Key Stage 1 art and design · Art and design techniques

KS1 art: colour and colour mixing for Years 1 and 2

Colour is one of the seven elements children are taught to use at Key Stage 1, alongside pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space. In Years 1 and 2 they learn to name colours, mix new ones from a few paints, make colours lighter and darker, and choose colours to suit an idea or a feeling. It is part of the aim that pupils become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques.

Colour and colour mixing, explained

The first job is naming and noticing. Children learn the common colour names and then go further, describing a colour as pale blue, bright orange or dark green, and finding the same colours in the classroom, in nature and in pictures. Teachers often sort and match colours with paper swatches, crayons or objects. Year 1 children might hunt for everything that is red, and Year 2 children for every different shade of green they can find outside.

Mixing starts with primary colours. Many schools teach that red, yellow and blue are the primary colours for paint, which cannot be made by mixing others, and that mixing two of them gives a secondary colour: red and yellow make orange, yellow and blue make green, and blue and red make purple. Purple mixed from a typical school red and blue often looks a little dull or brownish. That is normal, because many reds lean slightly towards orange, and it is not your child’s mistake. The big idea is that a small number of paints can make many colours. Schools decide when to introduce the words “primary” and “secondary”, and many do so during Key Stage 1.

Children also learn that colours can change. Adding white makes a colour lighter, and adding black makes it darker. Artists call a colour mixed with white a tint and a colour mixed with black a shade, and some schools introduce these words now while others wait. Black quickly overpowers a colour, so children learn to add only a tiny touch, or to darken with a little of a darker colour instead, such as a little blue in green. Mixing too many colours together gives a dull brown, which children will discover for themselves. Teachers also talk about warm colours (reds, oranges and yellows) and cool colours (blues, greens and purples), and the way colour can show feelings, so a lively picture might be bright and warm while a calm one is pale and cool.

Colour is not only used in paint. Children use it in crayon, pastel, chalk, collage, tissue paper and fabric, so they learn to choose a colour for a purpose rather than just reach for whichever is nearest. By the end of Year 2 the hope is that a child can name and mix a range of colours, explain what they did, and choose colours for an idea, such as a cold winter scene or a hot desert.

Words your child will hear

Primary colours: The colours that are mixed to make others and cannot be made themselves. Many schools teach red, yellow and blue.
Secondary colours: Colours made by mixing two primaries: orange, green and purple.
Mix: To blend two colours together to make a new one.
Tint: A colour made lighter by adding white.
Shade: A colour made darker by adding black. Children may also darken a colour with a little of a darker one.
Warm colours: Colours such as red, orange and yellow, that remind us of fire and sun.
Cool colours: Colours such as blue, green and purple, that remind us of water and ice.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 1 says:

Pupils should be taught to develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space
Aim: pupils become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: mixing greens for a garden painting

Using only red, yellow, blue and white paint, how can you make a pale spring green, a bright leaf green and a dark green for shadows?

Put a blob of yellow and a smaller blob of blue on a palette. Blue is a strong colour that easily takes over, so start with more yellow than blue.
Mix them together with the brush. Yellow and blue make a green. If it looks too yellow, add a tiny dab of blue. If it looks too blue, add more yellow.
For a bright leaf green, keep it mostly yellow and add blue a tiny dab at a time until it looks like a leaf. Paint a leaf and note the colour on the page.
For a pale spring green, take a little of the leaf green and mix in white a bit at a time. White makes it lighter, so it looks like new growth.
For a dark shadow green, take a little of the leaf green and add a small dab more blue, or the tiniest touch of red, which deepens it and makes it a little browner. Add it gradually, because a little goes a long way.

Yellow with blue gives green. Adding white makes it paler, and adding a small amount of blue or red makes it deeper. A child might say, “I started with yellow and blue to get green, then I used white to make the spring green and blue to make the dark.”

Common mistakes and how to help

Saying that brown, black and white are not colours, or that pink is not a “real” colour

Children first meet colour in rainbows and crayon boxes, so they think only the rainbow colours count.

What helps: Collect everyday examples of brown, grey, black, white and pink and talk about them as colours. Show how to mix brown (try orange with a little blue) and pink (red with plenty of white).

Adding more and more colours so everything turns muddy brown

Children enjoy mixing and keep adding to see what happens. Mixing all three primaries, or many colours, makes a dull brown or grey.

What helps: Mix only two colours at a time. Keep a clean palette and a pot of water to wash the brush between colours. Use the brown for tree trunks or earth.

Mixing up what makes a colour lighter and what makes it darker

Adding white to a colour is the first thing children try, and they expect it to do everything. Black can also take over so that the colour is lost.

What helps: Make a simple chart: one colour, then add white a little at a time on one row, and a small amount of a darker colour on another row. Look at the difference.

Believing the colour of an object is always its “real” colour, so the grass must be green and the sky blue

Children paint what they know, not what they see. A sunset sky may be orange, and grass in the shade looks dark.

What helps: Look closely together and ask, “What colours can you really see?” Allow imaginative choices too, as a purple tree can be good art.

How to help at home

Colour mixing chart. Give your child red, yellow and blue paint (or food colouring in water under supervision), a palette and some paper. Mix each pair, label the results, and see how many different oranges, greens and purples they can make.
Colour hunt. Choose a colour such as green and find as many different shades of it as you can, indoors or on a walk. Ask which is lightest, which is darkest and which is brightest.
Warm and cool pictures. Paint the same scene twice, once using only warm colours and once using only cool ones. Ask how each one feels: which is the cosiest, and which is the coldest?
Match a mood. Read out words such as “sleepy”, “angry”, “sunny” and “shy”, and ask your child to choose a crayon or pick a colour for each. There are no wrong answers, only reasons.
Use the colours of the day. Look at the sky together in the morning and again late in the afternoon. Ask which colours are different, and try to match them with paint or crayons.

Leads on to

Key Stage 2: Pencil and charcoal drawing
Key Stage 2: Painting techniques
Key Stage 2: Sculpture with clay

More on art and design techniques

Everything in Key Stage 1 art and design

Updated 20 October 2026.