What color do yellow and black make?
Yellow and Black make olive.
Yellow and Black make olive, #666600. That is the result in equal parts, mixing pigment rather than light - paint, ink and dye all behave this way.
Equal parts yellow and black · #666600
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 yellow, 1 part black · #b3b300
Equal parts · #666600
1 part yellow, 3 parts black · #262600
Lighter and darker
With white added - a tint · #99994d
With black added - a shade · #333300
Why it works
Adding black to yellow makes a shade. Black absorbs across the whole spectrum, so the result keeps its hue but loses brightness and some saturation, which is how yellow becomes olive.
Frequently asked questions
What color do yellow and black make?
Yellow and Black make olive, #666600. 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 yellow than black?
Three parts yellow to one part black gives olive. Reversing it to one part yellow and three parts black gives black 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.