How to Mix Teal

Teal is a cool, saturated blue-green that sits right between blue and green on the color wheel. You'll find it in tropical water, on peacock feathers, across mid-century furniture. It's darker than turquoise but greener than navy.

Find a recipeBy Trycolors Team · Updated Feb 2026

Teal Color Theory

Teal is a medium-dark blue-green — the same hue zone as cyan on the outer edge, but pulled inward toward the dark center.

The outer ring shows pure, saturated colors. Moving toward the center adds black, so colors get darker and more muted. The center is pure black.

Teal sits in the blue-green zone, between green and blue on the outer ring. It's pulled inward from the bright edge — not as far as navy, but enough to have real depth. On the outer edge, this same hue is a bright cyan or aqua.

The highlighted zone shows the range of teals you can mix by shifting ratios. Move along the ring toward green for warmer, greener teals or toward blue for cooler, deeper teals. Move inward for darker jewel tones like petrol blue.

Practice

Three Golden Heavy Body paints cover every recipe on this page.

PB15transparent

Phthalo Blue (Green Shade)

PY35opaque

Cadmium Yellow Light

PW6opaque

Titanium White

All recipes use Golden Heavy Body paints. Pay attention to opacity — Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) is transparent with extreme tinting strength. A tiny amount will overpower the yellow and white. If you swap in a weaker, opaque blue like Cerulean, you'll need much more of it and the teal won't be as saturated. When using different brands, match the pigment first (PB15), then adjust ratios.

Why primaries?

Every recipe on this page uses primaries plus white. Mixing from primaries teaches you how teal actually works: how the blue-green balance shifts, and how white reveals the hue. You could buy a premixed Cobalt Teal (PG50) for a one-tube shortcut, but you'd miss the control over depth and warmth.

The general approach

Teal is a blue-leaning green that's been darkened slightly. Blue and yellow give you green, then you lean the ratio toward blue to enter teal territory. White controls how much of that dark blue-green you can actually see — without it, the mix reads almost black.

The biggest trap is adding too much Phthalo Blue too early. Start with yellow and white on your palette, then bring the blue in a tiny bit at a time. You can always add more blue, but rescuing an over-blued mix means adding a lot of yellow and white to rebalance.

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Three Shades of Teal

Same three paints, different ratios. Shift the balance between blue, yellow, and white to move across the teal spectrum.

Deep Teal

Blue-heavy with just enough yellow to shift the hue green. Three parts blue to one part yellow and one part white gives you a dark, jewel-toned teal.

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Ocean Teal

Equal blue and white with yellow in between. Two parts blue, one part yellow, two parts white makes a balanced, medium teal — the classic shade most people picture.

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Light Teal

More white than blue shifts the mix lighter. One part blue, two parts yellow, five parts white lightens the mix without shifting the hue green.

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Color Mixing Chart

See what every pair of colors makes — explore all combinations in one interactive grid.

Test Your Teal Mixing Skills

Match the target teal shade by adjusting the paint ratios.

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Tips by Medium

Different paint types require different approaches.

Acrylic Tips

1Acrylic teal dries slightly darker. Mix a touch lighter than your target to compensate.
2Phthalo Blue is transparent in acrylic, which means it doesn't cover well on its own. The Titanium White in the mix provides the opacity. Don't skip the white thinking you'll get a darker teal — you'll get a translucent dark smear.
3Use a palette knife. Phthalo Blue stains brushes and makes it hard to judge the color you're mixing.
4If your teal looks too dark and you can't tell the hue, dab a small amount onto white paper. The undertone becomes obvious.

Common Mistakes When Mixing Teal

If your teal looks off, here's what probably went wrong.

Teal mixing usually fails because Phthalo Blue is so much stronger than the other two paints. A tiny excess of blue is the most common problem.

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Problem

Too much blue — looks like dark navy, not teal

Solution

Add more yellow and white in equal parts. You need to dilute the blue's dominance. If it's very dark, you may need to start over with less blue.

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Problem

Too much yellow — looks green, not teal

Solution

Add a small amount of Phthalo Blue. Teal sits on the blue side of blue-green, so it should read more blue than green.

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Problem

Too much white — washed out, looks like pale blue

Solution

Add more blue and yellow to bring the saturation back. The teal character disappears when white overwhelms the chromatic pigments.

Watch: Mixing Teal

See the mixing process in action before trying it yourself.

Skip the Mixing — Find Teal Ready-Made

These pre-mixed paints are the closest match. No mixing required.

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96.9% Match

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Frequently Asked Questions

Blue and green. But in practice, most painters mix teal from blue, yellow, and white rather than using a pre-mixed green. This gives you more control over the exact hue. If you do have a green, mixing it with Phthalo Blue and a touch of white gets you there fast.

Teal is darker and more saturated than turquoise. Turquoise has more white in it, giving it a lighter, more pastel feel. Teal sits closer to the dark center of the color wheel; turquoise sits further out toward the light edge. If your teal looks too bright and light, you've mixed turquoise.

Teal is cool. It sits between blue and green on the color wheel, both cool colors. Some teal shades lean warmer (more yellow-green) and some lean cooler (more blue), but teal never crosses into warm territory.

You can, but it's harder. Ultramarine Blue leans violet, so you'd need a lot more yellow to counteract the purple undertone, and the result won't be as clean or saturated. Cerulean Blue works but it's weak and opaque, requiring a lot of paint. Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) is the most efficient route to teal.

Add more Phthalo Blue. It's already an extremely dark pigment, and adding more deepens the teal without the deadening effect that black creates. You can also add a tiny amount of Burnt Umber for a warmer dark teal. Avoid black — it grays out the blue-green character.

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How to Mix Teal

Why primaries?

The general approach

Deep Teal

Ocean Teal

Light Teal

Color Mixing Chart

Emerald Green

Cobalt Green

Cobalt Turquoise Deep

Phthalo Green

Light Turquoise (Phthalo)

Cobalt Turquoise Deep

Emerald Green (hue)

Cobalt Chromite Green

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