You generally cannot mix ordinary paint colors to get a perfect pure blue, because blue is treated as a primary color in most traditional art color wheels, meaning it is a starting point rather than something made from other tube colors.

Core answer

  • In classic red–yellow–blue (RYB) color theory, there is no simple “two-color recipe” that turns, say, green and purple into a clean blue; attempts usually give muddy greens or gray-blues.
  • In more modern CMY color theory (used in printing and some painting approaches), you can approximate blue by mixing cyan + magenta , which often produces a convincing medium blue, though not as strong as a premixed ultramarine or phthalo blue from the tube.

Why this is confusing

Many guides and forum posts say “you can’t mix blue” because they are speaking in the traditional painter’s sense of primaries (red, yellow, blue).

Modern color mixing for printing and digital work treats cyan, magenta, yellow as primaries, and in that system cyan plus magenta does give a blue hue, which is why you may see tutorials claiming you can “make blue” that way.

Practical tips for artists

  • To approximate blue from near-primaries: mix cyan + magenta in roughly equal parts, then tweak by adding a bit more cyan (for a cooler, greenish blue) or a bit more magenta (for a purplish blue).
  • To get different blue shades , most artists actually start with a blue pigment and then modify it:
    • Lighter blue: blue + white (for sky or baby blue).
* Dark navy: blue + a tiny amount of black or burnt umber.

* Warm blue: blue + a touch of red/magenta or a warm red-brown like burnt sienna.

* Turquoise/teal: blue + green, often with some white added.

If your blue turned muddy

When people try to “mix blue” and get a dull, muddy color instead, it is usually because:

  • They started from secondary colors (like green or purple) that already contain yellow or red, which cancel out and desaturate each other when combined further.
  • They added too much black while trying to darken a blue, which can quickly turn it gray instead of a rich navy.

Simple takeaway

  • For school-style or hobby painting: treat blue as a primary color that you buy premixed; you don’t reliably “make” it from other paints.
  • For more technical color mixing (especially with cyan and magenta paints or inks): mix cyan + magenta to simulate a blue, then adjust with white, black, or other colors to reach the exact shade you want.

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