Pigment Lab

A subtractive colour-matching lab where quantity matters, tubes run out, and a brush you forget to rinse drags old paint into your next mix.

How to play

Match the target swatch by loading paint into your palette. More of a pigment darkens and shifts the hue, so getting close is about ratios, not just colours.

• Load red, yellow, and blue (and other tubes) — red+yellow makes orange, yellow+blue green, red+blue purple.
• Tubes have limited paint, so spend it deliberately.
• Rinse the brush to clear residue; a dirty brush adds leftover paint to your next dab.
• Submit your mix when it's close enough; fewer attempts and tighter matches score higher.

Controls

• Desktop: click tubes to load, click Rinse, Clear palette, and Submit mix.
• Phone & tablet: tap tubes and buttons — fully touch-enabled.

Tips & strategy

• Rinse before switching toward a very different hue, or residue will throw the match off.
• Nudge with small amounts near the end — one extra dab can over-darken a close mix.

What you'll learn

Pigment Lab teaches real subtractive paint mixing — hue, value and the messiness of a working brush.

• Skills: colour mixing, hue and value, painting fundamentals
• Best for: roughly grades 4–12 (ages 9+)
• For parents & teachers: real paint-mixing fundamentals.

About Pigment Lab

Pigment Lab teaches real subtractive paint mixing — hue, value, and the messiness of a working brush — as a daily match puzzle. It is an original, free browser game built in-house.

A free, original browser game on PlayPendium — no download, no install. Browse all games →