The Color Wheel

The color wheel provides you with a visual description of the colors you will be using when painting your various projects.

Primary Colors (P) Red, blue and yellow are the base colors used for creating secondary and tertiery colors. They are named primary colors because they cannot be mixed using combinations of other colors. These are the base colors to have on hand when you need to create unique colors for your project. Secondary Colors (S) Purple, green, and orange are the colors created resulting from a half and half mix of two primary colors.

red + blue = purple blue + yellow = green red + yellow = orange You can also customize the colors to your project by using more or less of the two primary colors being mixed. Mixing Colors There are specific measurements for mixing colors but it also depends on the vision you have for your project. You can mix the colors freehand so to speak, to match the colors you envisioned for your project. When you are mixing colors, black and white for example, the hue of grey

can be changed by the amount of black or white added.

Tertiery Colors

burgundy = 2 parts yellow + 3 parts red
turquoise = 3 parts blue + 1 part green (1 part blue + 1 part yellow)
brown = 3 parts red + 4 parts yellow + part green (1 part blue + 1 part yellow)
lime green = 12 parts yellow + 1 part green
teal = 3 parts blue + 1 part green (1 part blue + 1 part yellow)

Alternative Combinations

When you mix white with any color, the result will be a lightening of the base color whether it be primary, secondary or tertiary.

grey= 1 part black + 1 part white
pink = 1 part red + 1 part white
light blue = 1 part blue + 1 part white
light green = 1 part green + 1 part white

Visit Art Catalogs for information on artists and to find books, posters prints, videos and art supplies.

Book Review Artist Ames contends that the reason artists struggle with color is because the old primary color scheme is wrong. He advocates an alternative approach using cyan, magenta, and yellow. No bibliography. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or. Available at Amazon for $13.97