Paint Mixer
Discover that red, yellow and blue paint mix into every other colour: two primaries make a secondary colour, all three make brown, and white makes a lighter tint.
Before you try
What if you mixed every colour in the paint box together? Would you get a rainbow, black, or something else?
Try it out
Interactive activity
Sign in to play
Use a Google account (yours or a parent’s) to unlock this simulator. We store only your name and email so your favourites and progress follow you.
Signing in needs an internet connection. Once you are signed in, simulators also work offline.
Free preview
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What happened?
Move a control to see what changes and why.
The bowl blends eight fixed paint colours, so shades will not match a real paint box exactly. Real paints differ from brand to brand.
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Try these ideas
- Make orange, green and purple. Which two tubes did each one need?
- Mix all three colours in equal drops. What do you get?
- Make pink, then keep adding white. Does it ever turn fully white?
Why it works
Red, yellow and blue are the primary colours of paint. You cannot make them by mixing other paints, but together they make almost everything else. Red and yellow make orange, yellow and blue make green, and red and blue make purple. These are the secondary colours.
Paint works by soaking up some colours of light and bouncing back the rest. Every paint you add soaks up more light, so mixes get darker. That is why all three primaries together make a muddy brown, not white.
White paint adds no colour of its own. It makes a colour lighter, which artists call a tint: red and white make pink, blue and white make sky blue.
Topics covered: colour mixing game, primary colours, secondary colours, mixing paint colours, tints.
Check your understanding
Question 1 of 3
Which two paints make green?
What happens when you mix red, yellow and blue paint together?
What does adding white paint do to a colour?
Explain it in your own words
What changed? Why did it happen? Where might you notice this in everyday life?
For parents & teachers
- Try the same mixes with real paints or crayons. Do you get the same colours?
- Ask: why do we call red, yellow and blue "primary" colours?
- Look around the room and guess which paints would make each colour you see.