Different paints are made by different manufacturers, and they each have their own formulas. This means there are many variations of blue and red out there. When used, some might create the best purple color, while others produce a dull or unexpectedly ugly color.
Red and Blue mixed! What Color Does Red and Blue Make (Updated 2023)
When you think of the color red, what comes to your mind? You probably think of things like power, a stop sign, an apple, or even maybe a drop of blood.
What comes to mind when you think of the color blue? Do you think of the sky, or water, or have a feeling of calmness? All of these come to our minds.
Individually, each of these colors is vibrant and powerful in its own way, but what happens when you mix red and blue together? Does it create another beautiful color or something less desirable?
Today we’re going to explore what happens when red and blue are mixed, and even go into some color theories so you get a deeper understanding of how it all works. Let’s get started.
Mixing Paint Colors in School
Think back for a second to when you were in elementary school. Do you remember when your teacher was talking about art and how to paint? You were probably looking forward to making your very first masterpiece.
To help you get started, your teacher taught you how to mix the current colors on your palette to create new ones. She demonstrated this by showing a color wheel complete with all the primary, secondary and tertiary colors.
Your teacher wrote on the board: Red + Blue = What Color?
In this illustration, she probably showed you that mixing blue and red will result in purple (violet). This is true to an extent because you need to know that this is only one piece of the puzzle.
When using paint colors… red and blue make purple. But does red and blue make another color? Here is a clue… it depends on what color theory we’re discussing. Let us explain…
Primary Color Model (Red, Blue, and Yellow)
First, you need to have a good understanding of how the color wheel actually works. One thing about the wheel is that it follows the Primary Color Model.
In the color wheel chart below you’ll see that the Primary Colors are: Red, Blue, and Yellow.
In the middle graph, it displays the Primary and Secondary Colors: Green, Violet, and Orange
And in the last color wheel, it displays the Tertiary Colors. The Tertiary Colors are hues that you get when you combine primary and secondary colors.
The color theory is easy to understand when it’s displayed in this type of graph or pie chart.
But, it still may be confusing for some… so to help explain this, the color chart below clearly shows that when you mix the primary colors red and blue together it makes violet or some may call it purple.
As mentioned before, this is only a part of the puzzle. Continue reading to the next section to find out more…
What Color Do Red and Blue Make When Mixed?
In elementary school art class, most people learned the basics of mixing colors. Coloring with paint helped us see how primary colors can become secondary colors, tints, and shades with proper mixing. Yet, those core art lessons aren’t clear and consistent in every form of color mixing.
When mixing red and blue, which are two primary colors, we might not always get the same exact color. The color you get depends on the medium you’re using, along with the types of red and blue you choose. So, here are the basics of mixing red and blue together.
What Color Do Red and Blue Make When Painting?
When mixing red and blue on paper or canvas, you’ll likely get some kind of purple. “ Red + blue = purple ” is something that’s often covered in early art classes.
However, mixing colors isn’t always as simple as it sounds. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try to create the perfect purple paint, it just doesn’t seem right. Blending red and blue to make the ideal color takes a lot of trial and error, so following some tips and tricks might help you achieve it.
Why Does Mixing Red and Blue Not Always Make Purple?
The problem with mixing colors today is that there are so many variations of red and blue. Some reds and blues make a perfect purple when mixed together. Others create a dark, gross-looking color that’s far from what you expected.
If your purple ends up looking dull or unpleasant, it could be because some red and blue paints contain a little yellow in them. Since yellow complements purple, the two create a brown color when mixed. So, even a little bit of yellow mixed in with the red or blue could throw the purple off.
When looking for ideal mixing colors, be sure to choose a paint that’s pure red or blue, without any unexpected colors mixed in. Otherwise, you’ll never be able to mix a bright purple, no matter how hard you try. It can also be helpful to try mixing a variety of reds and blues to observe the different types of purples you get.
It’s important to note that the type of paint you’re using could vary your results. Acrylic, watercolor, and oil paints all have different consistencies, so some might be easier to mix than others.
What Paints Should You Use?
For example, let’s say you’re trying to make purple using “ultramarine blue.” If you use “alizarin crimson,” which is a deep red, the mixture comes out more gray than purple. That’s because the red is darker and already has a hint of blue in it.
