Red is a primary color, meaning it cannot be created by mixing other colors. However, various shades of red can be achieved by mixing other colors.
Understanding Primary and Secondary Colors
- Primary Colors: Red, yellow, and blue are considered primary colors in the additive color model (used in light). These cannot be created by mixing other colors.
- Secondary Colors: Mixing primary colors creates secondary colors. For example, mixing red and yellow makes orange, red and blue makes purple (violet), and yellow and blue makes green. While you can't make pure red from other colors, you can create variations and shades of red.
Creating Shades of Red
As noted in several sources, while you cannot create pure red from other colors, you can mix to create a range of red shades:
- Dark Red: Achieved by adding black to a base red.
- Light Red: Achieved by adding white to a base red.
- Warm Red: Often achieved by adding orange or yellow to a base red.
- Cool Red: Often achieved by adding blue or purple to a base red.
- Muted Red: Achieved by adding gray or a complementary color to a base red.
One source mentions that magenta and yellow can be mixed to create red, but this is a simplification and the resulting color may not be a true, pure red depending on the pigments used. The reference to magenta highlights the differences between additive and subtractive color mixing models.
Several references discuss mixing colors to achieve various effects or address misconceptions like the effect of red light on sleep, or the common myth that bulls are enraged by the color red. These are tangential to directly answering the question of what color makes red, which is that no single color creates pure red.
