Keep an eye on the image’s caption for all the paint recipes!
How to Make Blue?
If you want to know what colors make blue, you may get two very different answers. The first one is simple: you can’t make blue because it’s one of the three so-called primaries. The second is a bit more complicated, but actually very interesting and much closer to the truth. So if you want to start an interesting conversation about art, graphic design or are just being curious, read on to find out how to make the color blue!
There are numerous theories about the color, but most of us are familiar with at least one – the color wheel, developed in 1666 by Sir Isaac Newton (he actually became a Sir almost 40 years after that). This theory explains all the colors by three basic, primary hues: red, blue and yellow. None of them can be made from other colors and every other hue you might imagine can be made by mixing two or all three primaries in right proportions.
This color wheel can be presented with a simple diagram, a color wheel of primary colors:
The so-called secondary color wheel or 6 color wheel looks like this:
Sometimes it is also called a complementary color wheel because the colors, lying on the opposites of the circle make complementaries to each other. As you already noticed, there are three other colors added – green as a mix of yellow and blue, orange as a mix of red and yellow, and violet (purple) as a mix of blue and red.
We can proceed with a tertiary color wheel, a color wheel with 12 colors:
Here we got six additional colors (blue-purple, blue-green, yellow-green, yellow-orange, red-orange, and red-purple) all being made by mixing one primary and one secondary color. It’s obvious we can go on and on with that, making more and more new colors. With an addition of white, gray and black we got different tints, tones, and shades as well, what leads us to next color wheel:
This kind of mixing colors is called additive color model, but in practice, we often use a subtractive color model as well. This one is based on a different, although still very logical premises. It starts with a white light, which is, as you probably already know, made of different colors. These can be individually seen thanks to the dispersion.
Each color has its own wavelength and each has different speed when passing the media (in the example above, it’s a glass prism). Instead of the white mixture, we are able to see its components and with appropriate filters, we can eliminate certain colors to see just one or more of them. The printing process at computer printing is based on this idea.
We start with a white sheet of paper and then apply series of filters, so only desired color(s) can be seen. Filters in common printing are called cyan, yellow and magenta. All of them are colors already but are used in mixtures to create hues that could be seen as the end result. You probably already heard of CMY abbreviation, called after first letters of these color filters, and we’ll get back to it later.
So What Two Colors Make Blue?
If we want to print blue color, we need two filters: cyan (it eliminates red) and magenta (it eliminates yellow). Similarly, other colors can be created:
To improve the quality of printing and reduce the costs another color was added into the CYM system – black, which could be otherwise created with an application of all three basic filters. This is how today’s most known printing standard CYMK was created. There are several theories what a K means, from being the last letter in black (B is already taken for blue – B in another system, called RGB) to the most believable K for Key, the color which is in most cases applied first for outlining.
But let’s get back to the color blue. Just like all other paints a blue paint is made from a pigment dissolved in a liquid vehicle (like water or oil). Typical paint made by classic procedures is a mixture of pigments (responsible for color), resins (keep pigments in place), solvent (to regulate the viscosity of paint) and additives (for fine tuning the properties of the paint).
Here how a blue pigment, called Fra Angelico, the starting point of so popular ultramarine blue color, is prepared:
This classic blue pigment is made from semi-precious stone Lapis Azuli and is the reason why blue color was for so many centuries reserved only for rich people. Today we have an enormous number of different pigments, some of natural, other of synthetic origin.
Do you need a list of blue pigments? Just read on!
Smalt (Saxon Blue)
Ultramarine (Lapis Lazuli)
Please note, some of these pigments contain toxic chemicals, especially heavy metals, so don’t play with them without prior knowledge and skills to handle them. This article is of informative nature only and if you want to know more about blue hues, you can simply check this list of different blue colors.
When we already have a pigment (or more pigments), the procedure goes as follows:
Please be aware of possible fumes, so take safety precautions. With this, we conclude our a bit longish answer to the seemingly simple, yet tricky question: »What makes blue?« See, colors are more of ideas than absolute facts, and each similar question can bring several right answers, all of the different logical concepts based on different perceptions.
This should not stop you from exploring the fascinated world of different colors. Have fun!
What Colors Make Navy Blue?
If you are making a ‘scientific color experiment’ without having the basics of color theory, you might never get to say ‘Eureka’ loudly! So, before we dive into the nitty-gritty of how to construct navy blue shade or what mysterious colors make navy blue, let’s take a brief look at the basics of color theory.
Color Theory
The color theory is simple and we are making it fit in an M&M chocolate bowl so that you can grasp a handful of info in no time.
According to the boring ‘wise owl’ term, color theory is a set of rules and regulations used by designers to communicate with a user to show them the appealingness of colors in a visual interface.
But in simple words, the color theory works with different types of colors around us and shows how they mix, contrast, or match with each other. And basically, the colors we see around us are divided into three groups: primary, secondary, and tertiary colors.
