Color Mixing Basics: A Simple Guide for Kids
Colors are more fun when you know how they are made. This short guide explains primary and secondary colors with games you can try today.
Primary colors
Red, yellow and blue are called primary colors in traditional painting. In paint, you cannot make them by mixing other colors, and all the other colors begin with them.
Secondary colors
- Red + yellow = orange
- Yellow + blue = green
- Blue + red = purple
Light and dark
Add white to make a color lighter, which is called a tint. Add a little black or brown to make it darker, which is called a shade. Try making three versions of blue on the same page.
Warm and cool colors
Red, orange and yellow feel warm, like fire and sunshine. Blue, green and purple feel cool, like water and forest. Use warm colors in the front of a picture to make things pop, and cool colors for the background.
Try it on ColorFun
- Open the Rainbow page in Nature.
- Color each band in order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.
- Use the brush on top of two touching colors to see what a mixed look feels like.
Fun fact: a rainbow always shows colors in the same order because light bends by different amounts as it passes through water drops.