Drawing and Colour
Primary 3 · Creative Arts
Drawing and Colour
Lesson 2 of 3
12 min
Let's begin
Mutesi wants to paint a banana tree with a big sun behind it. She opens her paint box and her heart sinks.
There are only three pots inside: red, yellow and blue. No green for the leaves. No orange for the sun.
She thinks she is stuck. She is not stuck at all. She is holding everything she needs.
Mutesi puts a spoonful of yellow paint on an old plastic plate. Next to it she puts the same amount of blue. Then she pulls them together with her brush and stirs.
Look at what happens. The yellow disappears. The blue disappears. And sitting there on the plate is something that was not in her paint box at all — green.
She did not have green. Now she has green. She made it.
So she tries again. Red and yellow, stirred together — orange, exactly the colour of her sun. Then blue and red — purple, for the flowers.
Red, yellow and blue are called the primary colours. They are special because you cannot make them by mixing anything. Nobody can. You have to be given them.
Every other colour in the world starts from those three.
Orange, green and purple are called secondary colours, because each one is made by mixing two primary colours together.
| Mix these two | You get |
|---|---|
| Red + Yellow | Orange |
| Yellow + Blue | Green |
| Blue + Red | Purple |
And if you stir all three primaries together? You get brown. That is exactly why the water you wash your brushes in always ends up muddy brown by the end of the lesson. Now you know why.
Mutesi looks at her banana tree again. One leaf is out in the sunshine. One leaf hangs in the shadow underneath. Both are green — but they are not the same green.
Here is what she does with her one pot of green.
For the sunny leaf. She puts some white on the plate and adds a little green to it. Out comes a soft, pale green. Add more white and it goes paler still. A colour made lighter with white is called a tint.
For the shadow leaf. She takes green and adds one tiny dot of black. Out comes a deep, dark green. A colour made darker with black is called a shade.
So: white makes a colour lighter. Black makes it darker. One colour, but now you can paint sunshine and shadow with it.
Pink is just this trick with red: red plus white gives pink. There is no pink pot — pink is a tint of red.
You can still do all of this with one pencil. Press very softly and you get a light grey. Press harder, and go over the same place again, and it turns dark and heavy. Light and dark, from the same pencil.
With crayons it is the same: colour gently for a light shade, then press and layer a second time for a dark one.
Warning
Black is greedy. One drop of black can swallow a whole plate of yellow. Add it a tiny speck at a time. You can always add more black — but you can never take it back out.
Tip
Light first, dark last. Put the pale colour on the plate first, then add the dark one drop by drop. A single drop of blue turns a whole spoon of yellow green — but a whole spoon of yellow can barely change a pot of blue. Start light, creep towards dark, and stop the moment it looks right.
Answer each one in your head first, then check.
Which of these is not a primary colour: red, green, blue, yellow?
Answer: Green. It is not primary because you can make it — mix yellow and blue. Red, blue and yellow cannot be made from anything.
Ishimwe needs purple for the flowers on his painting. Which two paints should he mix?
Answer: Red and blue.
Keza has mixed her green, but the leaf she is painting is much lighter than her green. What should she add?
Answer: White, a little at a time. White makes a colour lighter. That is called a tint.
Uwase stirs red, yellow and blue all together on one plate. What colour will she most likely get?
Answer: Brown. All three primaries together make brown, which is why brush water goes muddy.
Gatete has red paint and white paint, and he wants pink for a flower. Can he make it?
Answer: Yes. He adds white to the red, a little at a time, until it is as pink as he wants. Pink is a tint of red.
Do this one for real. Paint or colour three circles: one plain green, one light green, one dark green. Three circles, one colour, three different feelings.
What you learned today
Quick check
Match each mix to the colour it makes.
Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.
