How to Mute Watercolors for Realistic Results

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Wondering why your watercolor landscapes always look flat and unrealistic? Do your still life paintings lack the depth and atmosphere you're aiming for? What are the best strategies for mixing watercolor for believable, dynamic results?


In this post, I'll explain why it's so important to learn to mute down colors and will provide the best strategies that will help you improve your paintings. 

Whether you’re new to watercolor or have some experience but still struggle with color mixing, this one's for you!



What Does It Mean to “Mute Down” a Color?

Muting a color (also known as desaturating, toning down, or neutralizing) refers to reducing its intensity or vividness.

Highly saturated colors are vibrant and eye-catching — but in the real world, most of what we see isn’t that bold, especially when it comes to organic or natural subjects.

Straight out of the pan or tube, a paint color is at its most saturated. Once you start mixing other colors into it, it becomes more and more desaturated.


*Important:
A muted color is not the same as a "muddy" color.

Muddy colors are usually the result of a lack of planning or control when painting and mixing. They can lead to flat, heavy, or dull areas in a piece.
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Muted colors, on the other hand, are created intentionally — used strategically to balance out more saturated hues and bring harmony to your painting. They don't look flat or dull.

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​Why Muted Colors Matter in Watercolor

Here are three key reasons why learning to mute your colors is essential:

1. Realism

Most of the colors we see in real life are desaturated to varying degrees.

Even man-made objects — which can feature bold, highly saturated colors — are influenced by light, shadow, and environmental factors. This means that as painters, we need to know how to manipulate color to lighten, darken, and desaturate as needed.

This is why using colors straight from the pan or tube — and painting elements with just one flat color — often leads to unnatural or unrealistic results.



2. Balance & Contrast

If all the colors in your painting are muted, nothing stands out.

If all the colors are saturated, the entire piece can feel like it’s shouting.

The magic happens when you balance muted and vivid colors. You might use saturated hues in focal point areas — the parts you want the viewer to focus on — and reserve muted colors for the background or supporting areas.

Highly saturated colors have more visual weight than muted ones. So, using saturation strategically helps you create a clear visual hierarchy and stronger harmony in your composition.



3. Mood & Storytelling

Color carries emotional weight. When used intentionally, it becomes a powerful storytelling tool.

Muted colors can evoke calm, nostalgia, mystery, or atmosphere. Saturated colors, on the other hand, bring energy, urgency, movement, and intensity.

By choosing when and where to mute your colors, you’re shaping the mood and emotional impact of your piece — helping your artwork communicate your message more effectively.


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Muddy Colors- A Common Color Mixing Pitfall

Many beginners accidentally end up with muddy colors without knowing why.
This often happens due to:

• Mixing too many colors together
• Layering multiple opaque pigments
• Not understanding how complementary colors interact
• Failing to organize color mixtures on your palette
• Not rinsing brush bristles thoroughly between colors
• Not changing out dirty water throughout the painting process
  
  

The core issue is usually a lack of control.

A lot of watercolor artists actually enjoy working with a “dirty” palette because it naturally leads to more muted, realistic color mixes. That said, even when mixing on a palette that isn’t "clean" per se, experienced artists still work strategically — they have a solid understanding of color and are making intentional choices as they go. 

Once you learn how to mute colors intentionally, you'll discover that grays and browns can be beautiful, expressive, and essential parts of a well-balanced painting.

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12 Part color wheel showing Primary Colors, Secondary Colors and Tertiary Colors. Primaries are pointed out by the gray triangle. Secondaries are pointed out by the black triangle.

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The Color Wheel: Your Secret Weapon

To mute colors effectively, you’ll need to understand some basic color theory:

The Basics:

• Primary colors: Red, Yellow, Blue
• Secondary colors (made by mixing primaries): Orange, Green, Purple
• Tertiary colors (made by mixing a primary + secondary): Red-orange, Blue-green, etc.
• Complementary colors: Sit opposite to each other in the color wheel
• Analogous colors: Sit next to each other in the color wheel
• Neutrals: Grays and browns which would be in the center of the color wheel. *The closer to the outer edge of the color wheel, the more saturated, the closer to the center, the more muted. 

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2 Main Strategies for Muting Watercolors


Strategy #1:

Mix a color with its complementary color (the one directly across from it on the wheel).

Example: Red + Green, Yellow + Purple, Orange + Blue

Add just a little of the color's complementary to mute it slightly. Add more to turn it into a gray or brown. 
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A few examples of complementary color mixes (red + green, blue + orange, yellow + purple). Two colors at their most saturated and pure on opposite ends.

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Strategy #2: 

Add a neutral (brown or gray) into your color. 

Any brown or gray such as Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Sepia, Neutral Tint, Payne's Gray, etc., can be added to any color to mute it. 

Opt for a brown or a gray depending on the subject matter. Sometimes one will work better than the other because of how color can change.

Have in mind that the darker the neutral you're mixing in, the darker the resulting mixture will be. 

Add just a little to mute the color slightly. Add more to turn it into a gray or brown. 

Color chart showing muted blues, reds and yellows. These primaries have been muted with grays and browns.

Want to master color mixing in watercolor?

Start by exploring different combinations and creating your own color charts—just like the one above.

There’s no substitute for hands-on experience. Mixing colors yourself is the best way to build confidence and deepen your understanding of how pigments interact.

Recommended Watercolor Supplies:

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Arches Cold Press Watercolor Paper 100% Cotton 9x12" Sheets

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Faber Castell 9000 Series Drawing Pencils Set of 6

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Winsor&Newton Professional Watercolor Tubes

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Princeton Aqua Elite Watercolor Brushes Set of 4

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For a full list of my current favorite supplies, go here. 

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By learning to mute colors intentionally and use saturation wisely, you’ll add realism, balance and emotion to your watercolor paintings.

Don't be afraid of those soft browns and subtle grays—they might just be the secret ingredient your artwork needs.

Happy painting! 

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