Red plus yellow, then fine-tune
Orange is a secondary color: red and yellow mixed. Unlike purple, it's easy to get a bright result, because most reds already lean toward yellow. With primary red and primary yellow:
| Red : yellow | Result | Name it |
|---|---|---|
| 2 : 1 | #D6422C | Red-orange, vermilion |
| 1 : 1 | #E9652D | Mid orange |
| 1 : 2 | #F5922A | Tangerine |
| 1 : 3 | #F8A926 | Amber, marigold |
| 1 : 5 | #F8BD21 | Golden yellow-orange |
Yellow is the weaker pigment, so add red to yellow a little at a time.
The red matters
A warm, orange-leaning red gives the brightest oranges. A cool red such as alizarin crimson gives slightly duller, redder ones (crimson with two parts yellow makes #F38232). Magenta and yellow make a hot, pinkish orange, #EF593F at equal parts, which is close to coral.
Peach, rust and burnt orange
- Peach and apricot: add white. 1 red, 2 yellow and 2 white gives #FBB24E; with 6 white it becomes a pale #FEDC94.
- Burnt orange: add a little blue, orange's complement. Four tenths of a part of blue gives #BB6732. Green dulls it too, slightly less.
- Rust: go further with blue, or add burnt umber, and use extra red.
- Brown: keep adding blue and you'll reach brown. See what colors make brown.
Interestingly, black barely darkens orange in this model: a third of a part of black in the 1:1 mix gives #DC652E, almost unchanged. In real paint, black tends to push yellow and orange toward olive rather than making a deeper orange, so blue or umber is the better darkener.
Orange in light and on screen
On screen, orange is red light at full strength with about half as much green: #FF8000 or the CSS keyword darkorange (#FF8C00). Red and yellow light also blend to orange, since an additive mix lands between its two hues. The difference shows with opposites: orange and blue light add up toward white, while orange and blue paint make brown. For HEX codes, see shades of orange, and use the color mixer to compare paint and light results.
Getting consistent oranges
Mixed oranges vary with the exact paints, so if you need the same orange repeatedly, note your ratio, or buy a tube orange such as cadmium orange or pyrrole orange. These are brighter than most mixes, since every mix loses some saturation.
The swatches on this page come from a model of how pigments absorb and scatter light, using fixed sample colors. Real cadmium, pyrrole or hansa paints will differ a little, and acrylic dries slightly darker than it looks wet.
Coral, pumpkin, apricot and tangerine
| Shade | Recipe in parts | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Tangerine | 2 yellow, 1 red | #F5922A |
| Pumpkin | 3 orange, ¼ burnt umber | #E6641A |
| Apricot | 1 orange, 1 yellow, 2 white | #FBC965 |
| Coral | 1 orange, ½ magenta, 1 white | #F9835B |
Coral is the one people struggle with. Orange and white alone gives peach, which is too yellow; the half part of magenta is what pushes it pink. Pumpkin needs only a quarter part of umber, and a little more takes it straight to rust.
Orange icing, clay and kids' paint
When you tint frosting, start with yellow and add red a drop at a time. Going the other way, red first, means using far more color to recover and can leave a bitter taste. The same order saves paint with poster colors and polymer clay: the lighter color goes down first and the stronger one is added in small amounts.
For orange shadows in a painting, reach for the opposite color. A touch of blue dulls and deepens orange more naturally than black, which tends to turn it olive.
FAQ
What two colors make orange?
Red and yellow. Use more yellow for a lighter orange and more red for a deeper one.
How do you make dark orange?
Add more red, then a very small amount of blue or burnt umber.
What colors make neon orange?
You can't mix a true neon. Fluorescent orange needs fluorescent pigment, which glows under daylight in a way ordinary paint can't.