn’t it a very easy way to make lime green paint? It’s not a huge task trust me, all you have to do is to be careful while mixing different paints. You will not want to have darker or lighter shades than the one for which you started mixing the paints.
However, it’s never hard to manage if you just know the perfect ratio for the paints. Since we’ve included everything related to the topic in the article, you should get that for what you were here.