What Color Does Orange and Green Make? – Warm Color Palette

When thinking about orange and green, they are not colors you find often together. You will also not find many people pairing the two colors in an outfit too often. Since it is not a common combination, you might not have thought about what happens when you mix orange and green. To find out, let us have a look at these two colors and how they relate to one another.

What Colors do Orange and Green Make?

We have just gone over a bit about orange and green and how these colors are made. So, what color does orange and green make? Orange and green form secondary colors, made up of yellow and red, and blue and yellow. If you look closely, you will notice that this mentions all three primary colors. In color theory, if all primary colors are mixed, they cancel one another out.

So, green mixed with orange will create a neutral hue, namely a shade of brown.

How to Use Different Shades of Orange and Green to Create Other Mixes

The type of brown that is created depends on the shade of orange and green used and the proportions of each color involved. When dealing with paints, there are many different brands and manufacturers, each with their own formulas. So, you need to be aware of the paint ingredients if you want to create the colors you are looking for. Here is a list of different possibilities:

Creating Lighter and Darker Shades

Once you mix orange and green, you might need to make a few adjustments when painting. You can easily change the color so that it is either lighter or darker in appearance. Maybe, you mix orange and green, and it looks a little too dark. You can lighten and brighten the color by adding some white and yellow paint.

If you find that the brown shade you created is too light or bright, you can add some dark blue, or even black.

Just remember to keep adding tiny amounts, as you can rather add some of the black or blue than take it out if you mix too much. Instead of blue or black, you can also consider adding a darker green or orange, which will produce a richer color. This is where you need to experiment and have fun finding out what you can do with the various paint colors.

Meaning of Brown

Brown is a neutral color and has a deep connection with the earth or the ground. This makes brown a stable color that is reliable and comforting. Other associations with the color brown include simplicity, protection, wisdom, support, and honesty. However, brown can also be boring, predictable, and timid.

Understanding Orange and Green

When dealing with color theory, there is a lot to take into consideration. To make things simple, we will begin with the more common color system we all learned in school. This system is known as the RYB color model, and as all color models go, it has primary, secondary, and tertiary or intermediate colors. So, we all learned that you have primary hues, which include red, yellow, and blue. The secondary hues include orange, green, and purple. The primary colors stand all by themselves, you cannot mix colors to create them. However, secondary colors are a blend of the primary colors.

• Red and yellow produce orange
• Blue and yellow produce green
• Red and blue produce purple

So, now we know that both orange and green are secondary colors that are made up of a combination of primary colors. These colors can all be observed on the color wheel, an illustration of all the colors and how they connect and work together. If you consider the color wheel, you will notice that you can divide it into two halves.

One half will have various blues, greens, and purples, while the other will have reds, oranges, and yellows. This divides the colors into cool and warm hues. You can guess it, the one side with the reds and others are the warm colors, and the other side is your cool blues and greens.

Orange can be seen in things like sunsets, fire, the sun, and various flowers and animals. However, it is not as abundant as green, which you can see everywhere in nature. You simply need to look out the window. Certain flowers can be orange, with green leaves and stems.

There are various color combinations you can form with all these colors. The most common is your complementary colors. These colors are located on opposing ends and create contrast when paired. If you look at orange and green, they are not directly opposite each other like blue and orange or red and green.

Orange and green still form a contrast and tend to stand out when placed beside one another. So, they do go well together. However, you do need to use different shades and tones and balance the colors properly for them to work more harmoniously. Next, let us see what the basic meanings of both these colors are.

Understanding Orange and Green Within Other Color Models

When dealing with light and graphics, the color system is different. Here you have what is known as an RGB color system, which includes the primary hues of red, green, and blue. It is also an additive color mixing system, as each wavelength of color is added to form new colors. All primary colors combined will create white light.

The secondary hues include cyan, magenta, and yellow. In this case, green is a primary color and yellow is a blend of red and green.

The tertiary colors in this model include green-yellow, green-cyan, blue-cyan, blue-magenta, red-magenta, and red-yellow.