Primary Colors (Ps):
Primary colors are the roots of all colors. All the colors we see around us somehow originate from them. There are three primary colors: red, blue, and yellow.
Secondary Colors (S’):
Secondary colors are the mixtures of two of the three primary colors. Like primary colors, the number of secondary colors is also three: green, orange, and purple.
Tertiary Colors (Ts):
Tertiary colors are produced when a primary color is mixed with a secondary color. There are six tertiary colors; blue-violet, blue-green, yellow-orange, red-violet, red-orange, and green-yellow.
Okay, now you have the basics of color theory. It’s time to find out the answer to what colors make navy blue?
Colors That Make Navy Blue
Navy blue is neither a primary nor a secondary color. So, you need to blend your own colors to achieve a rich navy blue hue.
You can make navy blue tint using different combinations of two of these three colors: pure blue, black, or orange.
What Two Colors Make Navy Blue?
As mentioned earlier, a combination of pure blue and black, or pure blue and orange makes navy blue. So, if you want to go with the first combination, mix pure blue shade with black and you will get a rich navy blue hue. This combination is the easiest way of making a navy blue shade.
On the other hand, if you take the second combination, this will work pretty well as well. But while using orange, you can’t take the same amount of it as the blue shade. If you use the same amount of blue and orange you will end up getting somewhat close to a version of a tertiary color, brown. So, you have to use blue more than orange to give it a darker look and eventually a navy blue shade.
But isn’t it weird that at first, it was brown and now it’s navy blue? A question may pop into mind, ‘how and why does it happen’? Let’s find out why orange works for navy blue.
Making Navy Blue with Orange
When you are starting an experiment on making new colors, a color wheel appears to be very useful to figure out which shades can be blended together and which shades cannot be. But before you start blending, you need to have the basics of the color wheel. So, what actually is a color wheel?
Well, a color wheel is or color circle is a circle that contains different colors hues around it and shows the relations between them. A color wheel contains primary, secondary, and tertiary colors in a specific order.
Okay, getting back to the topic, in the color wheel there is a term called complementary colors, which refers to colors that sit opposite to one another in the color wheel. If a small amount of one complementary color is mixed with the other color, it creates a darker hue of the paint that has the larger amount. For instance, red and green are complementary colors so, if you were to take a small amount of red and mix it with bright green, it will give you a darker hue of green.
Now, in the case of our pure blue and orange, they are complementary colors too. So, if you make a combination of these two colors you will get a navy blue tint. Also, we are making navy blue, so, we need to take the portion of pure blue in a larger amount compared to orange.
Ideas For Using Navy Blue In Paintings
Now that you know how to make navy blue paint, how can you use it in a painting? If you really want to showcase your awesomely amazing custom navy blue paint color, I’ve got a few ideas for you!
- Galaxy
- Night sky (with tree silhouettes and lots of stars)
- Northern lights
- Deep ocean
- Shadow color for anything that you’ve painted blue
Navy Blue Color Combo Ideas
If you’ve decided to use your new navy blue paint color in an abstract or a paint pour, you may be stumped as to what other colors to use.
In the world of design and fashion, navy is seen as neutral, so just about any color will work. Still, you’ll want to consider the feeling you want your painting to promote. Let’s take a look at energetic paint combos and calming combos.
Energetic Colors to Pair with Navy
When thinking about a color to pair with a navy that will create an impressive impact, you want to stick to colors that are opposite on the color wheel or very vibrant colors, like hot pink, lime green, bright sunny yellow, etc.
- Bright Coral Orange/Pink
- Primary Red
- Lemon Yellow
- Sunny Yellow
- Burnt Orange
- Hot Pink/Fuchsia
- Lime Green
- Vibrant Turquoise
- Crisp White
Calming Paint Colors to Use with Navy
On the flip side, if you want to make sure that your painting gives off soothing vibes, you’ll want to use muted/pastel colors and/or colors close to blue on the color wheel that have the same depth.
- Deep Bordeaux Red
- Blush Pink
- Champagne
- Periwinkle Blue
- Dark Dusty Purple
- Pale Seafoam Green
- Sage Green
- Dove Grey
The Color Hunt website is a great place to see even more navy blue color palette ideas.
Conclusion
If you want to know how to make navy blue paint, you’ve got to be willing to experiment. Luckily, I’ve done that for you, so all you have to do is pick your favorite recipe and get mixing!
As we’ve learned, you can make navy without a base blue color. You just need to mix up a blue first and then continue on with the recipe of your choice.
Plus, you’ve also learned how to make a substitute paint color for Prussian Blue. This will be a recipe you’ll want to copy down in your notebook because I’ve seen it used quite a bit in different YouTube painting tutorials.
Knowing how to mix a custom navy paint color will give your future acrylic painting projects that added level of “from scratch” that is always a welcome addition to any masterpiece.
Share this article with your friends so they can grab their favorite navy blue paint color recipe too!
Want More Paint Color Recipes?
- Need Some Turquoise?
- What About Green?
- Ever Wonder What Happens When You Mix Green And Purple?
