The Color Wheel

Let’s start with the very basic… the color wheel everyone is familiar with. It’s not accurate, but it’s what is most accepted by the majority.

The color wheel is set up to make it easy to understand how colors relate to one another. Every color on the color wheel is considered a “hue”. A hue is a pure color.

Let’s look at the color wheel.

Primary Secondary and Tertiary Colors

The colors are arranged so that you can readily tell which colors are primary, which are secondary, and which are tertiary.

Primary means 1^st

They are the colors that you start with. The theory goes that you cannot mix any colors together to get them…thus they are the “first” colors. On this well-accepted color wheel though, this is inaccurate. The actual primary colors are Magenta, not Red; Cyan, not Blue and Yellow stays Yellow. If you actually used Red and Blue as your primaries, the colors you mixed would look muddy. Definitely NOT the true hues you are looking for. However, the color wheel is workable for understanding how colors relate, even with this inaccuracy.

To locate the primary colors on the color wheel, you will find them in a triangle as far away from each other as they can be.

Secondary means 2^nd

The Secondary colors are Orange, Green and Violet and are equidistance between two primary colors on the color wheel. These are visually equal in the mix of the two primary colors they are in between. I say visually equal, because you cannot mix equal amounts of, let’s say, Red and Yellow to get a secondary Orange. Red is a much stronger of a color than yellow, so if you mixed with equal volume, then you would get a red red-orange.

Tertiary means 3^rd

While there are three primary colors and three secondary colors, there are six tertiary colors because you are now combining both primary and secondary colors together to get a tertiary color. The tertiary colors can be found on the color wheel between a primary color and a secondary color. These colors are made by mixing the primary color and the secondary color together that they are positioned between.

If you mix blue with green, then you will get the tertiary color blue-green. The cool thing is that the name of the tertiary color totally gives away what colors you used to get that color. AND, the name ALWAYS starts with the primary color used, then a hyphen, then the secondary color you used to mix with. Mystery solved on Tertiary colors!

If primary means 1, secondary means 2 and tertiary means 3, then you can mix colors mathematically.

1+1=2 … 1+2=3

It’s that simple!

Warm and Cool Colors

Another thing the color wheel can tell you, once you learn how to read it, is if a color is warm or cool.

I you draw a line right through the center of the wheel, running through red-violet to the other side and through yellow green, then you will have divided the color wheel in half. Every color on one side is warm and the other side is cool.

So what is warm and cool colors?

The colors are identified as warm or cool according to what we are familiar with. Yellows, reds and oranges are considered WARM colors because we associate those colors with warmth. Think about our environment. The sun and fire are both warm. Warm can also be associated with emotions.  We often describe our emotions in colors. Red with rage, yellow with fear. Both rage and fear will raise your body temperature, thus becoming hotter.

On the other hand, blues, greens and violets are considered COOL colors because we associate those colors due to the cool blue water; cold blue ice, and cool dark green shadows on the grass. The cool colors work with the emotions just like the warm colors do. Blue associated with being depressed or green with envy. Envy and Depression tend to lower your body temperature.

Color Schemes

Colors can be combined into “color schemes”. What is a color scheme? I’m glad you asked, because these schemes can be very important in both creating art and decorating our home.

A color scheme is a combination of a certain number of colors that are considered as “going together”. It is a way to assure that the colors will not conflict with each other. Here’s six different color schemes…

Monochromatic Color Scheme:

Mono means “one”. It consists of only one color, plus tints, shades or tones of that color. A tint of a color is created by adding white to the color. Tints can be varied by how much white you add. A shade is created by adding black to the color. Shades can be varied by how much black you add. A tone is created by adding black AND white (grey) to the color. Tones vary greatly because the tone is determined by the differing amounts of both black and white to the color. Using the color wheel you pick only one color (hue) to work with.

Complementary Color Scheme:

Consist of two colors opposite the color wheel plus the tints, shades and tones of those colors. A primary will be directly across from a secondary color. A tertiary will be directly across from another tertiary color. A couple of examples of Complementary colors are “blue and orange”, and “blue-violet and yellow-orange”. (notice that blue is the complement of orange and violet is the complement of yellow). Everything ties together!

Triadic Color Scheme:

This color scheme consists of three colors that form an equilateral triangle on the color wheel plus the tints, shades and tones of those colors. It can consist of the primary colors (red, blue and yellow) or the secondary colors (orange, green and violet) or you could use the tertiary colors of (red-violet, blue-green and yellow-orange) or (blue-violet, yellow-green and red-orange). Notice that all the colors in this theme are at the same level…primary goes with primary, secondary goes with secondary and tertiary goes with tertiary colors.

Analogous Color Scheme:

This color scheme consists of three colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. They are a “family” of colors, closely related to each other. The combination of violet, blue-violet and blue is an example of an analogous color scheme. It is not as restrictive as it may seem because, remember, ALL COLOR SCHEMES include the tints, shades and tones of the colors you have selected to use.

Split-Complementary Color Scheme:

Consists of three colors, and the tints, shades and tones of  those colors. Like the complementary color scheme, they are across from each other on the color wheel, except instead of using the complement, you use the colors that are on either side of the complement. If you drew a line to the colors it would look like a “Y”. An example would be red, but instead of green, you would use blue-green and yellow-green.

That’s about as far as the color wheel will take us. Color is such an expansive topic. Next week I’ll talk more about tints, shades and tones, and relativity of colors. We will also get into other color wheel theories.

Double-Split Complementary Color Scheme:

Consists of four colors, plus the tints, shades and tones of those colors.. It uses the colors on both sides of the complementary colors of your choice. The lines drawn to each of the colors would look like an “X”. Example: Blue and orange are complements, but instead you’d use what’s on either side of orange and what’s on either side of blue. So it would look like this… blue-violet, blue-green, red-orange and yellow-orange. With this many colors, and all the tints, shades and tones, you have a very complicated color scheme!

Beyond the Color Wheel

That’s about as far as the color wheel will take us. Color is such an expansive topic. Next week I’ll talk more about tints, shades and tones, and the relativity of colors. We will also get into other color wheel theories.