A light red, such as “permanent rose,” will create a much better purple mixture. However, if you want an even lighter purple, you can try using “cerulean blue” instead of ultramarine blue. You’ll end up with a nice violet.
The paint names aren’t always consistent, but you’ll likely find a wide variety of blues and reds to work with, no matter what brand and type of paint you use. Taking some time to test all the red and blue mixtures can be a great way to see all the purple possibilities. From there, you can think about adding tints or shades to your purple.
How to Mix Different Shades of Purple
Mixing red and blue together will get you a true purple color, but that’s not always the color you’ll want. In some cases, you’ll want to make different shades of purple that are lighter or darker.
Mixing Lighter Purple
Adding white to a color is the easiest way to make the paint lighter. Adding extra red can also make the purple look warmer and softer.
Mixing Darker Purple
To create darker shades of purple, you can add extra blue instead. You can also add a tiny bit of black, but don’t overdo it. Mixing in too much black could overpower the color, which is difficult to fix.
Purple vs. Violet vs. Indigo
Purple
Hex: #800080
RGB: 128, 0, 128
CMYK 0, 100, 0, 50
Violet
Hex: #8F00FF
RGB: 143, 0, 255
CMYK 44, 100, 0, 0
Indigo
Hex: #4B0082
RGB: 75, 0, 130
CMYK 42, 100, 0, 49
Sometimes, you might see the words purple and violet used interchangeably, but they’re not the same exact color. On the color wheel, the color is often referred to as violet instead of purple. Violet is on the electromagnetic spectrum while purple isn’t. In fact, violet is on the lowest end of the light wavelength spectrum.
In most cases, violet appears more blue than red, while purple is closer to a perfect mixture of the two. In other words, they’re different shades or tints of the same color.
Indigo is another purple variant that’s more blue than red. Both violet and indigo are colors of the rainbow while purple isn’t included in “ROYGBIV”. By definition, indigo is a deeper color with more blue than violet.
Purple Meaning
Regardless of the type of purple you mix, it’s a good idea to understand the meaning before using it in your art. Purple represents imagination, mystery, royalty, and spirituality. It’s meant to enlighten, inspire, and encourage those who look at it.
Lighter tints of purple often represent romantic and nostalgic feelings. However, darker shades of purple are signs of sadness and frustration.
So, when you mix red and blue together with paint, consider how these shades and tints of purple will affect those admiring your artwork. Purple is a beautiful color, but it has so much deeper meaning to it.
Can You Mix Colors to Create Red and Blue?
Since red and blue are primary colors, no two colors mix together to create a perfect red or blue. However, if you don’t have red or blue paint, you can still make it from scratch, as long as you understand the color wheel. You will need to use a subtractive formula to create either of these colors from scratch.
For blue, you can mix cyan and magenta together. Cyan is green-blue and magenta is purple-red. While it might seem like an odd combination, it will give you a pure blue. It’s sort of like how the cyan, yellow, and magenta ink in a printer can make all other colors.
So, for red, you will need to mix magenta and yellow together in a similar way. Of course, it’s easier to buy red and blue paint, but mixing them is an artistic decision that helps advance your knowledge of color theory.
What Color Do Red and Blue Make With Lights?
If you’re mixing red and blue lights together, the result is no longer purple. In this scenario, red and blue make magenta . Blue and red are still primary colors for lighting, but the mixture of colors that our eyes see is slightly different from paint mixtures.
Understanding the Light Spectrum
Electromagnetic radiation depends on the frequency of wavelengths, and in the middle of that spectrum is light visible to the human eye. Ultraviolet, x-ray, and gamma-ray have a higher wavelength frequency than visible light while infrared, microwave, and radio have a lower frequency.
One interesting aspect of this spectrum is that temperature closely correlates with the color of light. When objects increase in temperature, the energy released has shorter wavelengths, making it appear different to the human eye. It’s why you might see a flame turn from red to blue as it gets hotter.
Understanding colors, wavelengths, and temperatures in this way helps astronomers learn more about space. However, for most humans, the impressive spectrum of light is just the ordinary way we perceive the world. When we look at colors, a lot more is happening than we think.
How Do Our Eyes Perceive Colors in Light?
When our eyes look at color, we’re seeing how that object reflects or gives off light to create a certain color. Each color is a certain wavelength that our eyes can perceive.
