Sage green is a more muted and lighter shade of green which creates a calming effect. But making sage green paint causes a bit of struggle for novice painters.
However, there are some tips and tricks to blow away all the struggles.
So, the question is, how to make sage green paint? Well, it’s just about mixing green, yellow, and gray. Still, you need to know the right way to mix them.
Continue reading the piece to know:
- The fundamentals of color theory and different green shades
- Colors that make sage green paint
- How to mix sage green paint
- How to make sage green with acrylic paint and watercolor
- The procedure of making sage green frosting
- Topic-related questions and answers.
Without further ado, let’s dive right in!
Table of Contents
Basics of Color Theory and Green Shades
The fact is, you need to have some fundamental knowledge of color theory before moving along with making new shades of colors. A color wheel is based on the relationship between different hues.
While inspecting a color wheel, you’ll notice the hues are arranged in a way so every color interacts with one another. There are three categories of colors. These are:
- Primary
- Secondary
- Tertiary
Blue, red and yellow are the primary colors and these hues are considered the parents of other colors. It’s because you can create all the succeeding hues with these three colors. And, when you mix two primary colors, you’ll end up having a secondary color.
Since we’ll make a shade of green, it’s worth noting that you can create green by mixing two primary colors: blue and yellow.
Before we delve into the matter of how to make sage green paint, let’s get to know about the characteristics of green color.
- Add yellow to the green if you want to make it lighter. If you prefer darker green, add blue or violet instead.
- Adding yellow, brown, red, or orange will lead you to have a warmer shade of green. On the other hand, you can have a cooler shade of green by adding blue or a bluer green such as viridian.
- To brighten the green shade or make it saturated, add a brighter green hue. About making a dull or subdued shade, you need to use red.
To work on any project regarding green shades, you should start with the base middle green paint. After that, you can modify the temperature and hue using blue (to make a bluish, cooler, and darker green) or yellow (to make more yellowish, lighter, and warmer green) paint.
Moreover, you can modify the saturation using any neutralizing or warming color from violet to orange (make sure you take a very small amount of paints to start). A brighter green such as Permanent Green works great to increase the saturation.
So, there are many ways to mix a spectrum of green shades to get the desired variety: bright greens, dark greens, gray greens, light greens, cool greens, and warm greens.
What Colors Make Sage Green Paint?
Sage green color is made by mixing green, yellow, and gray. So, the first color you need to make is green. To do so, mix two parts of yellow and one part of blue. And, after mixing the colors thoroughly, you have your green.
Secondly, you have two choices.
You either can add more yellow to the mixture and have a warmer color as a result or you can add blue to the mixture to get a cooler hue. Worth noting, the warmer result means you’ll get something like grass green whereas the cooler hue will be towards teal color.
Now, suppose you’re going with the yellow option. Then, you should take equal parts of yellow for making the grass color green, and then you have to add the gray.
Now, how can you make gray?
Just take three parts of white and one part of black. Once you properly mix them up, you’ll end up having gray. It’s as simple as that. Finally, when you add the gray to your grass green color, you’ll get a beautiful and relaxing sage green color.
How to Make Sage Green With Acrylic Paints?
So, what about sage green acrylics? Can you use your acrylic palette and get a perfect shade of sage green? The answer is yes. Here we’ll share everything about sage green acrylic paint.
Hope you’re ready to explore.
1. Take a pea-sized amount of zinc white, sap green, ultramarine blue, and raw sienna on your palette. We’re using zinc white instead of titanium white because it’s clearer and superior for tinting.
2. Use your palette knife to take half of the zinc white and place it on the center of your palette.
3. Now, you have to add a quarter of the sap green to the zinc white. Use the palette knife to do so.
4. Take a little bit of raw sienna and add it to the sap green and the zinc white. To avoid capturing a large amount of the paint instead of just a little amount, simply jab your palette knife into the palette and pull out the knife straight.
5. Now, stir the mixture thoroughly. Keep stirring until you end up having a uniform color.
6. Check the mixture frequently if it’s the sage green you want or not. Since paints vary among manufacturers and have slightly different shades, you may need to adjust the mixture now and then.
7. If you want to intensify the sage green, add more sap green to the mixture.
8. Adding more raw sienna to the mixture will make the color more earthy.
9. If you find the result too dark and want to make it lighter, add more zinc white.
And, if you want to give the sage green a cooler shade, adding a little amount of ultramarine blue will work.
How to Mix Sage Green Watercolor
Mixing sage green watercolor isn’t a big deal, we mean it. All you need to do is to mix Cerulean Blue and Lemon Yellow. And, then, add Paynes Gray to the mixture and combine them thoroughly. You can try their different combinations as well.
Mixing Cobalt Blue with Lemon Yellow will also give you sage green.
How to Mix Sage Green Oil Paint
You can create a beautiful muted green shade aka sage green with oil paint too. Here’s how:
- Start by taking white lead paint.
- Then use Prussian Blue, Lamp Black, French ochre (one type of yellow color) for tinting.
- Make sure you tint very carefully as it’s a quite painstaking procedure.
- Take a specific amount of dry white lead first and then add each of the colors one by one. And, finally, add oil.
You’re seeing the use of blue and yellow which is okay but why use black? Well, it’s because black will help darken the mixture slightly.
How to Make Sage Green Frosting
No matter which project you need to make green, it’s always a bit tricky to get the perfect shades of green. And, things will be trickier if you’re creating sage green frosting. Sage is a color with more blue compared to a bright Christmas green.
After going through several tastes with food colorings, we’ve found the way to get the perfect sage frosting. So, let’s see how to make sage green with food coloring.
- First of all, grab your blue, yellow, and brown bottles of food coloring.
- Make a batch of frosting.
- Take 6 drops of yellow food coloring and add to the frosting. Now, mix them using a spoon.
- Now, take 2 drops of blue food coloring and add to the mixture. Hence, the blue coloring will lead you to make green from yellow.
- Finally, add a little bit of brown coloring to make the color darker.
This is how you can create a fantastic shade of sage green. However, don’t make it much darker as frostings tend to darken over time. So, you’ll notice how the sage shade deepens overnight.
What does sage green make you feel?
Sage green is used to reduce tension and to lower stress. It improves concentration & relaxation. And, this serene color is always easy on the eye.
Is sage green or blue?
Sage is a quaternary color that’s the result of mixing equal amounts of tertiary colors. And, it’s neither green nor blue, it’s a gray-green color.
What colors go with sage green?
White and gray go perfectly with sage green. Other than that, you can think about a muted red, pink, or yellow color to pair with sage.
Is sage green cool or a warm color?
Well, it can be either cool or warm. Sage green offers many tones and varieties and you can experiment by adding different hues to make warm and cool sage green shades.
Final Words
So, this is where our discussion ends. We hope that you’re no longer confused about the way to make sage green paint.
We tried our best to show you the right way to make such a lively color. Just concentrate when you experiment with the color wheel theory. And, try to use the proper ratios of hues. Hopefully, you’ll be happy with the results.
Good luck!