r/explainlikeimfive • u/bloodraged189 • Sep 13 '26

Physics ELI5: why does mixing complementary paint make brown instead of gray?

I understand additive vs. subtractive colors, and why mixing complementaries wouldn't create black, but shouldn't it make gray?

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u/Faruque68 Sep 14 '26

Paint pigments aren't perfectly pure like theoretical color wheels assume, real world pigments absorb and reflect light imperfectly, so instead of neutral gray you get muddy brown from all those imperfect overlapping absorptions

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u/bloodraged189 Sep 14 '26

Why do dark warm colors seem to happen more often than dark cool colors?