What color do yellow and brown make?
Yellow and Brown make orange.
Yellow and Brown make orange, #c29d00. That is the result in equal parts, mixing pigment rather than light - paint, ink and dye all behave this way.
Equal parts yellow and brown · #c29d00
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 brown · #e0ce00
Equal parts · #c29d00
1 part yellow, 3 parts brown · #a36f00
Lighter and darker
With white added - a tint · #d6c26c
With black added - a shade · #705b00
Why it works
Pigment mixes subtractively: yellow paint absorbs the wavelengths it is not reflecting, brown absorbs its own set, and orange 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 yellow and brown make?
Yellow and Brown make orange, #c29d00. 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 tan. Add black for a shade, which gives brown. 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 brown?
Three parts yellow to one part brown gives gold. Reversing it to one part yellow and three parts brown gives olive 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.