Brown is the color that is made when gray or black is mixed with orange , red , or rose ( Brown is not a color of light , and mixing all the colors of light together gives white ) . As a color of low intensity , brown is a tertiary color : a mix of the three subtractive primary colors is brown if the cyan content is low . Brown exists as a color perception only in the presence of a brighter color contrast : yellow , orange , red , or rose objects are still perceived as such if the general illumination level is low , despite reflecting the same amount of red or orange light as a brown object would in normal lighting conditions .