Color Theory Lesson

Color Theory Lesson

In color mixing for painting, the fundamental rule is that there are three colors that cannot be made by mixing other colors together. These three, red, blue, and yellow, are known as the primary colors.

What If I Mix Primary Colors?


If you mix two primary colors together, you create what is called a secondary color. Mixing blue and red creates purple; red and yellow make orange; yellow and blue make green. The exact hue of the secondary color you've mixed depends on which red, blue, or yellow you use and the proportions in which you mix them. If you mix three primary colors together, you get a tertiary color.

Colour Wheel

A rainbow gives us pure examples of the basic colors of the visible world. The rainbow's colors are, in order, red-violet, red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue-violet and violet. When this order of colors is formed into a circle we have the COLOR WHEEL. The color wheel is an essential tool for matching colors.

Any TWO colors directly across the color wheel from each other are called COMPLEMENTARY COLORS. Red and green are opposite each other on the color wheel and therefore are complementary to each other. Yellow and violet are each other's complements. Yellow-green and red-violet are complements. Complimentary colors when placed next to each other on the canvas intensify each other. Complementary colors when mixed together on the palette neutralize each other. In this chart the pure intense colors are on the outside opposite their complements.

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