Green and Black Make What Color When Mixed?

Lately in my color mixing chart experiments, I’ve gotten particularly intrigued by what happens when black is added to make a new shade of a color. On that theme, today we will be answering: Green and black make what color when mixed together?

As background, I’m an artist and teacher named Lillie who enjoys writing such educational art posts such as, “What Colors Make Green?” I hand-draw every single illustration on this site, so you can be assured that the results here are verified by firsthand research that you can see with your own eyes! Let’s start by looking at how the two colors in today’s quest look when they’re swirled together, but not yet mixed…

Green and Black Make What Color?

Those colors are pretty together, right? Now, before we get into the actual mixing of black and green, let’s predict what the result might be. First, we know that green is one of the three secondary colors — a color made by mixing two primary colors together. As you likely learned in grade school, in the RYB color model, green is the result of what blue and yellow make when combined.

Black Creates “Shades”

Meanwhile, black is created by mixing all three of the primary colors together. In general, when you add black to a color, it produces what’s known as a “shade” — simply a darker version of the original color.

For example, when we combine blue with black, the result is a dark blue — and if we add even more black, it results in the ultra-dark blue called midnight blue color. Now let’s see what happens when I mix different greens with black…

Making Dark Green Color

As you can see from my illustration above, green and black make… dark green color when mixed together! The amount of darkness depends on how much black you add. Indeed, the result of this experiment is much less surprising than the shocking answer to “Black and yellow make what color?”

Below, you can see my other try at mixing black and green, and again we get the same answer: no matter what type of green you begin with — from viridian color to chartreuse (what yellow and green make when put together) — adding black simply makes a darker version of it.

Mixing Black Versus Brown

How does it differ to mix green and black versus mixing green and brown? Well, if you click over to “Green and Brown Make What Color?” you can see that the result with brown is more dusty and muddy than the dark green created by adding black — which is a clearer, purer, and more saturated dark green.

If you’re looking for an even more dusty, muddy result than adding brown, check out what orange and green make: olive green! What about making things lighter? Read on…

Adding White Instead of Black

Flipping the script, what happens if you add white to green instead of black? Why, you get the relaxing and fresh light green pastel hue called mint green color!

What Do Green and Black Make?

I hope this artistic lesson has been helpful, as well as entertaining. Now when people ask, “Green and black make what color when mixed together?” you can confidently answer: “Different shades of dark green.” This is even true for teal green (the answer to, “What color does blue and green make?”) — that also just becomes a darker teal.

Now, if you really want to blow people’s minds, you can also add that the answer to “Orange and blue makes what color?” is sometimes also dark green! What else should I illustrate and explain? Do share!