Mixing secondary colours: summer purples

I can mix purple and blend it into tints and shades

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Year 1

Mixing secondary colours: summer purples

I can mix purple and blend it into tints and shades

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Share activities with pupils

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Lesson details

Key learning points

We are able to mix a range of purples using primary colours.
Artists can mix colours on paper using blending.
We can add white to make tints of colour, making a colour lighter.
We can add black to make shades of colour, making a colour darker.

Keywords

Purple - a secondary colour, made by mixing blue and red
Blend - using a brush to gently mix colours on paper
Tint - adding white to a colour to make it lighter
Shade - adding black to a colour to make it darker

Common misconception

Paint can only be mixed in a paint palette.

Paint can be mixed in a paint palette, but it can also be mixed on paper to create a blend.

Pupils can sometimes find mixing purple challenging. Encourage pupils to mix the paint really well with their brushes, and experiment by adding different amounts of blue and red.

Teacher tip

Equipment

Sketchbooks or A3 paper, poster paint in red, blue, white and black, brushes, water pots.

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).