Home / Classes / Academy

Here’s How To Create a Hue Matrix (And Why Every Painter Needs One)

By Sara Barnes on September 1, 2026

Imagine you’re looking at your collection of acrylic paint colors, mixing them on your palette—but you still can’t get the hue you want. It’s frustrating, and worst of all, wasteful. You’ve got hues you can’t use and aren’t any closer to putting pigment to canvas. Well, there’s a hack for helping you mix paint colors, especially if you utilize a limited palette. A hue matrix is a great reference tool that, once created, will last for years and takes the guesswork out of mixing.

So, what is a hue matrix? Also known as a color matrix or color chart, the gridded study shows the result of mixing base hues (in this case, pigment from your paint tubes) in gradual, systematic ratios. Rows contain one color and columns contain another. Where they meet is the hue that comes from when the two colors are mixed.

A hue matrix reveals a lot about color fusions, from undertones to how they shift once combined. It also helps you build your color mixing skills and hone your intuition of how your paint will look once dried.

This helpful color chart can be customized to the paints you already own. Some artists use it to see how a hue looks when white is added to it, in varying ratios. Other creatives, like artist Luiza Niechoda, use it to see how hues of blues, greens, and browns will look when mixed in various combinations. Niechoda has a cartography background that informs her precise approach to color and its use in her contemporary abstract landscape paintings.

Niechoda’s hue matrix is seriously impressive, and it aids in creating her grid-like works on canvas. But it’s just one part of her process. Get a deep dive into creating a hue matrix and learning how to utilize the reference in stunning abstract art, all guided by Niechoda. Her online course titled Acrylic Painting Masterclass: Explore Color & Abstract Landscape Painting is now available on My Modern Met Academy. Throughout the three-hour course, she shows you everything from stretching your own canvas to creating a painting, layer by layer. By the end, you’ll have a hue matrix you can use in your future masterpieces.