– What happens when an artist mixes paint for a painting? Are the pigments actually changing physically/chemically? What is actually happening to make the paints change color?

Question

– What happens when an artist mixes paint for a painting? Are the pigments actually changing physically/chemically? What is actually happening to make the paints change color?

In: 4221

Answer 1

Imagine two piles of colored sand. Separately, they are each their own color. Mix them together, and the grains are still the same color, but when you look at them, they have blended together and the color has “changed”.

Paint pigment is much smaller, suspended in liquid, so you never see the ‘grains’ of pigment.