Primary, Secondary and In-Between Colours
In paint, red, yellow and blue are the primary colours. No mix of other paints can make them, but between them they make almost every other colour. Mixing two primaries in equal amounts makes a secondary colour:
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Use more of one primary than the other and you get an in-between, or tertiary, colour: two drops of red and one of yellow make red-orange; two of blue and one of yellow make blue-green. Mixing all three primaries together makes brown, which is why paint water always ends up brown at the end of an art lesson.
The Colour Wheel
The colour wheel puts the three primaries an equal distance apart, with each secondary colour halfway between the two primaries that make it, and the in-between colours between those. Colours opposite each other on the wheel, such as red and green, blue and orange, or yellow and purple, are called complementary colours. Side by side they make each other look brighter, which is why artists and sports teams love them; mixed together, they cancel out into a dull brown.
Light Colours and Dark Colours
Adding white to a colour makes a tint: red with white makes pink, blue with white makes light blue. Adding black makes a shade: red with a little black makes dark red. Children are often surprised how strong black paint is – one drop of black darkens a colour far more than one drop of white lightens it, so painters add black a tiny bit at a time.
Mixing Light Is Different
Paint makes colour by soaking up some of the light that falls on it and bouncing back the rest. Every paint you add soaks up more, so paint mixtures get darker. Coloured lights do the opposite: they add light together, so mixtures get brighter. The primary colours of light are red, green and blue. Red and green light make yellow, green and blue make cyan (a bright sky blue), red and blue make magenta, and all three together make white. Every phone, television and computer screen makes its colours from tiny red, green and blue lights – look at a screen through a magnifying glass to see them.
How to Use This Page
- Play in the mixing lab first. Let your child add drops freely, then ask “What do you think will happen if we add blue?” before tapping.
- Choose a level and a challenge. Starter covers the primary and secondary colours, Explorer adds in-between colours, brown, tints and shades, and Expert adds mixing light and opposite colours.
- What will it make? shows a recipe of drops; your child picks the colour it makes. Make this colour shows a colour; your child adds drops until the bowl matches.
- Fix the ones you missed at the end of a round.
Tips for Parents and Teachers
- Mix real paint afterwards. Three primaries and white are all you need. Children who have predicted a mix on screen love checking it with a brush.
- Hunt for secondary colours. On a walk or at the market, ask which two primaries would make each colour you see: a green leaf, an orange, a purple flower.
- Talk about light with a torch. Cover torches with red, green and blue cellophane and shine them on a white wall in a dark room to see the light mixes for real.
- Connect it to science. Light and colour come up again in primary science; the light lab here is a friendly first look. Our worksheet generator has printable science topics too.
Nothing to Install, Nothing Stored on Our Server
The practice runs entirely in your browser on any phone, tablet or computer. There is no account and no download. The last level and challenge you chose are remembered on this device, and nothing about your child’s answers is sent to us.
Frequently Asked Questions
In paint, the primary colours are red, yellow and blue: they cannot be made by mixing other paints. Mixing two primaries makes a secondary colour: red and yellow make orange, yellow and blue make green, and red and blue make purple.
Mixing all three primary colours, red, yellow and blue, makes brown. You can also mix a colour with the colour opposite it on the colour wheel, such as orange and blue, or red and green.
Paint makes colour by soaking up (absorbing) light, so every paint you add takes more light away and the mixture gets darker. Coloured lights add light together, so mixing them gets brighter: red, green and blue light together make white light. That is why the primary colours of light are red, green and blue.
Yes. There is no account, no download and no limit on rounds. It works in any browser on a phone, tablet or computer, and nothing about your child’s answers is sent to us.