red and blue makes what color

Red and blue mixed together make purple in paint or pigments, and magenta when you are mixing colored light (like on screens or LEDs).

Quick Scoop: What color do red and blue make?

For most everyday art situations (paint, markers, colored pencils), red + blue = purple, which can range from soft lilac to deep indigo depending on the exact shades and how much of each you use.

When you are dealing with light instead of paint (think computer screens, theater lights, LEDs), red + blue light combine to make magenta, a bright purplish-pink color.

Why does it change between purple and magenta?

• Paint / Pigment (Subtractive mixing – RYB/CMYK):
  • Pigments work by absorbing (subtracting) parts of the light spectrum.
  • Red paint absorbs some wavelengths and reflects mostly red; blue paint absorbs others and reflects mostly blue. Together, what is left for your eye is perceived as a purple family color.

• Light (Additive mixing – RGB):
  • Colored light adds wavelengths together instead of subtracting them.
  • Red light plus blue light stimulates your eyes in a way that your brain interprets as magenta.

A simple way to think about it: mixing paints is like blending colored cake batter, while mixing lights is like overlapping colored flashlights in a dark room.

Examples of shades you can get

With paint or digital pigment , varying the ratio of red and blue gives different purples:

• More red than blue → reddish purple (often called magenta or plum-like).

• Equal red and blue → a more “balanced” purple or violet.

• More blue than red → bluish purple, closer to violet or indigo.

Some specific pigment pairings (from art color charts) show how much it can vary:

• Cadmium Red + Ultramarine Blue → deep purple.

• Alizarin Crimson + Phthalo Blue → intense electric violet.

Mini FAQ

• Q: So, red and blue makes what color, simply?
  • With paint : purple (a secondary color, with many possible tints like lavender, plum, or indigo).

* With **light** : magenta (a bright purplish-pink in the RGB system).

• Q: Why do my red and blue sometimes make a muddy color instead of a nice purple?
  • Often because the red or blue has “warm” or mixed undertones (like orange in the red or green in the blue), so they partially cancel each other and dull the result.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.