Process Art Color Mixing Experiment

Washable paint in only three colors: red, yellow, and blue

Paintbrushes — both wide and thin

Large white paper

Paper plates for use as mixing palettes

Tape

Smock or old shirt

Set out three cups of paint — red, yellow, and blue. Only these three. Tell your child this is a color mystery to solve.

Tape a large piece of white paper to the table. White paper shows mixed colors best.

Give your child a brush and let them paint freely. Do not give instructions about mixing yet — let discovery happen naturally.

When two colors inevitably meet on the paper, point it out. "Wait, what color is that? You only had red and yellow but now there is orange!"

Once the discovery clicks, encourage deliberate mixing. "What do you think will happen if we mix blue and yellow?"

Provide a paper plate as a mixing palette. Drop blobs of two colors on the plate and let your child stir them together.

Challenge: how many different colors can you make from just three? (The answer is at least six — orange, green, purple, plus shades and browns.)

Resist the urge to teach color theory upfront. The power of this activity is in the child discovering color mixing through their own experimentation.

Ask questions instead of giving answers. "What color did you make? How did that happen? Can you make it again?"

Provide a rinse cup for brushes between colors so the experiments stay clean.

Brown is not a failure — it is what happens when you mix all three primaries. Talk about it as a discovery, not a mistake.

This activity naturally introduces scientific thinking: hypothesis (I think red plus blue will make...), experiment (let me try it), and observation (it made purple!).