One example would be with the lavender flower which has beautiful purple with green stems. When you start to mix these colors, you can also get many results that would look great in a nature setting.
What color does purple and green make when mixed?
Sometimes, the most surprising color combinations can have the best results. If you’ve ever wondered what color does purple and green make when mixed, then you are in the right place.
Mixing these two beautiful colors can have some incredible results, and they work brilliantly when used together as well. In this guide, we will go over some of the ways you can mix and use purple and green together.
We will also have some specific examples you can try as well as some tips and tricks for combining these colors. So let’s begin and discover all of the possibilities of these colors!
How you can mix purple and green?
When you’re mixing any kinds of colors, it’s never as simple as just getting your paint and mixing the colors. There are so many factors to take into consideration when mixing.
First, you should be aware of the kinds of colors that you could possibly get from mixing. In the case of purple and green, the answer to this is not so simple, as the results can vary.
They can vary depending on the shades of colors you use as well as the quantities. You will often get a brown color when mixing these colors, but even that has many possibilities.
For example, if you use a bright green and a dark purple, you will probably get a darker brown with a purple tone.
If you reversed this with dark green and light purple, then the brown might have a greenish tone.
This is something that we will go over and show in more details throughout the guide. Generally, you will get a color mixture by adding one color of a medium to another.
The quantities of each color depend on what you’re looking for. You can use an equal mix of the two colors if you want the result to be a bit more neutral.
But, if you want a brown that leans more towards the green end of the equation, then you will want to use a bit more green than purple.
Color combinations require a lot of practice and trial and error. It’s possible to vaguely predict the outcome, but you will never truly know until you try.
These experiments and trials should ideally not happen on the surface you will be painting or drawing on. Instead, they should happen on a separate surface.
Try to take notes of the different colors and quantities that you use as you go along. That way, when you find the right combination you will be able to recreate it when working on your artwork.
Now, we will next look at whether purple and green are a good combination to mix together.
Are purple and green a good combination to mix together?
Now you may be wondering whether purple and green are even a good set of colors to combine. First, let’s look at what each color actually is.
Purple and green are what we call secondary colors, meaning they are a combination of two primary colors. Purple is created by mixing red and blue.
Green, on the other hand, is made using blue and yellow. So in effect, when you mix purple and green you are essentially mixing all of the colors we just mentioned.
Most paint or coloring sets will include purple and greens, but some artists recommend making these colors yourself so you have more control.
Certain shades of purple and green are opposite each other on the color wheel, making them complementary colors.
They’re not always complimentary, however, and it does depend on the shades.
Regardless, this means that these colors bring out the best in one another. Complimentary colors tend to make each other look brighter and more vibrant, so using them together is a good look more often than not.
When it comes to mixing purple and green, you may not always land up with an exciting or notable color. As we mentioned, you will usually get some kind of brown, green or purple color.
That’s not to say that these can’t be useful colors! When you are creating your artwork, you will often find uses for these kinds of mid-tones.
That is something that we will cover later when we go over a few of the ways that you can use purple and green.
For now, you can definitely see purple and green as a combination with many possibilities.
In the next step, we will look at some of the results you can anticipate while giving you some examples to look up.
What Color Do Red and Purple Make When Mixing Paint?
If you mix red and purple paint together, you’ll get red-purple or red-violet, which is an intermediate color. It is a warm shade of purple, but many artists call it magenta.
So what do you get if you mix red and purple?
When red and purple are mixed, they produce a warm shade of purple. That’s because purple is a secondary color made by mixing blue and red. So, mixing purple and red is like mixing one-part blue with two parts red.
Purple is a secondary color on the traditional color wheel and comes in different shades. Even though purple is generally a cool color, like blue, mixing purple and red makes a warm purple.
Every color carries a bias. For example, some may have a cold bias, while others may have a warm bias.
So, while blending blue and red results in a cool purple, red and purple mixed together make a warm purple.
Is Red-Purple an Intermediate or a Tertiary Color?
Red-purple is an intermediate color, not a tertiary color, because, in art, the mixtures between a primary color and an adjacent secondary color are called intermediate colors.
Tertiary colors, however, are mixtures of two secondary colors.
What are Intermediate Colors?
Intermediate colors are equal mixtures of a primary color – red, yellow, or blue, and an adjacent secondary color.
There are six intermediate colors on the RYB color model: yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green, and yellow-green.
Thus, their names show us what colors are mixed to create them.
- Yellow-orange: Amber
- Red-orange: Vermillion
- Red-purple: Magenta
- Blue-purple: Violet
- Blue-green: Teal
- Yellow-green: Chartreuse
Although many confuse intermediate and tertiary colors, they are not the same.
Tertiary colors are equal mixtures between two secondary colors. So, a tertiary color is any two-color mixture of green, orange, and purple.
However, this definition of tertiary colors only applies in traditional art. In other color models, such as RGB or CMYK, tertiary colors are equal mixtures of primary and secondary colors.
How to Mix Red-Purple
ed purple is a gorgeous color that borrows traits from the noble character of purple and the strength of red.
However, finding out how to create tones and shades of this lovely color is attractive.
Mixing Tints of Red-Purple
To make a red-purple tint, mix red and purple as a base and then add white paint. The darker the result of the mix, the more white paint you need to add to open up the shade.
Mixing Shades of Red-Purple
To make a shade of red-purple, add black paint. Additionally, you can add a darker purple to the mix, such as Dioxazine purple. The more black or Dioxazine purple you add, the more the resulting color will lean towards blue-purple.
What Color is Red-Purple?
Red-purple is an intermediate color between red and purple on the traditional color wheel. This color, also known as magenta, is a mixture of purple and red.
