Grade by Grade
B. Drama / D. Visual Arts · Drama and Visual Arts

Visual Arts: Colour Mixing, Tints, Light and Dark

D1.3 D1.4 D2.2About 35 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can mix equal amounts of two primary colours to make a secondary colour.
  • I can make many colours from a limited palette.
  • I can mix a tint by adding a colour to white.
  • I can tell which colours are light and which are dark (value).
  • I can explain how an artist used colour and value.

Words to know

primary colours
Red, yellow and blue. You can't make them by mixing other paints.
secondary colours
Orange, green and violet (purple). Each is made by mixing two primary colours.
limited palette
Using only a few paint colours, like red, yellow, blue and white, and mixing all the others.
value
How light or dark a colour is.
tint
A colour mixed with white, which makes it lighter. Pink is a tint of red.
palette
The tray or plate where an artist mixes paint. It can also mean the set of colours an artist uses.

Remember from Grade 1

You learned that the primary colours are red, yellow and blue, and that mixing two of them makes a secondary colour. You also learned about warm and cool colours.

This year you will become a real colour scientist! You will mix with a limited palette, make tints, and look for light and dark.

+=orange+=green+=violetPrimary + primary= secondary colour
Mixing equal amounts of two primary colours makes a secondary colour: orange, green and violet.

Equal amounts

When you mix about equal amounts of two primary colours, you get the secondary colour in the middle:

  • red + yellow = orange
  • yellow + blue = green
  • red + blue = violet (purple)

If you use more of one colour, the new colour leans toward it. More yellow than red makes a yellow-orange. More red makes a red-orange. That's how artists make so many different colours!

A paint palette with red, yellow, blue and white paint, and mixed orange, green, violet and pink paint, with two brushes and a jar of water.
The primary colours red, yellow and blue sit at the top with white. Below are the mixed colours orange, green and violet, plus pink, a tint made by adding white to red. AI-generated image

A limited palette

Artists don't need 100 tubes of paint. With a limited palette of just red, yellow, blue and white, you can mix almost any colour you need.

This saves paint, and the colours in your picture look like they belong together.

Just for fun

What did the blue paint say to the yellow paint?

"Let's get together and go green!"

Value: light and dark

Value means how light or dark a colour is.

  • Yellow is a light colour. Navy blue is a dark colour.
  • Snow in sunlight is light. The shadow under a pine tree is dark.

Artists use light and dark to show sunny and shady places, day and night, and to make things stand out.

Mixing a tint

A tint is a colour mixed with white. Tints are lighter.

  • red + white = pink
  • blue + white = light blue (like a winter sky)
  • violet + white = lavender

Tip: start with white and add a tiny bit of colour. Colour is strong! If you start with blue and add white, you'll need a LOT of white.

darklightmore white = lighter tint
A tint ladder: blue with more and more white mixed in, from dark to light.
Worked example

Example: Painting a winter sky with tints

Amira wants to paint a winter sunset sky over a snowy field using only red, yellow, blue and white.

  1. For the top of the sky, she mixes blue + white for a soft light blue tint.
  2. Lower down, she mixes red + white to make a pink tint for the sunset glow.
  3. Near the horizon, she mixes red + yellow in equal amounts for orange.
  4. For the snow, she uses white with a tiny touch of blue so it looks cold.
  5. For the shadows of the trees on the snow, she uses darker blue and violet.

With a limited palette, Amira mixed tints for a soft, light sky and used darker values for the shadows. The light and dark make the picture look like real winter light.

Worked example

Example: Finding light and dark

Look at a photo of a maple tree on a sunny day. Where are the light and dark values?

  1. The leaves facing the sun are light green and yellow-green.
  2. The leaves inside the tree, in shadow, are dark green.
  3. The shadow on the grass under the tree is dark.
  4. The sky is a light blue.

The sunny parts are light values and the shady parts are dark values. Showing both makes the tree look round and real.

Hands-on activity

Make a tint ladder and a limited-palette painting

You need: washable paint in red, yellow, blue and white, a paper plate for a palette, a brush, a cup of water, paper towel, and paper.

Part 1: Tint ladder

  1. Draw 5 boxes in a row.
  2. Paint the first box with pure colour (like red).
  3. On your plate, put a blob of white. Add a tiny bit of red. Paint box 5 (the lightest).
  4. Keep adding a little more red to make boxes 4, 3 and 2, getting darker each time.

Part 2: A picture with a limited palette

Paint a picture of something from outside (a garden, the sky at sunset, a snowy park) using only red, yellow, blue and white. Mix all the other colours yourself!

Rinse your brush between colours so they don't turn muddy.

Your turn

1

Which two primary colours make green?

2

What colour do you get when you mix red and blue in equal amounts?

3

What is a tint?

4

What tint do you get from red + white?

5

What does value mean?

6

Which is a darker value: light blue or navy blue?

7

What colours are in our limited palette?

More practice: warm-up

1

Name the three primary colours.

2

Name the three secondary colours.

3

Is yellow a light or dark colour?

4

What do you add to a colour to make a tint?

5

Red + yellow = ?

More practice: on your own

1

You mix lots of yellow and just a little red. What colour do you get? Why?

2

You want lavender for a flower. What do you mix?

3

Why should you start with white and add a little colour when making a tint?

4

In a picture of a sunny day, where would you use dark values?

5

Your green paint is too dark for spring grass. How could you make it lighter?

Challenge

1

You only have red, yellow, blue and white. How would you make a light orange (peach) for a sunset?

2

Why might an artist choose a limited palette instead of using every colour?

3

Sam mixed red, yellow and blue together and got a muddy brown. What advice would you give to make a clean green?

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Yellow + blue = ?

2.

A tint is made by adding ___ to a colour.

3.

Pink is a tint of ___.

4.

Value means ___.

5.

A limited palette means ___.

6.

Which is the lightest value?

7.

Red + blue in equal amounts makes ___.

For parents and teachers

Big idea: For colour, Grade 2 focuses on secondary colours (mixing equal amounts of primaries) and mixing with a limited palette. For value, the focus is mixing a tint and identifying light and dark (D1.3, D1.4, D2.2).

How to help:

  • Washable tempera in red, yellow, blue and white is all you need.
  • Let your child experiment first, then name what they discovered.
  • Look for light and dark outside: sunny and shady sides of trees, houses and snowbanks.

Common difficulties:

  • Muddy colours. Rinse and blot the brush between colours; mix only two colours at a time.
  • Tints that stay too dark. Start with white and add colour a tiny bit at a time.
  • Confusing "light" (value) with "light" (weight). Say "light like daytime, dark like night-time."

Extra: Adding black makes a shade (a darker colour). Your child may discover this, but tints are the Grade 2 focus.