Mix just a few colors -- yellow, blue, and red,  to make almost any color you want.  You can use paint or crayons.  Just have fun!

You can even get the idea of how to mix paints by using crayons. Lightly color yellow and then color blue on top and you'll have made green.

Yellow.jpg (1703 bytes)

+

Blue.jpg (2394 bytes)

=

Green.jpg (2759 bytes)

Yellow

 

Blue

 

Green

Yellow.jpg (1703 bytes)

+

Red.jpg (2320 bytes)

=

Orange.jpg (2368 bytes)

Yellow

 

Red

 

Orange

Red.jpg (2320 bytes)

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Blue.jpg (2394 bytes)

=

Purple.jpg (2483 bytes)

Red

 

Blue

 

Purple

Red.jpg (2320 bytes)

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Green.jpg (2759 bytes)

=

Brown.jpg (2742 bytes)

Red

 

Green

 

Brown

 


 

Painting for Kids -- Making Colors Darker or Lighter

Now that you know how to make the basic colors, the next step is to learn how to make exactly the color you want. The easiest way to make a color darker is to add a tiny bit of black paint to the paint you want to make darker --- just a little bit. You can keep adding more until you get the shade you want.

To make a color lighter, add white.  Take a look at the how adding black or white to blue changed the original color.

Blue.jpg (2394 bytes)

Add black to
darken a color

Blueblack.jpg (2603 bytes)

Blue.jpg (2394 bytes)

Add white to
lighten a color

Bluewhite.jpg (2127 bytes)

Black will darken most colors -- but sometime it will make the color "muddy." This painting term means that you've darkened the color but it's lost the brightness -- the color is dull.

Adding black to yellow, even a teeny bit, will do make the yellow muddy. Try this experiment -- darken yellow with a bit of purple. The yellow will be darker but not dull. Other alternatives to make a color darker are using a bit of dark blue or blue/black, rather than pure black.