What color does red and green make? In brief, it creates a shade of brown. But are there any other shades you’ll get? Let’s find out in this article.
One of the most popular colors is red, followed by green. This is because they are both vibrant, energizing, and so many people associate them with Christmas. However, you may be surprised to learn what color red and green produce when combined. After all, the outcome depends on the medium used and the types of green and red used. So, what does red and green make? Let’s find it out in this post.
What Color Does Red and Green Make?
You can use the mixer tool below to mix between Red and Green, try it now:
When you mix red and green, you typically get an unappealing shade of brown. Because green is a combination of yellow and blue, combining it with red is equivalent to combining all three major colors, which will also lead to brown.
Red and green are, as many of you might know, complementary colors, which means they are opposite each other on the color wheel. Generally speaking, complementary colors work well together in designs, but they clash when combined. So, if you are not searching for a certain type of brown, you should probably avoid combining red and green.
Can You Mix Colors to Create Red and Green?
Green is a simple color to combine. It is a secondary color, which means it is a combination of two major colors. For example, when you combine equal parts blue and yellow, you will get green. If you add more blue or yellow, you’ll get blue-green or yellow-green, which are also known as tertiary colors.
Red, on the other hand, is a little more difficult. Red is also a major color, but it is possible to make it. However, you will need to use a unique type of subtractive mixing to accomplish this.
Consider yellow, magenta, and cyan as your major colors to make red. Then you can combine yellow and magenta to make red. Colors like red are created in this manner by printers using only yellow, cyan, and magenta ink.
What Color Do Green and Red Make with Light?
While mixing green and red results in brown, other mediums such as light are significantly different. For example, the major colors in lights are red, green, and blue instead of red, blue, and yellow. In that case, green and red combine to form yellow.
Subtractive vs. Additive Mixing
To understand how green and red can combine to form yellow, you must first recognize the difference between subtractive and additive mixing.
Additive Color Mixing
When one set of wavelengths is combined with another, additive color mixing takes place. Red, blue, and green are the major colors of additive.
So, when the wavelengths of green and red lights are combined, they produce yellow, blue, and red produce magenta, and green and blue produce cyan. Although additive coloring is not widely used, it is found in the vast majority of phones, monitors, and televisions.
Subtractive Color Mixing
Subtractive coloring, on the other hand, is the most common type of mixing. In general, subtractive mixing is the process by which wavelengths are subtracted from other wavelengths to produce various shades. The major colors, in this case, are cyan, magenta, and yellow, as seen in computer ink.
Magenta and cyan combine to form blue, yellow and cyan combine to form green, and yellow and magenta combine to form red. When an object soaks up white light and reflects the colorants that comprise its color, the human eye sees subtractive colors. So, subtractive color mixing is considered the most common type of mixing in daily existence, but we don’t usually realize it.
When the major colors are red, yellow, and blue, subtractive mixing is used to create mixtures. However, in that case, blue and red combine to form purple, yellow and blue combine to form green, and yellow and red combine to form orange.
The way our eyes interpret mixing for colors and lights is the same, but the major colors are distinct, resulting in various outcomes.
Final Thoughts
When you combine red and green, what you will get is a shade of brown. This is due to the fact that green and red contain all of the major colors, and when all three major colors are blended, the resulting mixture is brown.
