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What colors make what? A color mixing chart

Every swatch below is a mix computed the way pigments behave, not an RGB average. Pick a color to see several recipes with exact parts.

Recipes by color

Each page has six mixes you can tune, including lighter and darker versions.

Painter’s primaries (red, yellow, blue)

The traditional art-class triangle. Purple from red and blue is the weak spot.

  • Aa 5.21:1
    Primary red + primary yellow #E9652D RGB 233, 101, 45
  • Aa 5.11:1
    Primary yellow + primary blue #639A43 RGB 99, 154, 67
  • Aa 11.18:1
    Primary red + primary blue #4C3442 RGB 76, 52, 66
  • Aa 6.84:1
    All three (2:1:1 red) #8C4735 RGB 140, 71, 53

Printing primaries (cyan, magenta, yellow)

These give cleaner secondaries, which is why printers use them.

  • Aa 7.33:1
    Cyan + primary yellow #42C144 RGB 66, 193, 68
  • Aa 5.06:1
    Magenta + primary yellow #EF593F RGB 239, 89, 63
  • Aa 5.65:1
    Cyan + magenta (2:1) #505EC1 RGB 80, 94, 193
  • Aa 8.72:1
    Cyan + magenta (1:2) #65328F RGB 101, 50, 143

Complementary pairs

Opposites dull each other toward brown or gray.

  • Aa 8.65:1
    Primary red + green #5B4743 RGB 91, 71, 67
  • Aa 5.34:1
    Orange + primary blue (2:1) #87652B RGB 135, 101, 43
  • Aa 5.16:1
    Purple + primary yellow (2:1) #96604A RGB 150, 96, 74
  • Aa 10.71:1
    Burnt umber + ultramarine #393F40 RGB 57, 63, 64

Adding white and black

White makes tints and black makes shades; neither changes the hue family much.

  • Aa 8.90:1
    Primary red + white (1:2) #FDA1AA RGB 253, 161, 170
  • Aa 12.20:1
    Primary blue + white (1:3) #C1DCFA RGB 193, 220, 250
  • Aa 10.77:1
    Ultramarine + black (2:1) #283C6B RGB 40, 60, 107
  • Aa 7.15:1
    Black + white #A9A7A1 RGB 169, 167, 161

How to read this chart

Every swatch above was computed with a Kubelka-Munk model, the physics used in paint and printing to predict how pigments absorb and scatter light. That is why yellow and blue come out green here instead of the gray you'd get by averaging their RGB numbers. The same model runs the color mixer, where you can mix your own colors in any ratio.

The paints are sample values for common student colors: a primary red (#C1272D), yellow (#F7D117) and blue (#1F3FBF), plus cyan, magenta, ultramarine, burnt umber, white and black. Real tubes vary by brand, so use the chart for direction and confirm with a test swatch.

Three things the chart shows

  1. Painter's primaries make muddy purples. Red and blue give #4C3442, nearer brown than violet. Magenta and ultramarine give a clean purple, which is why the purple recipe page leads with them.
  2. Printing primaries are cleaner. Cyan and yellow make a vivid green and cyan with magenta makes a real blue, something a red, yellow and blue set can't do.
  3. Complements neutralize. Red with green, or umber with ultramarine, cancel toward brown, gray and near-black. That's how painters mix shadows without reaching for black.

Mixing tips that apply to every color

  • Add the stronger color to the weaker one in small amounts: blue into yellow, red into white, black into anything.
  • White cools and dulls as it lightens. Add a touch of the original color back if a tint looks chalky.
  • Black can shift hue. Yellow plus black turns olive rather than dark yellow.
  • Write down ratios as parts, like the recipe cards do, so you can mix the same color again.

Paint, ink and light

Pigments subtract light, so mixing them makes colors darker. Light adds, so on a screen red and green light make yellow, and all three primaries make white. If you work digitally, the color wheel and complementary colors tools work with screen color directly.