Subtractive and additive colour mixing, illustration. The left-hand image shows subtractive colours used in inks and pigments. These absorb the primary colours of light, and the reflected light gives the pigment its colour. Cyan absorbs red light, yellow absorbs blue, and magenta absorbs green. Mixing cyan and yellow means that red and blue are absorbed from the white light, and only green light is reflected. Where all three pigments meet, all light is absorbed and the area looks black. This is called the CMYK colour model. On the right red, green and blue lights are being mixed. The cones of light intersect allowing the colours to mix, producing magenta, cyan, yellow. Where all three intersect we see white light. This is additive colour mixing, known as is the RGB (red, green, blue) colour model.