The Color Wheel
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There are a few basic things you need to know before doing any type of art. The color wheel is one of these things. Look at the image below. The middle triangle contains the Primary Colors YELLOW, RED, and BLUE. The triangles that make up the second ring contain the Secondary Colors. Yellow and red make ORANGE; red and blue make PURPLE; blue and yellow make GREEN. The third row is Tertiary: orange becomes YELLOW-ORANGE and RED-ORANGE depending on which way you go around the color wheel. Next time you are at the hardware store go to the paint aisle and look at the swatch section. These colors all came from blends and started out with the basic color wheel.
Primary colors are colors that cannot be made from other colors. Yellow Red Blue |
Complementary Colors
The color wheel does more than just tell us where colors come from; it shows us what colors look good together. Complementary colors are colors that are across the color wheel from each other. GREEN and RED, PURPLE and YELLOW, and BLUE and ORANGE. These colors, when combined, cancel each other out. This means that when combined, they produce a grey-scale color like white or black. When placed next to each other, they create the strongest contrast for those particular two colors. So if you put red next to a yellow of the same intensity, it will be the brightest version of itself. Now you know why can see all the red and yellow fast food signs from the freeway, and why sports teams’ jerseys are often complimentary colors.