Winifred’s Colour Mix

Winifred and Douglas paint a hill for their class backdrop. They want a green like the soft grass in the seaside picture they are using as a guide.

Winifred puts blue paint in a clean mixing well and adds some yellow. When she stirs the two colours together, the green looks much too dark.

Douglas is about to paint the large hill on the board, but Winifred stops him. “Let us try it on this scrap first,” she says, holding out a small piece of paper.

The test mark looks dark against the pale sky in their guide picture. Their teacher suggests adding a little yellow at a time and checking each change.

Douglas adds a small dab of yellow while Winifred mixes. They make a new mark beside the first one, so the two shades are easy to compare.

The second green is closer, but still a little dark. They add one more small dab, stir well and test again on a clear part of the paper.

Now the new shade looks like the grass in the guide. Douglas begins painting the hill while Winifred keeps enough of the mixture ready in the well.

They leave the three test marks beside their finished hill. Winifred can see how the colour changed, one small dab at a time, before they used it on the backdrop.