Subtractive Color

SUBTRACTIVE COLOR MIXING:

There are two basic ways colors can be mixed to make other colors. One way is by combining color illumination or light. The other way is by mixing together media such as paint, inks, dyes, and other colorants. This is called "subtractive" color mixing.

Subtractive mixing takes place whenever any two or more colors of paint, marker, ink, or dye are mixed together.

Subtractive mixing is also used when one or more transparent color media are applied one over the other.

White light from the sun is really made up of a mixture of colors.

This diagram shows what happens when we look at two blobs of paint. The colors look different, because different amounts of the colors in the white light are subtracted out of it by the paint. We see only the light that is reflected. The color of the light that reaches our eyes determines what we see as the color of the object.

All or most of the colors that are in the mixture of white sunlight are reflected by the white paint, so it looks the same color as the sunlight.

Why is it called subtractive color mixing when it involves adding colors together?

Paints, watercolors, markers, inks, and other color media all absorb certain colors. Any color that is not absorbed (subtracted) from the light reflected off the mixture is the final mixed color that we see.

EXAMPLE:   Mixing paints of Cyan and Yellow gives Green

Here the cyan subtracts out red. The yellow subtracts out blue. When you combine cyan with yellow, the mixture subtracts out both red and blue. Only the green of the white sun light remains to reach our eye. So we see the mixture as green.

So you can see why this is called subtractive color mixing even though colors are added to one another. The color media absorbs or subtracts certain colors. When combined, the subtraction effect for both starting colors then works for the newly mixed color.

Color paint mixed with black makes a darker shade of same color

Red with black added makes a darker red shade

Here is another diagram that shows how a darker shade of the same color subtracts more of its color than a lighter shade.

What is meant by primary colors?

The term primary colors usually means:

1. The minimum number of hues that can be mixed to make the greatest number of other colors.

2. In their purest form, the primary colors cannot be made by mixing other colors.

What are the subtractive primary colors?

The inventions of color printing, photography, motion pictures, and personal computer printers has narrowed down the subtractive primaries for inks and dyes to three very specific colors.

2. In their purest form, cyan, magenta, and yellow cannot be made by mixing other colors.

Is there another reason that these are the subtractive primary colors?

So there is a direct connection between the three subtractive primary colors of inks and dyes, and the three additive primary colors of color light. This link between these two groups has led to the inventions of natural color photography, movies and printing. This is based on a scientific approach to color mixing. It has resulted in the color we expect to see in books, magazines, movies and photos.

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