How to Avoid Muddy Colours in Watercolour Painting
- ioneharrisonart
- Oct 17, 2025
- 2 min read
Simple, mindful tips to keep your colours bright and beautiful.
We’ve all been there — you start with beautiful, bright, glowing colours sitting in your palette - and end up with a murky brown puddle in your painting! The secret to keeping your mixes fresh and glowing is simply to paint with a bit of awareness. Here are a few easy ways to avoid the dreaded mud:
1. Keep things clean.
Give your brush a good rinse between colours and wipe off your palette now and then. Always check your brush is clean by dabbing it on a rag. Even a tiny bit of leftover paint can dull your mixes.
2. Use two water pots.
Keep one for rinsing your brush - so this one will get really mucky - and one for clean water to mix with. It’s amazing how much clearer your colours will look when you’re not painting with murky water!
3. Mix with care.
Try to keep to two colours in a mix, three at most. The more pigments you add, the quicker they lose their sparkle.
4. Let your layers breathe.
If you’re glazing or layering, make sure each wash is dry before adding the next. Otherwise, they’ll blend on the paper and turn muddy. Another tip here - when layering, don't use your brush too much - you want to add a layer, not move the drying paint around.
5. Think colour harmony.
Stick to analogous colours (those next to each other on the colour wheel, like blue–green–yellow) for soft, harmonious blends. Be cautious with complementary colours (opposites, like red and green) — they create great contrast and really make your colours 'pop' - but need to be added when your first layer is dry; if mixed too much, they’ll neutralise each other into brown or grey.
A little mindfulness goes a long way — keep it clean, keep it simple, and let those colours sing!
Want to practise this together? Join me at The Studio, Wath Court, Hovingham for an upcoming workshop, where we’ll explore colour mixing and clarity in watercolour — and keep those paintings bright and beautiful!
