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Asked by emmajennings1d to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 18 Mar 2011.
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Charlie Ryan answered on 16 Mar 2011:
hi emma again. I don’t really know about how you get red paint sorry! I guess it may be due to what chemical you put into it, and if you choose the right ones they only reflect the red part of spectrum. Better ask a chemist really!!
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Julian Rayner answered on 17 Mar 2011:
You can’t make it by mixing other colours, since as you point out, it is a primary colour (although you can get close!).
Red paint comes from crushing compounds that are red. These used to be natural -cochineal, for example, comes from beetle shell. Iron oxide has been used too. I am guessing that now the pigments are synthetic – that would be a lot of beetles otherwise!
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Jemma Ransom answered on 17 Mar 2011:
A very good question!
You can get red pigments from many different plants, so I presume red paint is made by extracting natural red pigments. Watercolour red paint is made from iron oxide, so there’s another method there.
Also, I believe red food colouring is made from cochneal which s a type of bug (so red smarties for instance used to be made red with this colourant). So the short answer is you can get red pigments, and indeed other primary colours, from natural sources. -
Stephen Moss answered on 17 Mar 2011:
Hi Emma
Primary colours generally come from chemical pigments, so as you say, they don’t need to be made by mixing other colours. Some of those pigments are minerals that come straight out of the ground, such as cobalt. -
Eoin Lettice answered on 18 Mar 2011:
Hi emma,
Paint is made by adding a red pigment or chemical to a liquid that makes it stick to the wall. Red cadmium is one of those chemicals
Eoin
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