The Color Kittens The Color Kittens The Color Kittens is a children's book by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen published as part of the Little Golden Books series in 1949. The story revolves around two kittens, "Hush" and "Brush," who attempt to create green paint through mixing their other paints. Their attempts lead to a variety of different hues—none of them green. The book's famous catch phrase is "Blue is blue, and red is red! They still need green!" Children's book author and illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky, for whom the book was a childhood favorite and inspiration, said that,
Color wheel wavelengths equating to the red end of the spectrum. Complement colors are located directly opposite each other on this wheel. These complement colors are not identical to colors in pigment mixing (such as are used in paint), but when lights are additively mixed in the correct proportions appear as a neutral grey or white. For example: the reason that the Wimbledon tennis tournament uses purple on the Wimbledon official logo is that purple is located almost opposite of green on the color wheel. Purple against green provides good contrast. The color circle is used for, among other purposes, illustrating additive