Primary and secondary colours
Art & Design · Key Stage 1 · The School
The three primary colours
Red, yellow and blue are PRIMARY colours. You cannot make them by mixing. Every other colour starts from these three. Learn these three first. The rest of mixing gets much easier after that.
Making secondary colours
Mix two primary colours. You get a SECONDARY colour. Red and yellow make orange. Yellow and blue make green. Blue and red make purple. Three primaries make three secondary colours. Try each pair yourself.
Why some mixes look muddy
Try mixing red and green. Red is primary. Green is secondary, from the other side. The result is a dull, muddy brown. It is not bright at all. Stick to primary plus primary. That is what keeps a mix clean and bright.
Predicting a mix before making it
Before you dip a brush, stop and guess. What will red and yellow make? Say it out loud. Orange! Now mix them. Check if you were right. Try yellow and blue next. Guess green. Then check. Try blue and red. Guess purple. Then check. Get all three right, and you really know the three pairs. You are not just guessing.
Colours you will see again
You will see these six colours again and again. Red, yellow, blue. Orange, green, purple. They turn up in almost every painting lesson. Know your three primary colours. Know your three secondary colours. That makes every later lesson easier. Well done for learning them.