What Is Neutral Tint In Watercolor

Neutral tint is a special kind of gray paint used mainly by watercolor artists. It is a mixture of pigments that produce an unsaturated gray and is intended to gently tone down brighter colors. Think "tint" means lighter? Think again 🤯 Join Morgan from our team on a deep dive into the world of neutral tints in watercolor painting.

Neutral Tint Watercolor offers a balanced, versatile pigment ideal for creating shadows, enhancing depth, and achieving subtle tonal variations in your artwork. Neutral Tint can darken most any specific color while keeping it in the same color family. Whereas, if you try mixing other colors in to make a darker or more neutral version, you end up with a different muddier color altogether.

Very rarely will I use neutral tint or any premixed neutrals. Learning to mix neutrals from clean colors has helped immensely to keep the mixes from getting that dirty look. "STILL STANDING" (watercolor, 12X16 in.) To keep harmony throughout this piece, and neutralize the colors, I've used the "blue" in the sky in all the color mixes.

To create neutral shadows and to lower the value of many different colors, watercolor painters often use Neutral Tint, the name suggests that the mixture should be neutral, but it is not. Neutral Tint is usually faint purple in hue, the reason for this is the color should also work for yellow colors. Neutral Tint is intended to darken a whole range of colors while reducing the unexpected/unwanted hue shift you often get by using black or other colors.

It's mainly found in watercolors, but it can be found in oils and acrylics (Sennelier, Old Holland). In this Watercolor Tutorial, I discuss what Neutral Tint paint is, what pigments it contains, and how I use it in my paintings. You can even mix your own if.

Daniel Smith worked with us and created the wonderful Daniel Smith Neutral Tint that is a staple in our watercolor palettes. This hard-working color can instantly expand the value range of colors you can create with your palette. So if you want to create rich darks, tone down a color, or create colorful neutrals this is the tool for you.

The following is an excerpt from the description for Neutral Tint paint by Daniel Smith: "Create Rich Darks and Neutrals with this fabulous and unique, dark neutral pigment that when mixed with any watercolor pigment produces glowing, darker values of that color.