What Does White Paint Change? A Three-Swatch Tint Lesson

Before mixing, ask a specific question: what will change if we keep the blue setting the same and add more white? This short art activity compares three swatches instead of trying to name every colour. Students make a prediction on screen, then check it against small samples of real paint if materials are available.

In this lesson, value means how light or dark a colour appears. Adding white to a colour makes a tint. The useful task is to order the samples from darker to lighter and explain the evidence. A blue that looks more violet than expected is also worth discussing; matching a familiar colour name is not the goal.

1. Keep one setting fixed

Open the free Luna Whale Paint Mixer and choose Acrylic, labelled 아크릴. Clear any previous colours with 전체 지우기, then choose Ultramarine Blue (울트라마린 블루) and Titanium White (티타늄 화이트). The controls currently use Korean labels; these names help you find the same two paints. No paid plan is needed for this mixer activity.

Leave the blue slider at 50. Change only the white slider: try 10, then 50, then 100. Before each change, ask students which sample they expect to be lighter. Keep the paint mode and the two selected colours unchanged so the comparison answers one question.

2. Record three screen samples

The table records a check of the live Acrylic mode on 30 October 2026. Each row uses the same blue setting. HEX identifies the screen colour so you can record the result without relying on a colour name. Your display can make these swatches look different from another screen.

Important: the controls show a percent sign, but the two displayed settings do not have to add to 100. For example, blue 50 and white 100 are slider amounts, not a recipe of 50% blue plus 100% white paint. Do not measure real paint from those labels. This is a digital prediction to investigate, not a guaranteed pigment formula.

3. Compare with paint on the same paper

If you have suitable classroom paint, make three small areas labelled A, B and C on the same sheet. Start each with a similar small dab of the same blue. Add a little white to A, more to B and more again to C, keeping a separate note of what you actually added. Use the same brush size and a similar paint thickness. These are comparison samples, not attempts to reproduce the screen HEX codes.

Let the samples dry and compare them under the same light. Ask whether their lightness order matches the screen prediction. Paint brand, pigment, amount of water or medium, surface and lighting can change the result. If two samples are hard to distinguish, record that honestly and make a second pair with a clearer difference in the amount of white.

4. Finish with evidence, not a perfect match

Use three short prompts: “Which sample looks lightest?”, “What did we keep the same?” and “What would we change in a second test?” A learner can point, sort or describe the samples rather than write a long answer. If working without paint, finish with the screen observations and leave the real-paint comparison as an untested prediction.

For a record, draw three boxes on scrap paper and note the blue and white settings beneath each box, followed by one observation. Use the mixer again to test a different blue while keeping your earlier notes. The colour-theory guide below covers broader colour relationships; this lesson focuses on the effect of changing white in a controlled comparison.