What color does brown and violet make when mixed as paint?

A pink close to Thistle Mauve (#8B4A7B). Pigments subtract light, so the mix is darker and duller than either parent; exact results vary by brand and binder.

What do brown and violet make as light?

A color near Ultraviolet Nusp (#BB4CA5). Light mixes additively, so overlapping sources brighten instead of darkening, which is why screens and paint disagree about the same pair.

What happens with more brown than violet?

The result slides toward Brown along the mixing curve; the live slider on this page computes the paint and light result at any ratio, with the hex code of every step.

What does brown and violet make?

In paint, brown and violet make a pink close to Thistle Mauve (#8B4A7B). Mixed as light, the same pair gives a result near Ultraviolet Nusp, because light adds while pigment subtracts.

50% Brown · 50% Violet

As paint

#8B4A7B

As light

#BB4CA5

Theory

Why paint and light disagree

Pigments work by absorbing light: each paint removes part of the spectrum, so combining brown and violet removes more light than either alone and the result darkens. Screens and stage lights work the other way. Each light adds energy, so overlapping them moves the result toward white. The slider above computes both models at any ratio: the paint result uses red-yellow-blue pigment interpolation, the light result uses additive blending.

Reference

The 50/50 paint result, specified

HEX: #8B4A7B
RGB: rgb(139, 74, 123)
HSL: hsl(315, 31%, 42%)
CMYK: cmyk(0%, 47%, 12%, 45%)

Closest named color: Grape Kiss. Real pigments vary by brand and binder, so treat these values as the screen approximation of a physical mix.

FAQ

Quick answers

What color does brown and violet make when mixed as paint?: A pink close to Thistle Mauve (#8B4A7B). Pigments subtract light, so the mix is darker and duller than either parent; exact results vary by brand and binder.
What do brown and violet make as light?: A color near Ultraviolet Nusp (#BB4CA5). Light mixes additively, so overlapping sources brighten instead of darkening, which is why screens and paint disagree about the same pair.
What happens with more brown than violet?: The result slides toward Brown along the mixing curve; the live slider on this page computes the paint and light result at any ratio, with the hex code of every step.