Cones and rods, which are cells in our eyes, are what help us see different colors. Rods take in visible light and send it to our brains. Then, cones catch the light at certain wavelengths that match the right color.
Wavelengths on the low end of the light spectrum tend to appear red while the ones on the high end are closer to blue. Anything in the middle is perceived as green. Thus, red, blue, and green are the primary colors in light. Any other light colors are a mixture of these.
When we see a mixture of blue and red light together, we see magenta rather than purple.
Color Pigments
The only exceptions to this process are pigments. Pigments are natural coloring that trap frequencies of light and only let certain frequencies bounce off objects, rather than adding light together. This process is called subtractive coloring, which is similar to how paints and dyes are created.
Chlorophyll is the most popular pigment, which is commonly found in green plants. It absorbs blue and red light, causing only green light to be reflected to the human eye. Some other pigments are hemoglobin, melanin, carotenoids, and anthocyanin.
So, if blue and red pigments are mixed together, they’ll create purple just like a paint mixture.
Mixing Different Shades of Purple Paint
Just like you get shades of purple on the computer, you can also create a variety of purple shades with paint. Remember that you can get many different types of the same color, so again, always read the ingredients on the tubes of paint, and experiment with some to see what happens. When blending colors and you want to go lighter or darker, it is also known as shades and tints.
Shades of Color
To make a color darker, many add small amounts of black paint. However, this does always work as black tends to easily overpower the color. When it comes to making purple darker, rather try adding more blue paint. Depending on what blue you used, instead of black, you could also try a darker blue, such as navy blue to darken the purple. To find out what works better, you can experiment and create your own color chart. To deepen a purple color and make it warmer, try adding more red paint.
Tints of color
Tints are opposite to shades, meaning that paint colors become lighter and not darker. To do this, you can simply add small amounts of white to the purple. You can also tone down or create a less vibrant purple by adding yellow, its complementary color. Just make sure it small amounts as you will land up with a muddy color if you use too much.
Complementary colors can be determined by looking at a color wheel. You will notice that purple and yellow are positioned directly opposite each other. When placed alongside one another, the colors stand out. However, if you mix these two paint colors, they cancel each other out and create a brownish color.
Conclusion
As you can see, a combination of red and blue is a little different when considering light and pigments. Be it purple, magenta, or violet, all shades of purple are ideal for helping to promote creativity and imagination.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Color Does Red and Blue Make?
To put it simply, there are different systems used to create colors, one is through light, which is an additive system so red and blue make magenta. When it comes to paints, dyes, and inks, red and blue make purple, which uses a subtractive system.
Why Is Purple Connected With Wealth?
Purple has a strong connection to wealth as well as royalty since, in ancient times, the dye that was used to color fabrics was extremely expensive as well as rare, and could only be afforded by those who were wealthy and those from royalty.
What Is an Additive Color System?
This is the process of adding or mixing colors of light, for example, if you combine red and blue light in equal proportions, you will create magenta. So, when combining all the colors, you will get white light.
What Is a Subtractive Color System?
This color system deals with things like pigments and dyes, where certain colors are absorbed, and others reflected. For example, the CMYK color model for printing, which involves cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink, is a subtractive color model.
Charlene Lewis ( Content Creator and Creativity Writer )
In 2005, Charlene completed her Wellness Diplomas in Therapeutic Aromatherapy and Reflexology from the International School of Reflexology and Meridian Therapy. She worked for a company offering corporate wellness programs for a couple of years, before opening up her own therapy practice. It was in 2015 that a friend, who was a digital marketer, asked her to join her company as a content creator, and this is where she found her excitement for writing.
Since joining the content writing world, she has gained a lot of experience over the years writing on a diverse selection of topics, from beauty, health, wellness, travel, and more. Due to various circumstances, she had to close her therapy practice and is now a full-time freelance writer. Being a creative person, she could not pass up the opportunity to contribute to the Art in Context team, where is was in her element, writing about a variety of art and craft topics. Contributing articles for over three years now, her knowledge in this area has grown, and she has gotten to explore her creativity and improve her research and writing skills.
Charlene Lewis has been working for artincontext.org since the relaunch in 2020. She is an experienced writer and mainly focuses on the topics of color theory, painting and drawing.
Learn more about Charlene Lewis and the Art in Context Team.
