What color do green and brown make?
Green and Brown make olive.
Green and Brown make olive, #597613. That is the result in equal parts, mixing pigment rather than light - paint, ink and dye all behave this way.
Equal parts green and brown · #597613
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 green, 1 part brown · #308f21
Equal parts · #597613
1 part green, 3 parts brown · #765c07
Lighter and darker
With white added - a tint · #9cac76
With black added - a shade · #33440b
Why it works
Pigment mixes subtractively: green paint absorbs the wavelengths it is not reflecting, brown absorbs its own set, and olive 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 green and brown make?
Green and Brown make olive, #597613. 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 sage. Add black for a shade, which gives green. 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 green than brown?
Three parts green to one part brown gives green. Reversing it to one part green 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.