How to Make Purple Easily – Use These Colors!

The color of royalty. Purple is one of the rarest colors in nature. Purple is deep and rich. It’s been prized for all of human history.

How to Make Purple Quickly

The easiest way to make purple is to mix blue and red together. Start with blue and slowly add red until you reach the desired hue.

Blue + Red = Purple

It’s possible to make many different hues of purple by changing the amount of red and blue you use.

It’s also possible to create many tints, shades, and tones. Add white, black, and gray, respectively to do so.

How to make different Purple Hues

You can make different hues of purple by varying the amount of blue and red you use. Start with an equal mix of blue and red. Add more blue or more red depending on the desired hue.

Purple will have either blue or red undertones, depending on the proportion of each color.

Purple + Blue = Blue-Purple

Starting with purple, add blue to create blue-purple hues. The more blue you add, the more blue undertones the purple will have.

Purple + Red = Red-Purple

Adding red to purple creates red-purple hues. The more red you add, the more red undertones the purple will have.

Purple hues

How to Make Light Purple (Tints)

Add white to your mixture of blue and red to make it lighter. The amount of white will determine the intensity of the color. Adding more white will increase the lightness.

Mix purple with white to create a lighter version of purple.

With translucent materials like dyes and watercolor, water is used instead of white. Add water to your tie-dye, watercolor, or food dyes to dilute them and reduce their intensity.

Purple Tints

How to Make Dark Purple (Shades)

Add black to purple to make it darker. This is called a shade. Add the black slowly so it doesn’t overpower the purple. For a less intense color, use less black. Experiment and see what shades you get.

Mix purple and black to create a darker version of purple.

When creating a dark purple color, incorporating black into your blue and red mixture will give you a shade. The more black you use, the darker the shade will be.

Purple Shades

How to Make Muted Purple (Tones)

Adding gray to purple will make it duller and less saturated. This is called a tone. Dull does not mean boring. Tones are complex and interesting colors.

Mix purple with gray to make a muted purple.

Adding gray makes purple dull and less saturated. The more gray you add, the more muted the color will be.

You can also make tones by mixing a color with its complementary.

Mixing purple with yellow will create a muted purple tone. The more yellow you add, the more muted the purple will be.

Purple Tones

Is Purple Cool or Warm?

The temperature of a color is determined by how close the color is to either red or blue. Blue is considered a cool color, and red a warm color.

Purple is a naturally cool color, but it can be either warm or cold depending on the concentration of red and blue.

Since purple is a combination of both red and blue, it sits pretty much in the middle. You can easily make purple cooler or hotter to suit your preference.

How to Make Cool Purple

Since purple mostly has blue undertones, it is said to be a cool color. It’s not all, you can make it even cooler by adding more blue to it.

Add blue to purple to make it cooler.

How to Make Warm Purple

To make a warmer purple you’ll need to add a little more red. You should utilize the same red you used in your purple base.

Add red to purple to make it warmer.

How to Make the Opposite of Purple

When looking at the color wheel, the opposite of purple is yellow. You can create many different shades, tones, and tints of yellow. You can also add yellow to purple in order to mute it.

Yellow is a primary color, meaning that it isn’t made from other colors. 

Starting with a bright yellow, add white to make it lighter, add black to make it darker, and add gray to reduce its saturation.

How to Make Vibrant Purple

Start with pure, bright colors. Mix together a warm blue and a cool red to get a vibrant purple. Other reds and blues will still make a purple, but it will be muted and dull.

The reason for this is that you want your primary colors to be nearer purple to start with. A warm blue will tend towards red, giving it a hint of purple. 

In the same way, a cool red will tend towards blue, giving a tinge of purple. Mixing them together will give you the perfect brilliant purple.

What Two Colors Make Purple

To create purple, mix blue and red together. To do this, find the right proportions for each color. The blue should be slightly more dominant than the red. The exact hue will depend on how much of each color you use.

Blue and red make purple when mixed together.

The complementary colors of red and blue create purple. When these two colors are mixed, they create an intense color that is different from any other. This is because these colors are opposite of each other on the color wheel.

How to Mix purple with Dyes

Luckily for us, today we can easily make purple with dyes, paints, food coloring, and more! If you’re wondering how to make purple and want to spend less time mixing colors, this guide is for you!It’s as simple as mixing together blue and red.

Tie-dye (fabric dyes)

Tie-dye uses fiber-reactive dyes. It can be used to permanently color natural fabrics like cotton. The primary tie-dye colors are fuchsia, turquoise, and yellow. 

Fabric dyes come as colorful powders. You can either mix them dry or blend them in water first.

To make purple with tie-dye, mix together an equal amount of turquoise and fuchsia dye powders.

Place an equal amount of fuchsia and turquoise powder in a squeeze bottle. Fill up the bottle with water and shake. Dissolve the powder evenly and you’ll be left with a deep purple color.

Test the color on a piece of paper towel. Adjust the color by adding in more turquoise or more fuchsia powder. You can also lighten the color by diluting it with water.

If you need more information, we have a page explaining how to mix tie-dye bottles.

