What is how to make blue?

Creating the Color Blue

Making blue involves understanding how color mixing works, whether with paints, dyes, or light. The approach depends on the medium you're using. Here's a breakdown:

• Additive Color Mixing (Light): With light, blue is a primary color. This means you can't create blue by mixing other colors of light. Instead, blue light combines with green and red light to produce other colors, ultimately creating white light when all three are combined at full intensity. This principle is used in screens (TVs, monitors) that use red, green and blue (RGB) to create any color.

• Subtractive Color Mixing (Pigments/Dyes): With pigments (like paint or dye), blue is considered a primary color (though in modern color theory, cyan is more accurately primary). This means you cannot create a pure blue by mixing other pigments. However, you can approximate blue or create shades of blue:

  • Mixing Paints: To get a blue-ish color, you'll need a cyan or blue paint as a starting point. You can mix it with other colors to create various shades:
    • Adding green will create teal or turquoise hues.
    • Adding red or magenta will create purple or violet shades. The amount will affect whether you get a more reddish or bluish purple.
    • Adding yellow will create a murky green, not a vibrant blue.
    • Adding white will create lighter shades of blue (tints).
    • Adding black will create darker shades of blue (shades).

• Important Considerations:

  • The Purity of Base Colors: The closer your starting colors are to pure primaries, the cleaner the results. If your red has a yellow undertone, mixing it with blue will likely create a muddy color.
  • Experimentation: Color mixing is highly dependent on the specific pigments you use. Experiment with small amounts of paint to see how different combinations work.

• Using Blue Pigments/Dyes Directly: Because true blue is a primary color in subtractive mixing, the easiest and most effective way to get blue is to use a pre-made blue pigment or dye. Common blue pigments include Phthalo Blue, Ultramarine Blue, and Cerulean Blue. The specific blue you choose will influence the resulting mixed colors.