What Colors Make Magenta? What Two Colors Make Magenta

In this article, we are going to talk about what colors make magenta.

In school, we learned that by mixing primary colors we can make secondary and tertiary colors. However, there are a wide variety of colors that can be created by mixing other colors together.

There are more hues in the spectrum of colors, like magenta, which is in the family of pink and violet.

Let’s continue the discussion…

Primary Colors RYB Model (Red, Yellow, Blue)

In elementary school, your teacher probably taught you about various colors by showing you the color wheel. As you can see from this chart you have the Primary Colors which consist of Red, Blue, and Yellow.

Orange, Violet, and Green are called secondary colors. These are important colors that also help create the next set of colors called the Tertiary Colors, which are red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, and red-violet.

You can experiment and mix different colors together to achieve different results.

But, there are a lot of colors that are not included in the color wheel. For example, neutral hues are not part of it. These colors are white, gray, and black.

And what about magenta? Where does magenta fall in this color theory?

Let’s find out. Keep reading…

CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black)

In color theory, there are different color models. We just talked about the RYB Model above.

Now we want to introduce you to the CMYK Model. This color model is used primarily for color printing. The CMYK model consists of the colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black.

Mostly used in traditional color printing, the CMYK model offers light color ranges and with Black to make darker deep colors.

As you can see, magenta is part of this color model.

Now that we understand the different color models and where magenta falls in the mix. Let’s talk about what colors we have to mix together to make magenta.

RGB Model (Red, Green, Blue)

We talked about the RYB Model which consists of basic primary colors that you learned in elementary school.

We also talked about the CMYK Model which is mainly used when talking about print colors, but we haven’t talked about the RGB Model.

RGB Model is commonly talked about with TV, computer, or video displays. The RGB model is an “additive” model.

As you can see in this chart, you can also mix two colors together to get a new color. In the RGB model, you can mix green and blue together to get Cyan. And you can mix green and red together to get yellow.

I think you know where I’m going with this…

What Two Colors Make Magenta?

You probably already know the answer by reviewing the RGB color model above. So what two colors make magenta? The answer is red and blue.

I know it’s a long answer to a simple question but hopefully, now you can understand that the answer is in fact not as simple.  It all really depends on the color model that’s in question.

The color magenta is mostly referenced when talking about CMYK and RGB colors.

A lot of people say magenta looks a lot like a pinkish purple. So if it comes to mixing paint colors you can achieve a similar tone by mixing the colors blue and red but you may have to add some white to lighten it up.

Using specific amounts of the two colors can make a big difference. If you put in more blue, the mixture can look deep violet rather than magenta. If you put more red into the mixture, expect to get fuchsia or maroon.

So you have to play around with the colors to get the desired effect.

Bottom Line

When it comes to making magenta with paint, the first thing that you need to understand is, it is a family of purple and violet. You can simply add the color red or blue to get within the range of magenta.

I hope you can use magenta to make colorful illustrations and artwork.