What does orange and green make?
In paint, orange and green make a brown close to Wheat Beer (#BF9440). Mixed as light, the same pair gives a result near Honey and Thyme, because light adds while pigment subtracts.
50% Orange · 50% Green
As paint
#BF9440
As light
#ACAC00
Theory
Why paint and light disagree
Pigments work by absorbing light: each paint removes part of the spectrum, so combining orange and green 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
- #BF9440
- RGB
- rgb(191, 148, 64)
- HSL
- hsl(40, 50%, 50%)
- CMYK
- cmyk(0%, 23%, 66%, 25%)
Closest named color: Treasures. 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 orange and green make when mixed as paint?
- A brown close to Wheat Beer (#BF9440). Pigments subtract light, so the mix is darker and duller than either parent; exact results vary by brand and binder.
- What do orange and green make as light?
- A color near Honey and Thyme (#ACAC00). 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 orange than green?
- The result slides toward Orange 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.