What color do blue and brown make?
Blue and Brown make dark grey.
Blue and Brown make dark grey, #343839. That is the result in equal parts, mixing pigment rather than light - paint, ink and dye all behave this way.
Equal parts blue and brown · #343839
Change the ratio
Very little of a mix is ever half and half. Shifting the balance moves the result along the range between the two colours.
3 parts blue, 1 part brown · #2d4f70
Equal parts · #343839
1 part blue, 3 parts brown · #683607
Lighter and darker
With white added - a tint · #888b8b
With black added - a shade · #1e2121
Why it works
Pigment mixes subtractively: blue paint absorbs the wavelengths it is not reflecting, brown absorbs its own set, and dark grey is what neither of them absorbed. This is why paint behaves differently from a screen, where light adds together instead.
Frequently asked questions
What color do blue and brown make?
Blue and Brown make dark grey, #343839. Mixed in equal parts that is the result you get with paint, ink or any other pigment.
How do I make the result lighter or darker?
Add white for a tint - here that gives grey. Add black for a shade, which gives black. Add white a little at a time, because it takes far less than people expect to shift a mix.
What happens if I use more blue than brown?
Three parts blue to one part brown gives teal. Reversing it to one part blue and three parts brown gives brown instead.
Does this work the same way on a screen?
No. Screens mix light additively, so red and green light make yellow there. These results are subtractive - paint, ink, dye and pigment - which is what people mean when they ask what two colours make.