Colour Mixing Chart (Free Printable PDF)

A mix you cannot repeat is a mix you have lost. Each row of this chart has a numbered swatch box with room to lay down a brushful of the colour you just mixed, then columns for the first base colour and how many parts of it, the second base colour and its parts, and a wider column for the mix name and any notes, such as the medium, the white you added or the paper you tested it on.

Choose twelve rows for large swatches or sixteen for a denser chart; the rows stretch to fill the page in both cases, so a twelve row chart gives each swatch a deep box that shows the colour properly even in a thin wash. There is a line at the top to name the paint set you are working from, because the same two colour names from different brands rarely mix to the same thing.

The chart suits watercolour, gouache, acrylic and oil equally; for wet media print it on the heaviest paper your printer takes, or paint the swatches on scraps and glue them into the boxes. The base colour, parts and notes columns are form fields if you would rather type them after the paint dries. A ruled notes block at the bottom takes observations about the set as a whole, such as which pigments granulate or dry back lighter.