Red-yellow is orange, so you will be mixing a primary green with a tertiary red-yellow or orange. You can use our online color mixer to see what will happen if you mix orange and green. We took the orange and green hex codes, which identify colors online, and placed them into the color mixer, which will then produce a dark yellow.

Printing Color Model

Similar to paints and pigments, the CMYK color system is a subtractive model. This means that certain wavelengths are absorbed, while others are reflected. The reflected color is what you see. This color model is mainly used when you want to print, using ink. The primary colors for this include cyan, magenta, and yellow, which are the same as the RGB model secondary hues. The letter “K” represents the black color all printers have. Orange, in this case, will remain a tertiary color.

So, similar to the RGB color model, it will produce a type of yellow color when combined.

Uses of Orange and Green in Art and Design

Professional artists have years of experience and understand how to mix and create the best color combinations. This includes using individual colors like orange and green, and adjusting them, as well as creating blends, such as various shades of brown from primary colors. These brown colors can be used for different purposes, including the creation of subtle shifts in shadows from light to dark.

This is what creates more depth and realism within a painting.

Orange and Green Interior Designs

Orange and green are not the first choice when creating designs, as they tend to clash if used incorrectly. You can try using them as accents of color, either by themselves or even together. In a room, consider cushions, throws, or art pieces that can easily be removed if the look does not appeal to you anymore. Orange by itself can bring in warmth and can work with other warm colors like yellow and pink or create a contrast with shades of blue.

Green can also work with yellow, blue, and pink. Adding green can also be as simple as bringing a leafy plant into a room, which can also add a bit of a tranquil vibe.

Both these colors go wonderfully with more neutral colors, such as white, beige, or gray. Remember, to stick to the design rule of 60, 30, and 10 to keep a look more balanced. Both orange and green can be bold and bright, however, there are softer and lighter shades of both.

These can be used more easily in designs, to create a more sophisticated look. Various shades of brown are quite different from the bold orange and green colors. Brown is a neutral color that can bring warmth into a space to make it feel more inviting. You can also use lighter and darker versions of brown. Darker browns can help to create a more intimate and comforting feel.

Pairing orange and green might not be the topmost combination, but it can produce some bold and interesting designs. If you do not understand the basics of color theory, you might be surprised when green mixed with orange creates brown. Gaining this knowledge can only help you to enhance your creative abilities.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Color Does Orange and Green Make?

When you mix orange and green, you are combining two secondary colors in the RYB color model. So, if you mix orange and green paint, you will get a type of brown color. The shade of brown will depend on the proportions, as well as the type of paint you use.

Do Orange and Green Go Together?

Orange and green are contrasting colors and can go together if used properly. If overused, it can become too overwhelming and clash. These two colors work great as accents to add a certain amount of vibrant colors to any design.

Do Orange and Green Make Yellow?

There are different color models you can work from. There is the color model for graphics, also known as the RGB system, and there is the color model for printing, known as the CMYK system. In these models, the color combination of orange and green will create a type of yellow.

Charlene Lewis( Content Creator and Creativity Writer )

In 2005, Charlene completed her Wellness Diplomas in Therapeutic Aromatherapy and Reflexology from the International School of Reflexology and Meridian Therapy. She worked for a company offering corporate wellness programs for a couple of years, before opening up her own therapy practice. It was in 2015 that a friend, who was a digital marketer, asked her to join her company as a content creator, and this is where she found her excitement for writing.

Since joining the content writing world, she has gained a lot of experience over the years writing on a diverse selection of topics, from beauty, health, wellness, travel, and more. Due to various circumstances, she had to close her therapy practice and is now a full-time freelance writer. Being a creative person, she could not pass up the opportunity to contribute to the Art in Context team, where is was in her element, writing about a variety of art and craft topics. Contributing articles for over three years now, her knowledge in this area has grown, and she has gotten to explore her creativity and improve her research and writing skills.

Charlene Lewis has been working for artincontext.org since the relaunch in 2020. She is an experienced writer and mainly focuses on the topics of color theory, painting and drawing.

Learn more about Charlene Lewis and the Art in Context Team.