Magenta is closer to red than purple because purple is an equal blend of red and blue.
Red-Purple Color Meaning
Some call it red-purple or red-violet, while others call it magenta. However, this mix of purple and red evokes compassion, self-respect, and support.
Magenta is associated with kindness, generosity, and compassion. It is the color that promotes understanding, harmony, and emotional balance.
Furthermore, magenta combines the warmth and energy of red with the creativity and ambition of purple.
Thus, magenta is a balanced mix of happiness, cheerfulness, and contentment.
Can You Mix Colors to Create Purple and Red?
Just as you see red and purple mixed together to make red-purple, other colors can also be combined to make purple or red.
Purple is a secondary color on the RYB color wheel. This means that it can be created by mixing two primary colors. So what colors make purple? The simple answer is red and blue. Mix them using an equal ratio, and you’ll get purple.
But what about red?
Red is a primary color on the RYB color model, meaning it cannot be created by mixing other colors. However, you can make red by using a subtractive mix from the CMYK color model.
So what colors make red? The short answer is magenta and yellow.
Red can be made by mixing magenta and red in equal amounts. This is a subtractive color mixing.
Why does the subtractive mixing of magenta and yellow make red? When mixed with magenta and yellow pigments, they absorb (subtract) different parts of the spectrum of white light.
When these two pigments are mixed, they absorb green and blue light while reflecting only red light.
In particular, magenta absorbs green wavelengths, and yellow absorbs blue wavelengths. Thus, this mixture cancels out all other wavelengths of light except red.
What Do Red and Purple Make When Mixing Lights?
When it comes to lights, things change. So there is a color model that deals with light, and it’s called RGB. Its primary colors are red, green, and blue. These are considered the primary additive colors.
When you mix red and purple lights, the color produced is a dark reddish-magenta. Magenta is a secondary color in the RGB model resulting from mixing blue and red light equally.
How do Light Mixtures Work?
This type of mixing combines different wavelengths of light to create other colors. This is different from subtractive mixing, which involves removing certain wavelengths of light from white light.
The additive mixture is used on all electronic displays, including computer monitors, laptops, tablets, TVs, and smartphones. All of these use small red, green, and blue pixels (also called sub-pixels) at different brightness levels to create colorful images.
Additive mixing starts with black (darkness) and brightens more with the overlapping of colored light.
Finally, the additive model creates white light by equally mixing the primary colors of light – red, green, and blue – at maximum brightness.
Is Purple the same as Violet?
Purple and violet are not the same color.
Violet is a spectral color, meaning it exists as a single wavelength of light. Moreover, violet has the shortest wavelength of visible light, at around 380 nanometers.
On the other hand, purple is a non-spectral color created by combining blue and red in equal parts.
Purple
Hex: #800080
RGB: 128, 0, 128
CMYK: 0, 100, 0, 50
Violet
Hex: #8F00FF
RGB: 143, 0, 255
CMYK: 44, 100, 0, 0
Do Red and Purple Always Make Magenta?
Whether you mix pigments or lights, red and purple mixed will yield red-purple or magenta. However, you will likely get a dark magenta in physics and light.
At the same time, the same mix of pigments will produce different warm shades of purple (red-purple).
Other mixes produce different colors in the world of physics vs. traditional art. For example, red and blue make purple in painting. On the other hand, the same mix of lights makes magenta.
On the RGB color wheel, purple is a mix of violet and magenta, between 270 and 300 degrees. Magenta is a secondary color created by mixing red and blue light. Violet, on the other hand, is a tertiary color created by mixing magenta and blue.
How To Mix Earth Tone Paint Colors
There are several earth tones available in each of Rosco’s scenic paint lines: Off Broadway, Supersaturated, and Iddings Deep Colors. It is helpful, however, to know how to mix earth tone paint colors – just in case you run into a situation where you don’t have access to those particular paints. Using the Off Broadway Scenic Paints inside our Rosco Scenic Set paint kits, Scenic Artist Tessa Broyles described how to mix the most popular earth tone colors in a recent video on her Behind The Scenics YouTube Channel.
Using a standard color wheel as her guide, Tessa describes how to mix six common earth tones: Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Yellow Ochre, and Van Dyke Brown. In order to mix these earth tones, you begin with the most appropriate primary or secondary color. From there, you mix in the other two colors that form a Triad on the color wheel.
Tessa also explains why it doesn’t work to simply mix the base color with its complementary color. Using Yellow Ochre as the example, she points out that it doesn’t work to simply mix the yellow base color with the complementary purple, because the color comes out too green. “Yellow Ochre is not made from an even mix of red & blue,” Tessa explains. “We need more red than what the purple gives us.”
From there, Tessa moves around the color wheel explaining the different recipes she uses to mix together each earth tone.
- Yellow Ochre = yellow base color + blue and an
extra amount of red - Raw Umber = green base color + fairly equal
parts orange and purple - Burnt Umber = blue base color + yellow and an
extra amount of red - Van Dyke Brown = purple base color + small
amounts of orange and green - Burnt Sienna = red base color + small amounts of
yellow and blue - Raw Sienna = orange base color + small amounts
of green and purple
For the full tutorial – watch Tessa’s entire video below.
If you’d like to follow along with the video and mix together your own earth tone colors, Tessa used #5376 Brilliant Red, #5366 Lemon Yellow, and #5373 Pthalo Blue. These three Off Broadway Scenic Paint colors can be purchased individually in quarts or gallons. They’re also available as 6 oz. jars inside our Warm Primaries Scenic Set and our Intense Primaries Scenic Set. To see more of Tessa’s instructional videos, be sure to visit and subscribe to her Behind The Scenics YouTube Channel.
Joel Svendsen January 14, 2021 Questions?
