Art · Grades K-3
Three little colors can make a whole rainbow of paint!
Hi there, friend! I'm Bob, your art teacher.
Today we will paint with bright colors. We will learn which colors mix to make new ones.
In art, there are no mistakes. There are only happy accidents. So let's have fun!
Painters start with three special colors. They are red, yellow, and blue.
We call them the primary colors. Primary means "first." We start with these colors, and we mix them to make lots of new ones.
Like a shiny red apple.
Like the warm, happy sun.
Like a calm blue sky.
Now let's mix! When you mix two primary colors, you make a secondary color. Secondary means "second." These colors come next.
Red + yellow = orange
Like a juicy orange or a pumpkin.
Yellow + blue = green
Like the grass and the trees.
Red + blue = purple
Like a bunch of grapes.
Some painters call purple violet. It is the same color family.
A color wheel is a circle of colors. It shows how colors go together.
Look at the wheel. Each secondary color sits between the two primary colors that make it.
Pick a color from the first row. Pick a color from the second row. Then press the Mix button and watch the paint swirl.
Try mixing a color with itself, too. What happens? Red and red still make red!
Pick a paint color. Then tap a part of the picture to paint it. You can use a keyboard too: press Tab to move, then Enter to paint.
What color will you make the sky? The tree? It's your world, so you decide!
Pick one answer for each question. Take your time. You can do it!
For grown-ups: this page teaches the traditional painter's color wheel, with red, yellow and blue as primaries. That is the model most art classes use with paint and crayons. Colored light on screens mixes differently (red, green and blue light), and printers use cyan, magenta and yellow ink. Those models are a good topic for older grades. To try it at home, put dabs of red, yellow and blue washable paint on a paper plate and let your child mix pairs with a brush or a fingertip.
Facts on this page were checked against:
Credits: Words, drawings, color wheel, games and quiz by Bob for the Jugami School Art Department. All art is original, hand-made SVG. No ads, no tracking, and nothing you tap is saved or sent anywhere.
