Warm and Cool Colors: What They Are and How to Use Them

Colors can feel warm or cool, even though they don't have a temperature. Warm colors (reds, oranges and yellows) remind us of sunshine, fire and autumn leaves. Cool colors (blues, greens and purples) remind us of water, ice, grass and evening skies. Knowing the difference helps you choose colors that make a picture feel cozy or calm, bright or quiet, near or far away.

Which colors are warm and which are cool?

Warm colors	Cool colors
Red	Blue
Orange	Green
Yellow	Purple (violet)
Red-orange, yellow-orange	Blue-green, blue-purple
Pinks, peaches, golden browns	Teals, turquoise, lavender

On a color wheel, the warm colors sit on one half and the cool colors on the other.

Colors that can go either way

Some colors change depending on what they're mixed with or placed next to:

Green feels warmer when it leans toward yellow (lime) and cooler when it leans toward blue (teal).
Purple feels warmer with more red (magenta, plum) and cooler with more blue (violet).
Red can be warm (orange-red) or cooler (crimson, which leans toward purple).
Neutrals like gray and brown can lean warm or cool too: a brown with more red feels warm; a gray with a little blue feels cool.

How warm and cool colors make a picture feel

Warm colors often feel	Cool colors often feel
Energetic, cheerful, exciting	Calm, peaceful, quiet
Cozy and close	Fresh, airy, far away
Like daytime, summer, fall	Like night, winter, water

These feelings aren't strict rules, and they can vary from person to person and culture to culture, but they're a useful starting point.

Using warm and cool colors for depth

Artists use a simple trick: warm colors seem to come forward, cool colors seem to move back.

Color things in the front of a picture with warmer, brighter colors.
Color the background (hills, sky, distant trees) with cooler, lighter colors.
For shadows, add a cool color (blue or purple) rather than black; for highlights, add a warm color (yellow).

This is why distant mountains often look blue-gray in real life and in paintings.

Easy activities

1. Split a picture in half. Color the left half of a page in warm colors and the right half in cool colors. Compare how each side feels.

2. Warm and cool mandala. Color a mandala coloring page with warm colors in the center and cool colors on the outside, or the other way around.

3. Seasons collage. Make one collage of fall leaves (warm) and one of winter snow and ice (cool).

4. Color hunt. Find five warm-colored and five cool-colored things around the house or classroom.

5. Same picture, two moods. Print the same coloring page twice. Color one in warm colors as a sunny day, the other in cool colors as a moonlit night. Our summer coloring pages and werewolf coloring pages are great for this.

Mixing warm and cool colors

Mixing a warm color with a cool color can make a muted or "in-between" color. Orange and blue, for example, make brown.
Two warm colors mixed together stay warm (red + yellow = orange).
Two cool colors mixed together stay cool (blue + green = teal).

Quick quiz

Is the sun usually drawn in warm or cool colors? (Warm)
Which group makes a picture feel calm? (Cool)
Which group seems to come forward? (Warm)
Is lime green warmer or cooler than teal? (Warmer)

For more on how colors work together, see our color mixing chart.