Things You'll Need
Black paint
Small round brush
Darkening brown paint is an essential process for anyone who wants to become a competent painter. You can use the skills you learn to darken brown paint to darken paint of any other color. Learning to darken (and lighten) colors is one of the major aspects of painting and a necessary part of learning color theory, color blending and mixing shades. Fortunately, it is a skill that you can learn in mere moments, although the more practice you have with it, the better your results will be.
Step 1
Pour a dollop of brown paint onto your palette. If you do not own a palette, a piece of cardboard, plastic or glass will do.
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Step 2
Dip the small brush into your black paint and mix it thoroughly into the brown dollop.
Step 3
Observe the new shade of brown you have achieved. If it is not as dark as you desire, repeat step 2 until you reach the desired shade of dark brown.
Tip
By adding a small amount of paint at a time, you avoid wasting paint by making excess; however, measurements are not essentially. The quantity of pigment in each paint can vary between brands or batches, so it is important to blend according to what you see, not by following a recipe.
To lighten your brown, you can follow these same steps using white paint. However, you should never mix both white and black in a single batch, since it will muddy your colors. In other words, if your batch is too dark, do not try to lighten it with white, add the color (brown in this case) until the black is diluted.
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