Secondary Colors: What They Are and How to Mix Them

The secondary colors are orange, green and purple. Each one is made by mixing two of the primary colors (red, yellow and blue) in roughly equal amounts. They're called secondary because they come second: first you have the primaries, then you mix the secondaries.

Below you'll find how to mix each one, where they sit on the color wheel, and a few ways to put them to work when you color.

The three secondary colors

Secondary color	Mix	Guide
Orange	Red + yellow	What colors make orange
Green	Yellow + blue	What colors make green
Purple	Blue + red	What colors make purple

A handy way to remember it: each secondary color is the one that sits between its two parents on the color wheel. Orange sits between red and yellow. Green sits between yellow and blue. Purple sits between blue and red.

How to mix each secondary color

The amounts below are a starting point. Paints vary a lot from brand to brand, so expect to adjust.

Orange

Mix equal parts red and yellow. If it looks too red, add more yellow. If it looks too yellow, add a bit more red. Orange needs a lot of yellow to look bright, because red is the stronger color in most paints.

Green

Mix equal parts yellow and blue. Because blue is usually the stronger of the two, start with more yellow than you think you need and add the blue slowly. More yellow gives a spring or lime green. More blue gives a deep, forest green.

Purple

Mix equal parts red and blue. This is the one that most often goes wrong. If your red leans orange (it has a bit of yellow in it) or your blue leans green, the purple turns out dull or brownish. A pinkish red and a slightly purple-leaning blue give the cleanest results. If your purple looks muddy, that is usually the reason, not your mixing.

Where the secondary colors sit on the color wheel

On the classic 12-color wheel, the primaries are spaced evenly around the circle, and a secondary color sits halfway between each pair:

Red, orange, yellow
Yellow, green, blue
Blue, purple, red

Each secondary color is also directly opposite one primary:

Secondary	Opposite primary
Orange	Blue
Green	Red
Purple	Yellow

Colors that sit opposite each other are called complementary colors. Side by side they make each other look brighter. Mixed together they dull each other down toward brown or gray, which is why a secondary plus its opposite primary is a good recipe for brown. The color mixing chart shows the whole wheel.

Secondary colors and the colors in between

Once you have the three secondaries, mixing a primary with the secondary next to it gives you the six tertiary colors, such as red-orange and blue-green. Add white to any of these to make a lighter tint, or a little of the opposite color to make a softer, more natural shade.

Using secondary colors in your coloring

Secondary colors show up everywhere in nature, which makes them handy for coloring pages:

Orange: pumpkins, tigers, autumn leaves, clownfish, sunsets.
Green: grass, leaves, frogs, dinosaurs, turtles.
Purple: grapes, lavender, eggplants, twilight skies.

Some quick tips:

Vary your greens. Real grass and leaves are never one flat green. Mix a few: one with more yellow for sunlit areas, one with more blue for shadows.
Use orange as an accent. A little orange next to blue looks lively, because they are opposites.
Soften purple with white. A purple plus white gives lavender, which is good for flower petals and soft backgrounds.
Layer with dry media. With colored pencils and crayons, color one primary lightly, then layer the other on top. Yellow under blue reads as green. See how to color with colored pencils.

Making secondary colors lighter, darker and softer

Once you can mix a clean orange, green or purple, you can change it:

You want	Add
A lighter tint (peach, mint, lavender)	White, a little at a time
A darker shade	A little of the opposite primary, or a darker color from the same family
A softer, more natural color	A small touch of the opposite color on the wheel
A brighter, cleaner color	Nothing more. Mix only the two primaries you need

For example, orange plus a tiny bit of blue turns toward brown, which is handy for pumpkins, fur and wood. Green plus a little red looks more like real leaves and grass than a pure green does. Purple plus a little yellow gets dusty, like a plum. This is the same trick used in what colors make brown: opposite colors dull each other.

Secondary colors in light and in print

The word "secondary" depends on which primaries you start with. On a screen, the primaries are red, green and blue light, and mixing two of them gives yellow, cyan or magenta. In printing, the primaries are cyan, magenta and yellow ink, and mixing two gives red, green or blue. For paint, crayons and pencils, the classic answer is orange, green and purple. That is also the answer most school worksheets want.

A simple secondary colors activity

Here is a quick exercise for kids or beginners:

Draw three overlapping circles, or print a simple mandala.
Color the circles in the three primaries: red, yellow and blue.
Where two circles overlap, color the overlap with the secondary color the two primaries make.
Check your work against the table above.

A mandala coloring page works well for this, because its repeating sections let you practice the same mix several times. If you're starting from the beginning, our guide to the primary colors is a good first stop.

Common questions

Is brown a secondary color? No. Brown is a neutral, made by mixing all three primaries or two opposite colors.

Is pink a secondary color? No. Pink is a tint of red, made by adding white.

Are the secondary colors different in light? Yes. On screens, the primaries are red, green and blue light, and the secondaries are cyan, magenta and yellow. For paint, crayons and pencils, use orange, green and purple.