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Colours and mixing

Meet the three primary colours of paint, red, yellow and blue, and see how mixing them makes orange, green and purple.

Get the whole book: Drawing and craft for classes 1 and 2 (4 lessons, free to print)

Let us begin

The big idea

Colours make our pictures bright and happy. With just three paints you can make many more colours. Let us find out how!

Red, yellow and blue are called the primary colours. We cannot make them by mixing other paints. All the other colours start from them.

When we mix two primary colours, we get a new colour. Red and yellow make orange. Yellow and blue make green. Blue and red make purple.

If you add a lot of one colour, the new colour changes. More yellow makes a light green. More blue makes a dark green.

Adding white makes a colour lighter. Red with white makes pink.

Mixing the primary coloursThree rows. Red plus yellow equals orange. Yellow plus blue equals green. Blue plus red equals purple. The primary colours are solid circles and the mixed colours are labelled circles. Red + Yellow = Orange Yellow + Blue = Green Blue + Red = Purple
Two primary colours mix to make a new colour.

Worked examples

See how it works

  1. Painting a sun

    Take a little red and a little yellow. Mix them on a plate. You get orange. Use the orange for a setting sun.

  2. Painting a leaf

    Mix yellow and blue. You get green. Add more yellow for a young, light leaf. Add more blue for an old, dark leaf.

  3. Making a lighter colour

    Put a little red on a plate. Add some white. The red becomes pink. The more white you add, the lighter it gets.

  4. Mixing all three

    If you mix red, yellow and blue all together, you usually get a dull brown colour.

Try it at home

Colour mixing with crayons

You will need

  • A sheet of white paper
  • Red, yellow and blue crayons or colour pencils

What to do

  1. Draw three big circles in a row. Colour the first red, the second yellow and the third blue.
  2. Draw a new circle. Colour it with yellow first. Then press softly with blue on top.
  3. What colour do you see? Try again with red and yellow, and with blue and red.
  4. Write the name of each new colour under its circle.

Ask a grown-up: If you use washable paints instead of crayons, an adult can cover the table and help you wash the brushes at the tap.

Practice sheet

Check what you learned

Write your answers in a notebook, or print this sheet and write on it. When you finish, mark your work with the answer key.

Practice sheet: Colours and mixing (Classes 1-2, Drawing and craft)

  1. Name the three primary colours of paint.
  2. What colour do you get when you mix red and yellow?
  3. What colour do you get when you mix yellow and blue?
  4. What colour do you get when you mix blue and red?
  5. Which two colours do you mix to make green?
  6. Which two colours do you mix to make orange?
  7. What do you add to a colour to make it lighter?
  8. You want to paint a green leaf. Which two paints will you mix?
  9. Can you make red by mixing other paints?
  10. What is your favourite colour? Which two colours could you mix to paint something with it?

Answer key

Answers: Colours and mixing

Do the practice sheet first, then check here. If an answer is different from yours, read the lesson again and try once more.

  1. Red, yellow and blue.
  2. Orange.
  3. Green.
  4. Purple.
  5. Yellow and blue.
  6. Red and yellow.
  7. White.
  8. Yellow and blue.
  9. No. Red is a primary colour, so we cannot make it by mixing other paints.
  10. Sample answer: my favourite colour is green, so I mix yellow and blue. Any honest answer is right.

What next

Keep learning

Get the whole book

All 4 drawing and craft lessons for classes 1 and 2 on one page, with every practice sheet and answer key, ready to print.

Drawing and craft for classes 1 and 2

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