Red, Blue, and Yellow are NOT the Primary Colors!

I know. You’re probably gasping in horror right now. That is exactly how I felt when my art teacher informed me of this last year. 

Mrs. Litz would teach her students how to mix different paint colors using red, blue, and yellow. She never understood why blue and yellow wouldn’t turn into a beautiful green but more of a muddy green. She just figured it was because they were working with cheap paints. That was when she discovered that those were not the true primary colors. She learned that it was magenta, cyan, and yellow, not red, blue, and yellow. 

It was an eye opening experience as we used magenta, cyan, and yellow to make beautiful paint colors. Did you know that to make red you actually mix magenta and yellow? If you mix cyan and magenta, you can make blue. And if you mix yellow and cyan you can make green. 

Did you know children these days are being taught now that it’s not red, blue, and yellow that are primary colors but red, blue, and green? These are, in fact, all secondary colors! If you look at the ink in your printer, you will notice a pinkish reddish (magenta) where red should be, a light blue color where blue should be, and yellow looks like yellow. These might all look like black but if you look closely, you will notice a colored hue near the top where you can see what color it is. 

So why do they teach us it’s red, blue, and yellow? Or, now-a-days, red, blue, and green? Why don’t they teach us that it’s magenta, cyan, and yellow? 

In all honesty, I have no idea. But I figured you would like to know what the true primary colors are in case you just can’t make the right shade of green for your next project. Or if you are simply a curious individual that loves learning random facts most people probably don’t know. 

Thank you so much for reading!