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What colors make red?

2824 Views 14 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  Sorin
I've been asked to paint a large scale piece of artwork with oil based paint, the ones you use on houses that don't dry quickly or blend easily. No problem, I got around that problem however, they gave me the wrong color RED which is more of a MAROON, a reddish brown, a mahogany brown.

I sent it back to them months ago telling them that is the wrong color red and the red won't match the shirt color of the students shirt (because the painting is for a school).
They just gave it back to me and told me the women at the paint shop, said that 'to just add 'white or black' and I will get red.'

How exactly do I get red out of mahogany brown? And how do I make red? Because I know red is a primary color and I know you don't make primary colors.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but which paints do you make the color RED like the primary color red out of?
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Red is a secondary color, and, as such, can easily be created by mixing Magenta (a primary color) with Yellow (a primary color).

Most colors having the name, "Rose" something-or-other on their labels represent rather accurate versions of Magenta--at least they come as close to a true Magenta as anything I've found.

Winsor & Newton's Transparent Yellow 653 (PY128), mixed with Winsor & Newton's Permanent Rose 502 (PV19) will create Red, provided a bit of white is added to the mix.

W & N Transparent Yellow and Permanent Rose are transparent colors, and, as such need a bit of white mixed with them for them to come to their full chroma, beyond that which their masstone exhibits.

However, you seem to have been supplied with sort of a "brown", or "maroon", each of which is a rather grayed version of red. I couldn't create a more pure or higher-chroma red with a color that is already grayed down, either, so I don't have a productive answer for your problem, other than to go out and buy a primary color, such as Magenta, as an auxiliary color to those which you already have.
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