Primary and Secondary Colors
Painters can make almost any color from just three. In this lesson you will learn the primary colors and how to mix them to make new ones.
What you will learn
- Name the three primary colors
- Mix two primary colors to name the secondary color they make
- Find a color on the color wheel
Key words
- Primary color
- — a color you cannot make by mixing — red, yellow, or blue
- Secondary color
- — a color made by mixing two primary colors
- Color wheel
- — a circle that shows how colors are related
The three primary colors
Some colors are special. They are called the primary colors, and there are three of them: red, yellow, and blue.
They are special because you cannot make them by mixing other colors. But you can use them to make almost every other color — so every painter starts here.
Mixing to make secondary colors
When you mix two primary colors, you get a secondary color. There are three of them.
Red and yellow make orange. Yellow and blue make green. Blue and red make purple. Try it: if Omar mixes blue paint and yellow paint on his brush, the green he sees is a secondary color.
Try it
You only need three paints — red, yellow, and blue — to mix orange, green, and purple. Three colors become six.
Warm and cool colors
The color wheel also has two halves. The warm colors — red, orange, and yellow — make us think of sunlight and fire. The cool colors — blue, green, and purple — make us think of water and shade.
Artists choose warm or cool colors to give a painting a feeling. A warm picture can feel bright and lively; a cool picture can feel calm and quiet.
Practice
1. Which color do you get when you mix red and yellow?
2. Which of these is a primary color?
3. A painter wants a calm, quiet picture of the sea. Name two colors they might choose, and say why.