Pink and Blue Make What Color When Mixed?

As our color mixing experiments continue, we come to a jolly installment as we answer: “Pink and blue make what color when mixed together?” Mmm… bubblegum and blueberry shades — merged at last! Even the result is tasty, as you will see.

But first — some background. My name is Lillie, and I’m an artist and teacher who revels in playing around with paint pigments in hand-drawn illustrations, seeing what colors result. We’ve investigated everything from, “Red and green make what color?” to, “What do orange and purple make?” Let’s dive right in now to see what pink and blue look like when the inks are swirled together. Pretty, eh?

Color Math Equations

Before we actually see what the pink and blue combo in question results in, let’s back up for a reminder of how the RYB color model works with regards to these pigments. The color pink is a lighter version of red (just adding some white), thus let’s first review the reply to, “Red and blue make what color?” The answer is: one of the three secondary colors, purple!

Now let’s do some color math. If Red + Blue = Purple, and Red + White = Pink, then Pink + Blue = Red + Blue + White = Purple + White = Light Purple! I will now verify this theory through my drawing below. Hey — it worked!

Making the Color Light Purple

Sure enough, as you can see from my hand-illustrated painting above, pink plus blue makes a light purple. The specific type of light purple created depends on which shades of “ingredient colors” you pick. For example, you might get a lilac color, lavender, or even periwinkle, depending on what kinds of inputs you start with, and the ratios of each.

Regardless, all the resulting colors from a blue and pink mix are in the soft pastel category, and would go very well on the icing of a delicious unicorn-themed birthday cake. (As we saw from our “Pink and yellow make…” query, many of these experiments cause me to get hungry.)

Now, another quick color math reminder: You get clear, bright colors when mixing combinations of just TWO primary colors (even if you add white), as we saw with intermediate colors. This means that, for the most part, pink plus blue will yield a friendly light purple that is not dusty or grayish.

BUT… If you pick a pink or a blue that has a hint of yellow — such as the salmon pink in the second stripe from the lower right in my drawing above — you are introducing a third primary color into the mix, and thus will get a more muddy, brownish purple, or mauve. Why? Because all three primary colors together make brown!

Pink and Blue Make What Color?

I hope my explanation has fully solved the question: Pink and blue make what color? You can now confidently say that they yield a light purple — sometimes called lavender or lilac. However, that purple can take a dusty hue if your ingredient colors have any yellow in them, because you’re starting to verge into the browner territory of what pink and green make. So, what else would you like me to illustrate and teach? Do share!

Want more? Check out “Orange and blue make what color?”