Customers want colors that are not in the pots. Mix red, yellow, blue, white and black to make orange, green, purple, pink, brown and more.
The big ideas
What the levels teach, in grown-up words.
Red, yellow and blue are the painter's primary colors. Every other paint color can be mixed from them, but nothing mixes into them. Red and yellow make orange, yellow and blue make green, red and blue make purple.
The amounts matter. Two scoops of yellow and one of blue make a yellowish lime green; the other way round gives teal. Recipes let you make the same color again.
White makes tints, black makes shades. Red plus white is pink, blue plus white is light blue. A little black turns blue into navy.
All three primaries, or two opposites, make brown. Orange and blue, red and green, and purple and yellow sit across from each other on the color wheel. Each pair mixes into brown or gray because together they contain all three primaries.
Paint mixes differently from light. Paints absorb light, so each paint you add takes more colors away and the mix gets darker. Lumi's Color Adventure shows the opposite happening with light.
Try it at home
Quick experiments that match the game.
Three-paint challenge. With only red, yellow and blue paint, make orange, green, purple and brown. Then try to make red from the others.
Tint ladder. Put a blob of blue on paper, then keep adding a little white and painting a new stripe. Count how many shades of blue you can make.
Recipe cards. Write down the scoops for a color you like, wash the brush, and mix it again tomorrow from the card.
Mud test. Mix orange and blue, then purple and yellow. Compare the two browns.
Ask after playing:
Which two paints make green?
What happens when you add white to a color? And black?