Pigmento

Color theory for real paint

Mix the colors you actually see.

Pigmento is a free paint color mixer and color theory studio for painters. Explore harmonies on a painter's color wheel, mix real pigments, and learn to build shadows, greens and skin tones in acrylic, oil and watercolor.

Open the mixer Start learning
Chromatic Circle Studio· harmonies, opposites, lights & shadows

Pick a color on the circle, choose a harmony, and see its opposites, tints and shadows. Everything updates live.

Start here

Three ways into color

Play with the tools, then learn the theory behind what you see. Every lesson includes a mixer set up for that topic.

Paint mixer

Pick two or three real paints, set the proportions and watch them mix like pigment, not pixels. Blue and yellow really do make green.

Mix paints

Learn color mixing

Clear, practical lessons on browns, greens, complements, skin tones and shadows, with recipes for each medium.

Browse lessons

Shadows & highlights

Give it a base color and get shadow mixes built from its complement, ultramarine or burnt umber, plus tints and shades.

Generate shadows

Popular questions

What painters ask most

Short answers up top, plus the reasoning and recipes to go further.

Watch & Learn

See it on a real palette

Hand-picked free tutorials from working artists, each paired with a lesson. See all videos →

Pigment-based mixing

The mixer models how paints absorb light, using a Kubelka–Munk style approach over reflectance curves. That's why blue and yellow come out green, not grey.

Shadows without black

Learn to darken with complements, ultramarine and umbers, the way painters have for centuries, so shadows stay luminous.

Recipes for every medium

Acrylic, oil and watercolor each behave differently. Every recipe tells you how to adjust it for your medium.