Brown and Green Make What Color When Mixed?

It’s time for a new addition to our color mixing chart escapades! Today we will be answering: Brown and green make what color when mixed together?

My name is Lillie, and I’m an artist and teacher who enjoys hands-on experiments in paint swirling — sometimes yielding surprising results. I’ve now done almost two dozen of these inquiries, from simpler ones like, “Blue and yellow make what color?” to the more complex, “What color does pink and green make?” Let’s start today’s installment by ogling how earthy and calming green and brown look, when whirled together by my brush…

Color Background Information

In order to understand what color brown and green make when mixed together, let’s back up and remember some “color math.” First, we know that the secondary color, Green = Blue + Yellow, and that how to make brown = all three primary colors together: Red + Blue + Yellow.

Therefore, Green + Brown = Blue + Yellow + Blue + Yellow + Red = Green + Green + Red. Interesting! Since we know that green and red make the color brown, this equation suggestions that the result of green plus brown will be a mostly green color, with a tinge of brown. Now let’s go to my paints to corroborate whether this theory is true or not…

How to Make Forest Green Color

Wow! Indeed, as you can see in my drawing above, mixing green and brown yields a dark green color that’s slightly muted or brownish/grayish. This rich, nature-inspired color is often called “forest green,” and is ideal for painting mossy landscapes or rolling, tree-covered hills. Some versions are closer to moss green: a slightly lighter version of forest color. This natural shade goes well with terracotta color: What we get from orange plus brown.

This result actually surprised me, until I did the color math explained above. I was expecting a much more brown color result, but many versions of this mix just seem — green! You wouldn’t know there was brown in there at all.

Who knew that one answer to “What colors make green” would be brown plus green? Below, you can see what happens when I combined all sorts of different shades of green and brown together.

Brown and Green Make What Color?

There you have it: The answer to “Brown and green make what color?” is: forest green! In other words, these two pigments don’t form another brown, so much as a rich, darker green that mimics trees in nature. In contrast, orange and green make a more brownish, dull olive green. Amazing!

Want more? Check out “Red and Brown Make What Color?” There are some fascinating similarities to green plus brown.