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The Colour Wheel help us understand the use of colour in art and design. The Colourwheel shows primary, secondary, tertiary, warm, cool and complimentary colours as used in colour theory.
Often called a colourwheel, colour circle, color wheel or colorwheel
It may help to read this page in conjunction
with the 'Colour'
and 'Colour
Mixing' pages.
Primary Colours
The three hands on the colour wheel 'clock' indicate the three Primary
colours. Red, Yellow, Blue.
In theory mixing two colours together, that two of the hands on the colour
wheel point at,
will give the second colour, i.e. in between the two hands. The Secondary
colours as they are known. For more information about
mixing these
colours click the link.
Secondary Colours
These hands of the colour wheel 'clock' point to the
secondary colours, as they are referred to Orange, Green, Violet. A
list of suggested colours can be found by
clicking the link.
If you mix a Primary colour with it's adjacent Secondary colour on the
colour wheel this will give a
Tertiary colour, classed as third in order.
These are the warm colours of the spectrum from red through orange to yellow. You can use a small amount of a warm colour to warm the temperature of a cool colour and vice versa. The warm colours tend to come towards you, or feel closer to you, and come forward in a painting. To see an example of this have a look at the warm colour of this painting.
Use this knowledge in your work to advantage, for instance, cool blue colours to show distant land and a warm brown for land near to you.
The cool colours of the colour wheel tend to go away from you, or feel distant to you and recede in a painting. As with the warm colours, you can use a cool colour to change the temperature of a warm colour, just use it's opposite on the colour wheel.
To see an example of this have a look at the cool colour of this painting.
You can use warm and cool colours side by side to contrast with each other
Complementary colours are opposite each other on the
colour wheel, as shown by the hands on the colour wheel 'clock'. The same
two colours that are opposite each other, when put side by side, contrast
with each other. Complementary colours when mixed together produce a
neutral or grey colour, sometimes with a leaning towards one colour.
To see an example of this have a look at the complementary colours used in this
painting. You
can use a colours, complementary colour, to dull and darken the original
colour instead of using black.
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