Complementary colours — Art and painting for kids

Artist's tip

Look straight across — “complementary colours sit opposite each other on the colour wheel”

1. Pairs: red–green, blue–orange, yellow–purple (each pair = one primary + one secondary).
2. Tertiary pairs: red-orange–blue-green, yellow-orange–blue-purple, yellow-green–red-purple.
3. Side by side they look brighter; mixed as paint they look dull and brownish.

Use it for: Making a subject pop out (an orange fish in blue water), posters and greeting cards.

Worked example: 🎯 What is the complementary colour of yellow? → purple

🎡 Try it: the complementary colour wheel

Tap any colour on the wheel to see its complementary partner straight across. P = primary, S = secondary, T = tertiary.

The six complementary pairs

• RedGreen
  Red ↔ Green
  primary + secondary
• Red-orangeBlue-green
  Red-orange ↔ Blue-green
  tertiary + tertiary
• OrangeBlue
  Orange ↔ Blue
  secondary + primary
• Yellow-orangeBlue-purple
  Yellow-orange ↔ Blue-purple
  tertiary + tertiary
• YellowPurple
  Yellow ↔ Purple
  primary + secondary
• Yellow-greenRed-purple
  Yellow-green ↔ Red-purple
  tertiary + tertiary

✏️ Practice

Work it out in your head or on paper, then tap your answer — or type it and press Check. Stuck? Press “Show me how”.

🏁 Lesson 5 test

20 questions. Check each answer, then go to the next one. Get 16 or more right to pass.

🏅 Sign in with Google to earn the 🎯 Opposites Matchmaker badge when you pass — and a certificate when you finish all 8 lessons of Part 1 · Colour. You can still take the test without signing in.

🖨️ Complementary Colours Worksheet

• Worksheet set 1 (PDF)
• Worksheet set 2 (PDF)
• Worksheet set 3 (PDF)