Why Do Artists Use Colors That Don’t Exist?

Artists use made-up colors to trick your eyes. Imagine you're looking at a painting and see purple, but it’s not really there! It might be red and blue, or even just black and white. Your brain fills in the missing parts, so it looks like purple. Artists do this on purpose because it makes their paintings pop!

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Examples

  1. A red apple next to a blue sky looks purple from afar
  2. Mixing red paint with blue on paper makes it look purple
  3. Your brain turns black and white into gray

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