Key Stage 2 art and design · Techniques and materials

KS2 painting: colour mixing, washes and brush skills

In Key Stage 2 children are expected to improve their mastery of painting alongside drawing and sculpture. They learn to mix their own colours instead of using paint straight from the pot, to control water and brushes, and to choose techniques such as washes and blending for a reason. Good painting at this age is mostly about control and understanding colour, not about realistic results.

Painting techniques, explained

The curriculum asks children to improve their mastery of drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials, and lists paint as one example, so exactly which paints and techniques a school uses is its choice. Classes may use ready-mixed or powder paint, watercolour pans or acrylic, on paper, card or canvas board. What stays constant is the aim of developing control, using materials with creativity and experimenting, as the programme of study puts it.

Colour mixing is the heart of it. Schools usually start from red, yellow and blue as the primary colours, mixing them to make secondary colours: orange, green and purple. Children then go further. Adding white makes a tint, a paler version of a colour. Adding black makes a shade, a darker version, and because black is so strong children learn to add it in tiny amounts. Many teachers also show other ways to darken a colour, such as adding a little dark blue or brown. Colours opposite each other on a colour wheel, such as red and green, dull each other when mixed, which is a helpful way to make natural browns and greys. Pupils also learn that colours can be warm or cool, and that this can set the mood of a picture. A common aim is for children to mix a palette before they begin, rather than reaching for the nearest pot.

Brush and water control is the second strand. Children use different brushes for different jobs: a large flat brush for covering a background, a fine round brush for detail. They learn to load a brush with the right amount of paint, to wash it between colours and to leave a layer to dry before adding another on top. A wash is a thin, see-through layer of paint thinned with water. Wet-on-wet painting, where paint goes onto damp paper, blends softly. Wet-on-dry gives crisp edges. Other techniques include dabbing, dry brush for scratchy texture, and layering.

As children get older, teachers expect more planning and more reasons. A Year 3 child may mix secondary colours and make tints. A Year 6 child might paint from observation, mix a palette to match a subject, build up layers and explain how colour creates mood. Painting often follows drawing in a sketchbook and sits alongside learning about artists who use paint in different ways. Practice varies between schools, so ask your child which paints they have been using.

Words your child will hear

Primary colours: Red, yellow and blue, the starting colours schools use for mixing.
Secondary colours: Colours made by mixing two primaries: orange, green and purple.
Tint: A colour made paler by adding white (or, with watercolour, by adding water).
Shade: A colour made darker by adding black, a little at a time.
Wash: A thin, see-through layer of paint mixed with plenty of water.
Blend: Merge two colours smoothly so there is no hard line between them.
Palette: The flat surface used for mixing paint, or the set of colours chosen for a picture.

What the National Curriculum says

In Key Stage 2, pupils should be taught to:

Improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials [for example, pencil, charcoal, paint, clay]
Develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design.

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

Try it: mixing a range of greens for a landscape

Using yellow, blue and white paint, plus a tiny touch of red, mix a set of greens for a picture of fields and trees.

Set out a small blob of each paint on a palette, with a pot of water and a scrap of paper for testing. Start with yellow, because the stronger blue will quickly take over if you begin with it.
Add a tiny amount of blue to the yellow and mix. A bright yellow-green appears. Add more blue and the green becomes deeper and more leafy. Dab each mix on the scrap and label it.
Make tints. Add a little white to a mixed green to get a pale, soft green. With watercolour, thin the paint with water instead of adding white, which keeps it see-through.
Make darker and duller greens. Add a little more blue to deepen a green. For a natural, duller green, like a hedge in shadow, add a tiny speck of red. Red is opposite green on the colour wheel, so a small amount dulls it, and too much turns it brown.
Use the palette. Paint the distant hills in a pale, bluish green and the near trees in a strong, dark green. Colours further away usually look paler and bluer, so this makes the picture look deep.

The finished palette holds at least six greens, from lime to deep forest, each labelled with a recipe such as “lots of yellow, a touch of blue”. A child who can explain why the far hills are paler than the foreground trees has understood tone, colour mixing and distance together.

Common mistakes and how to help

Adding a big blob of black or white to change a colour

Black and white are in the pot and seem the obvious answer, but black is very strong, so a lot of it quickly turns a colour dull or almost black, and too much white makes everything chalky.

What helps: Add black a speck at a time to make a shade, and add colour to white rather than white to colour when making a tint. Mixing in a dark blue or brown is another way to darken. With watercolour, make colours lighter by adding water, not white.

Mixing lots of colours to get more colours

The more that goes in, the more exciting it feels, but mixing too many leaves a muddy brown.

What helps: Mix two colours at a time and add a third only in tiny amounts. Wash the brush between colours so one colour doesn’t contaminate another.

Loading the brush with as much paint or water as possible

It feels generous and quick, but a drowning brush makes puddles, soggy paper and runs.

What helps: Dab the brush on the edge of the pot or on a tissue. Aim for a brush that is wet but not dripping, and practise washes on scrap paper first.

Starting with tiny details and trying to stay neat inside every pencil line

Careful colouring-in is what children are used to, so painting can feel as if it should be tidy first.

What helps: Cover large areas with a big brush first, in light colours, and add details last with a fine brush and darker paint. Paint can be layered over.

How to help at home

Three colours and white. Give your child red, yellow and blue paint, plus white, and ask them to mix the colours of things around them: a brick, the sky, a leaf. Cover the table and wear an apron.
A swatch book. Fold a sheet of paper into squares and fill each with a mixed colour. Write the recipe next to it. Soon your child will have a record they can reuse.
A wash from dark to pale. Paint a strip with strong colour, then dip the brush in water and add more water for each stripe. The same colour gets paler with each step. This is an easy way to learn control.
Paint what you see. Set up a small still life, such as fruit or a jug, near a window and paint it. Mix colours to match what is really there, not what the object is supposed to look like.
Look after the brushes. Rinse brushes in water and reshape the bristles. Stand them with the bristles up. Caring for tools is part of mastering them, and clean brushes make cleaner colours.

Builds on

Leads on to

Key Stage 3: Painting techniques and media
Key Stage 3: Print, collage and mixed media
Key Stage 3: Handling different materials