Red and Green Make What Color? A Color Mixing Guide

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Artist Mark Weiser explains what happens when you mix red and green pigment or light

Co-authored by Renée Plevy and Devin McSween

Last Updated: January 28, 2026 Fact Checked

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Red + Green Pigment

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Red + Green Light

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Pigment vs. Light Mixing

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Mixing Other Colors

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Red and green are both beautiful and vibrant colors. But what happens if you mix them together? If you’ve heard that they can make brown or yellow, you’ve heard right. Mixing red and green pigments, like paint, usually creates a brownish color, while mixing red and green light makes yellow light. We talked to artist Mark Weiser to help us break down what colors you can make when you mix red and green pigments and light, and explain why pigments and lights create different colors. Keep reading to learn more!

Green and red make what color?

Artist Mark Weiser says that mixing red and green pigments (like ink or paint) together creates a muddy brownish color. However, mixing different hues and temperatures of red and green pigments can also make gray, dull purple, or muted green colors. Mixing red and green light makes yellow light (not brown).

Section 1 of 4:

Combining Red and Green Pigment

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Mixing red and green pigment typically makes brown. Weiser says that red is one of the 3 primary colors, and green is made by mixing the other two—yellow and blue. If the mixture of yellow and blue are equal, mixing red and green will give you a muddy brown.^{[1]
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Mark Weiser
Artist

Expert Interview}
- The shade of brown you get depends on the shades of red and green you mix: Weiser says you can make any variation of brown you could ever want by changing the amount of your two pigments and the exact red and green shades you use.^{[2]
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  Mark Weiser
  Artist
  
  Expert Interview} For instance:
  - Mixing a warm-toned red and warm-toned green makes an orangish brown.
  - Mixing a cool-toned red and cool-toned green makes a purplish brown.
- Red and green are complementary colors, which means they sit directly across from each other on the color wheel. When you mix complementary colors together, you get a muted neutral or “muddy” color because the bright pigments cancel each other out.^{[3]
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- Baker Maria Short says if you want to make brown food dye, simply mix red and green food dye together!^{[4]
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  Maria Short
  Baker
  
  Expert Interview}
Meet the wikiHow Expert

Mark Weiser is an artist and the Gallery Manager for DKW Art Gallery in Marion, Iowa. He creates carved slate and wood pieces inspired by Irish and Celtic art, featuring the Gaelic language done in the ancient Ogham alphabet.
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Different hues of red and green can make gray, purple, or green. Weiser says the shades you use will affect the final color. “How is the green mixed?” he asks. “Is it equal yellow and blue, or more blue than yellow to make a blue-green? Or is it yellow-green, because that is going to be more of a Spring Green or Chartreuse to mix with the red.” He also says you can find many different shades of red at an art store.^{[5]
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Mark Weiser
Artist

Expert Interview} Here are some combinations you can try:^{[6]
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- Mixing red with a blue-green usually makes a dull purplish or teal color.
- Mixing red with a yellow-green often makes a muted orange color.
- Mixing a neutral red with a deep, cool green usually makes a grayish color.
- Mixing a warmer red with a cooler green typically makes a muted green (like khaki or olive).
- Mixing a cooler red with a warmer green typically makes a muted red.
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Mixing a bit of green with red (and vice versa) simply tones down the color. Adding a dash of a color to its complement just makes the hue deeper and more muted, says artist Renée Plevy. As she explains, “If your red is just too brilliant and is just too bright to work with your other colors in your painting, you mix a little green in.” And the opposite is true: “If your green is too bright, and you want to tone it down a little bit, you add a little red to it.”^{[7]
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Renée Plevy
Artist

Expert Interview}
- You typically only get a true brown color when you mix equal parts of red and green.

Section 2 of 4:

Combining Red and Green Light

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Mixing red and green light makes yellow. The primary colors of light are red, green, and blue. This is because our eyes have 3 main receptors to detect colored light, called cones, which are sensitive to red, green, and blue wavelengths of light. Mixing the primary colors in different combinations creates all the other colors. You get yellow light when you mix red and green light.^{[8]
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- Check out this simple video demonstration by @SteveMouldShorts on YouTube.
- When you mix all 3 primary colors of light together, you get white!

Section 3 of 4:

Why does mixing pigment and light create different colors?

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Pigments and lights have different properties and mix together differently. The process of mixing pigments (like paint and dye) is called subtractive color mixing, while the process of mixing light (like from TV screens, computer monitors, and flashlights) is called additive color mixing. Here’s the breakdown of how they’re different:^{[9]
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- Subtractive color mixing: We see pigments as the colors of light they reflect. When you mix 2 pigments together, this removes (or subtracts) a wavelength of light because the pigments absorb some of each other’s reflected light. Fewer wavelengths of color are reflected, so you see a different color.
- Additive color mixing: Pure light from a source (the sun, a lamp, pixels) is how we see color. Adding wavelengths of light creates a new color because both wavelengths reach our eyes.

Section 4 of 4:

Mixing Other Colors

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Curious what other colors you can make mixing pigments or light? We’ve got you covered. Here’s a basic guide on how to mix other colors of pigment and light together:
- Pigments:^{[10]
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  - Green: Yellow + Blue
  - Orange: Yellow + Red
  - Purple: Blue + Red
  - Pink: Red + White
  - Magenta: Reddish pink + Blue
  - Maroon: Dark red + Blue + Yellow
  - Turquoise: Blue + Green
  - Brown: Red + Yellow + Blue
  - Black: Red + Yellow + Blue
  - Gold: Brown + Yellow
- Light:^{[11]
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  - Yellow: Red + Green
  - Magenta: Blue + Red
  - Cyan: Green + Blue
  - White: Red + Green + Blue