CMYK Community Recipes 🎨
See our community gallery of color recipes below. 👇
Submit your own images to be featured!
These recipes are designed to be starting points, not rigid rules. Paper type, water amount, white balance of photo, and personal technique will always influence the final result -and that’s part of the beauty of watercolor.
Please note: Recipes will not yield the same amount of final product - reference the total amount of drops used to get an idea of how much the recipe will make, then scale up or down like you would a muffin recipe!
CMYK Color Mixing Recipes: Learn, Explore, and Share Your Own!
Discover the magic of CMYK color mixing using our highly concentrated liquid watercolors. This page is a growing library of color mixing recipes, created by both the Peerless team and our community of artists around the world.
Whether you’re learning the fundamentals of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black -or experimenting with nuanced neutrals, florals, and skin tones -you’ll find inspiration, guidance, and real-world examples to help you mix with confidence.
What Is CMYK Color Mixing?
CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (Black) - a foundational color system used in printing and increasingly embraced by artists for its clarity, control, and range. By mixing just these four colors, you can create an incredible spectrum of hues, values, and moods.
Working with a CMYK primary set helps artists:
🩵 Understand color relationships and balance
🩷 Mix cleaner, more intentional colors
💛 Build palettes that feel cohesive and versatile
🖤 Reduce overwhelm by simplifying color choices
Our CMYK watercolor recipes show exactly how different ratios of each color come together so you can recreate them yourself or adapt them to your own style!
RYB...or CMYK?
You can't mix a true Cyan or bright Magenta with the traditional Red, Yellow and Blue primary colors. By starting with lighter primaries - CMY (Cyan, Magenta and Yellow) - you can create brighter and cleaner secondary colors without losing the ability to create the traditional primary colors.
An artist can achieve almost any color on the color wheel starting with Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. The added Neutral Tint expands your tonal range for subtle shading, depth, and balance.
Using CMYK allows you to mix colors that are more vibrant and true to life, avoiding the chalky, muddy mess altogether!
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