Do all the colors o' the rainbow really mix together to form white?

Question

then why the hell is my paint brown? i was trying to make summore white paint and it just turned brown when i mixed red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

Answer 1

Because it's actually the colors of light, not pigment, that mix to create white light. You need prism to make this happen, and then you'll only see it with a Gas Chromatograph. It's a scientific definition. Shades of gray and brown are all you'll get when you mix those colors together. I did a painting for my last painting class that used white, black, Ultramarine blue, a red and a yellow, only. I used all of the colors in each color I wanted, and had a very harmonious finished painting.

Answer 2

Use Burnt Umber and Zinc white or Titainium white. mostly the white and a touch of Burnt umber. A small hint of red for around the cheeks to add a blushing effect. Flesh color can be created in many different ways. We often think that flesh is just red and white but, that just doesn't look realistic on the canvas. Do not use any more colors than need to do the job. You can often use a touch green or a blue to help provide the shadowed areas of flesh and also use less white in the shaded ares. Goto your local library and check out a book on painting portraits. You will be glad you did. Good luck!

Answer 3

All Colors Of The Rainbow

Answer 4

White LIGHT is the presence of all colors in the spectrum NOT the mixing of every paint in your paintbox. We see various colors because of what a surface absorbs - example we see red when every other color in the spectrum has been absorbed by the surface that it is hitting and only the infrared is left to bounce back to our eyes. We're talking physical science here not the paint mixing aisle at Lowe's or Home Depot.

Answer 5

Yes, All the colors of the rainbow come from essentially white light

when adding all three primary color using light you will produce white. The light is the source of the color.
This is called additive color.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Additive_color

However when you are painting the light reaches your eye by reflection off of the surface.
This is know as subtractive color.
This is why you are observing the exact opposite results.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subtractive_color

Answer 6

Every color of pigment mixes to form black. Every color of light mixes to form white. I've never seen anyone really mix black though. I mean, you don't have every color, just the main ones, not all the shades in between.

Answer 7

Color in light is not the same as color in pigment.

There are also different ways of mixind color, additive and subtractive mixing. It get very complicated.

Answer 8

In white.... all the colours reflect..........
but as you have found out .....
if you mix all the colours together you will just get a dirty shade.