– 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

The colors you see in paint are due to pigments reflecting certain wavelengths of light. Adding different pigments changes the color, most of the time by adding the reflection of different wavelengths of light. However, black absorbs all wavelengths of light so adding black pigment will cause the paint to appear darker because the black pigment is absorbing light rather than reflecting it. No actual chemical changes happen in most cases.

Edit: clarification