Which statement correctly describes primary colors and subtractive color mixing in painting?

• A. Additive color mixing uses red, green, blue as primaries.
• B. Primaries red, blue, yellow; secondaries orange, green, violet; mixing primaries yields secondaries; subtractive mixing absorbs light.
• C. Subtractive mixing creates more light rather than absorbing it.
• D. Secondary colors are red, blue, and yellow.

Answer: (B)

In painting, the main idea is how pigment colors interact through subtractive mixing. Primary colors are red, blue, and yellow. When you mix these pigments, each one absorbs certain wavelengths of light and reflects others, so combining them subtracts light from what you see. The secondaries you get are orange, green, and violet. So this system—the primaries red, blue, yellow; secondaries orange, green, violet; mixing primaries yields secondaries; subtractive mixing absorbs light—describes how pigment mixing works. In contrast, using red, green, blue describes additive mixing with light, not painting; saying subtractive mixing creates more light is the opposite of how pigments behave; and secondary colors aren’t red, blue, and yellow in painting.