Color Mixing Guide — What Two Colors Make Every Hue
Understanding color mixing is foundational to painting, graphic design, interior decorating, and digital art. Whether you want to know what colors make green for a canvas painting, need to understand why blue and red make purple in pigment but produce magenta on a screen, or are simply looking for a complete color mixing chart to reference — this guide covers every major combination with step-by-step recipes and the color theory behind each result.
How Paint Color Mixing Works — Subtractive vs Additive
Traditional paint and pigment mixing operates on subtractive color theory using the RYB model — Red, Yellow, and Blue are the three primary colors. When you mix two primaries together you get a secondary color: red and yellow make orange, yellow and blue make green, blue and red make purple. Mix a primary with its adjacent secondary and you get a tertiary color — yellow-green, blue-violet, red-orange, and so on around the wheel.
Digital screens work differently, using additive RGB mixing. In RGB, red and green light combine to make yellow, green and blue make cyan, and red and blue make magenta. All three at full intensity produce white. That's why the same question — what color does blue and red make — has two valid answers: purple in paint, magenta on a screen. Knowing which model you are working in is the first step to predicting mix results correctly.
What Two Colors Make Common Hues
What colors make green? Blue and yellow make green in paint. The exact shade depends on your pigment choice and ratio: phthalo blue with lemon yellow gives a vivid lime green, while ultramarine blue with yellow ochre produces a muted, earthy olive green. For digital design, green is an RGB primary and cannot be mixed from other channels.
What colors make purple? Red and blue make purple. Use more red for a warm burgundy-leaning purple; use more blue for a cool violet. Crimson red with ultramarine blue gives a rich jewel-toned violet. In subtractive CMY printing, magenta and cyan combine to produce purple and violet tones.
What colors make orange? Red and yellow make orange. A roughly equal ratio gives a classic orange; shifting toward yellow gives golden yellow-orange; shifting toward red gives burnt orange or terracotta. In CMYK printing, orange is typically 100% Magenta + 100% Yellow — no cyan or black.
What colors make brown? Brown is a darkened, desaturated warm color with no single fixed recipe. The most direct approach: mix orange (from red and yellow) and add a touch of blue to neutralize it. Red, yellow, and blue in roughly equal parts also produce a muddy brown. Because red and green are complementary colors, mixing them makes brown too — this is the same reason grass and red objects photograph with a brown cast when contrast is crushed. Shift the brown warmer by adding red or yellow, cooler by adding more blue.
What colors make pink? Pink is red diluted with white. More white gives a pale pastel pink; less white gives a saturated hot pink. Adding a small amount of blue shifts pink toward rose or mauve. In RGB, pink sits at high red, medium green, and medium-to-high blue values.
What colors make beige? Mix white with a small amount of yellow and an even smaller amount of brown or raw umber. More yellow gives a warm cream; more brown gives a sandy tan. Beige is essentially a very desaturated, high-lightness warm color.
What colors make black? In paint, combining equal parts of dark blue (Prussian blue or phthalo blue) and dark brown (burnt umber) produces a rich, nuanced black that is often more vibrant than tube black alone. In the CMY subtractive model, equal parts cyan, magenta, and yellow theoretically make black, but in practice they produce dark brown — which is why printing presses add a dedicated black (K) ink channel.
What colors make maroon? Maroon is a dark brownish-red. Mix red with a small amount of black, or with a touch of brown (burnt umber). Adding a tiny amount of blue deepens it toward burgundy. In RGB, maroon is simply a low-value red: #800000.
How to Read and Use the Color Mixing Chart
The interactive table above displays every combination of 12 common colors. Each row is the first color in the mix, each column is the second. The cell at their intersection shows the approximate visual result. Click any cell to open the full mixing guide for that pair — including the paint recipe, the RGB hex code of the result, shade variations with step-by-step formulas, and the color theory explanation. Use the guide as a reference before committing paint to canvas, or as a starting point for digital color exploration.
Color Mixing Tips for Cleaner Results
Always mix a small test amount before committing to a large batch of paint. Start with the lighter color and gradually add the darker pigment — a small amount of dark paint goes a very long way. Be aware that every pigment has an underlying color bias: cadmium yellow leans warm (orange), while lemon yellow leans cool (green). Ultramarine blue is warm (violet-biased); phthalo blue is cool (green-biased). Pairing pigments with opposite biases produces cleaner, more saturated secondaries — cool lemon yellow with cool phthalo blue gives a brilliant green. Pairing pigments with same-side biases produces muted, earthy results — warm ultramarine blue with warm cadmium yellow gives a slightly grey-green because both contain hidden red.
Complementary Colors and Neutralization
Complementary colors are those directly opposite on the color wheel: red and green, blue and orange, yellow and purple. Mixing any complementary pair neutralizes both colors toward grey or brown as you increase the proportion of each. This is the painter's most powerful tool for toning down an overly vivid color without deadening it with black. A touch of red's complement — green — instantly desaturates a too-bright red without changing its temperature the way black would. Understanding complementary neutralization lets you mix nuanced shadows, skin tones, and naturalistic landscape colors that straight pigment can never achieve.
Frequently Asked Questions About Color Mixing
What color does red and green make?
In paint, red and green are complementary — mixing them produces brown or muddy grey depending on ratio and pigment. In RGB additive light, red and green make yellow, which is counterintuitive to anyone who learned mixing from paint but is mathematically correct for screens.
Blue and pink make what color?
Blue and pink (which is a tint of red) mixed in paint give a soft lavender or muted purple. The more blue you use relative to pink, the deeper and cooler the result. Equal parts lean toward a grey-violet.
What color does orange and blue make?
Orange and blue are complementary colors. In paint they neutralize each other to produce a warm brown or brownish grey. The exact tone depends on the specific pigments and their temperature bias — warm orange with cool ultramarine leans toward a rich, dark brown.
What two colors make brown food coloring?
Combine red and green food coloring drops in roughly a 2:1 ratio (more red). This exploits the same complementary neutralization principle as paint. Adding a tiny drop of blue deepens and cools the resulting brown, pushing it toward chocolate.
Red and blue makes what color?
In paint, red and blue make purple or violet. The specific shade depends on which red and which blue you use: warm reds (cadmium red) with cool blues (phthalo blue) give a clear, vivid purple; cool reds (crimson, quinacridone) with warm blues (ultramarine) produce a deeper, more complex violet.