Food Coloring

Food coloring is a type of edible dye. It is safe for human consumption in small amounts. With food coloring you can color beverages, cakes, icing, slime, and more.

Primary colors for food dyes are called Red 40 (Allura Red), Yellow 5 (Tartrazine), and Blue 1 (Brilliant Blue).

To make purple food coloring, mix together 15 parts blue for 5 parts red.

Start by placing 15 drops of blue food coloring in a small bowl. Add in 5 drops of red coloring and mix together with a spoon. Adjust the color by adding more drops of either red or blue.

Liquid and gel food coloring are often measured in drops. The principle is the same if you’re using powder or paste food coloring. 

When you’re satisfied, add the purple solution to your frosting, batter, beverage, fondant, or other medium. Blend until fully incorporated.

How to Mix Purple with Paints

Acrylic paint

Acrylic paint is water-based. It is made of pigments dispersed in an acrylic polymer. Acrylic paint is used on a variety of materials such as canvas, plastic, glass, and metal. 

They come in the form of bottles, tubes, or jars containing colorful viscous liquids.

For mixing purple, cool reds like quinacridone and alizarin crimson are best. Cadmium red can also be used, but will result in a brownish or grayish purple.

Mix ultramarine blue and quinacridone red to make purple with acrylic paints.

Start by squeezing some blue paint on your palette or in a small container. Add in a small amount of red paint. Mix the two colors together with a palette knife or brush.

Adjust the color by adding more blue or red paint to achieve the desired purple hue. You can also mix acrylic paint directly on the canvas while painting.

The same recipe works whether you’re using heavy body, fluid, gel, or paste acrylic paint. Use your purple to paint any object such as minis, models, and figurines. You can also use it for acrylic pouring.

Oil paint

Like the name suggests, oil paints are based with an oil solvent. Interestingly, they contain the same pigments as acrylic paints, only in a different vehicle.

Some people like to thin out their oil paints with a solvent such as turpentine. This can make your paints easier to mix, but is not necessary. You can use them straight out of the tube.

Mix ultramarine blue and quinacridone red to make purple with oil paints.

Start by squeezing some blue paint on your palette. Add on some red paint next to it. Begin blending the colors slowly, adding more red or blue as needed.

After mixing the paints, use the resulting purple on your canvas. Oil paint stays wet longer than acrylic, giving you more time to use them.

Fabric paint

Fabric paints are especially formulated to work on fabric. They usually come in the form of a thick liquid. They are thinner than acrylic paints, are more malleable, won’t crack, and won’t add as much stiffness to the fabric.

Fabric paints are made of pigments suspended in a binder that acts like glue. The glue-like binder lets the paint adhere to the fabric.

Make purple fabric paint by mixing together an equal amount of red and blue fabric paint.

In a small container, mix together blue and red paint until fully blended. Add in more red or blue to adjust the color to your taste.

Apply the purple fabric paint to 100% cotton fabric such as a t-shirt, denim, or canvas shoes. Once you’re done painting, set the fabric with a hot iron.

Generally, fabric paints are made from acrylic paints with an added binder that gives them the desired properties. You can make your own by mixing acrylic paint with fabric medium.

Watercolor

Also called aquarelle, watercolor paint is made of finely ground pigment bound in gum arabic. They come in small containers filled with blocks of solid pigment or in tubes of fluid paint.

They essentially contain the same pigments as acrylic paints, but with a different binder.

Mix purple watercolor paint by mixing together ultramarine blue and quinacridone red.

Watercolors can be thinned out with water, producing the typical fluid effect on the canvas. You can adjust the quantity of each color and the amount of water to achieve the desired hue.

Gouache

Gouache paint is essentially watercolor with the addition of lime powder. This extra ingredient makes gouache paint opaque instead of translucent.

To make purple with gouache, mix together an equal amount of ultramarine blue and quinacridone red.

Start by squeezing some blue gouache paint on your palette. Pour some red paint next to it and blend the two together. You can also mix gouache directly on your canvas while painting.

How to mix Purple with Mica Pigment Powder

Mica powder is a pigment made from finely ground quartz minerals. It is shiny and shimmery. It can be used in a variety of crafts. Use it for soaps, candles, cosmetics, epoxy resin, and glass.

Mix blue and red mica powders together to make purple.

You can mix them in powder form or mix them in their medium first. This recipe also works for other pigment powders.

How to Mix Purple with LED Lights

Mixing lights is done using the RGB color model. In this model red, green, and blue are added together to make white.

Make purple light by combining red light and blue light.

Place a blue light and a red light next to each other. The intersection of their beams will appear purple to the eye.

Alternatively, you can make purple by starting with a white light. Simply add in a purple filter. The filter only lets purple through while blocking other colors.

What is the Difference Between Violet and Purple?

Violet and purple are two colors that share many similarities, but there is a big difference between them. Here’s how to tell the two colors apart: 

Violet is a light purple color, while purple is a darker, more saturated color.

Violet is also less bright than purple, which makes it ideal for softer fabrics like lace and silk. Violet has a cool, crisp feeling, while purple is warmer and more plushy.

Other Colors You Might Like

How to Make Brown

How to Make Orange

How to Make Green