Green can prove to be the most challenging colour to mix. It is easy to revert to a palette of greens that are unnatural and that do not reflect nature.

The key to making your own green palette is to experiment. And also to follow some very basic mixing techniques.

What you need also is a wide range of leaves of differing types and shapes. At this time of year the amount of colours you will see on any leaf is fantastic and often offers a palette range of its own. I picked lots of different leaves out of the garden – there are loads to choose from – and I was mindful that some had to be light, therefore slightly yellow, some had to be medium, therefore green and some dark and very dark, therefore leaning towards green browns.

You will need a medium green, a range of yellows, a red, a blue, a brown and a viridian green. With all those colours you could make an endless range of green.

By using a bias of one colour e.g. I had some very yellow green leaves so the percentages of yellow to green were 90% and 10% and then I mixed them into a wonderful light green.

With these colours you can also mix greys to make shadows or darker areas on the leaves. All you need to do is take a light green – e.g. the yellow green mix above and a dark green, a mix of viridian green and red – 50%/50% and mix those two colours together. Colour mixing is not only fun it is also very absorbing to see what colours you can make. It takes time, and you if you really enjoy colour mixing make a book of your own colour swatches.