If BLACK is the lack of color and WHITE is the full of color, then why do you get GRAY when mixing all colors?

Answer 1

Okay, two different things. When mixing colors of the spectrum, white light results from mixing all the colors together (that's why many older video projectors have a red, green and blue light that combine to make all the colors) Black is the absence of all light.

When mixing pigments and paints, the opposite is true -- white is absence of any pigment, and black is the result of every color mixed in. The reason you mixed gray or brown color instead of black is because paints are not perfectly pigmented; paints are composed of tiny particles suspended in some sort of solvent, and depending on the colors, you might have white or black particles in there that were added to adjust the hue of the particular colors you've bought. (Adding white paint to black paint just means that you have a mixture of white and black particles, and thus your brain puts it together as gray) So the gray color you ended up with still didn't have all the colors possible, and could never reflect back to your eye a uniform spectrum of all colors. A sort of murky brown is the closest you'll likely get to black by mixing a bunch of paints together.

Answer 2

When you say black is the absence of color and white is the result of all colors combined, you are speaking in terms of LIGHT only. If you were to mix colored light together you would get white light (like the stuff that comes out of your light bulbs)

When you are speaking in terms of pigment, however (paint, pencil, crayons, etc) you are now working on a different level. Rules are different for that. Pigment is the result of selective absorption of light rays.

Answer 3

Black is the lack of color and white is the full of in terms of light. When speaking of tangible objects, gray is a muted version of black.

Answer 4

There are two types of color....
Luminous color is from direct light , and Reflective color is color bounced of of an object.
Black is the lack of color when you are dealing with Luminous color.
White is the lack of color when dealing with reflective (paint) color.
If you are mixing paint, Yes black and white make grey.
Monitors and TVs use Luminous light or RGB color.
To mix grey in RGB use equal amounts of each color.

Answer 5

Actually when All Colors are mixed you achieve brown both Black and White are the unmixables because with no combonation of colors can you achieve either of them. Art 101

Answer 6

it depends on what you're talking about. with light, white is all the colors present; black is the absence of all colors. with pigments, black is the equal presence of all colors and white is the absence of all colors. it depends on what you're talking about but if you're mixing colors you probably mean pigments and if you're getting gray then there isn't enough of some other color. when all pigments are equally present, black should be the color

Answer 7

Black = absence and white = presence in color theory and in terms of LIGHT. Sounds like you're referring to paint and physicality.

For example, a computer screen uses the color theory based on light. You can't get the same amount of colors in paint that you can from a light spectrum.

This is the reason all screen color values are in RGB (red, green, blue) mode and when you print something it is in CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black).

Answer 8

remember that different rules apply to mixing paints!
A combination of every color light makes white, a combination of every color paint makes a brownish color due to the fact that the pigments are mixing, not light.

Answer 9

You get gray when you mix black and white.

Answer 10

Chuck Norris can't finish a "color by numbers" because his markers are filled with the blood of his victims. Unfortunately, all blood is dark red.