Colour Wheels

Creative Sketchbooks

Module 1, Chapter 1
Activity 1.5

Paint a Colour Wheel
 

This was interesting, building on what we’ve already done, and looking at the theory of colour on slightly more formal way, and see their relationship with each other.

To remind myself of what I have learned so far, there are: 

 

Primary Colours	Red, Yellow Blue
Secondary Colours created by mixing any two Primary Colours in equal quantities	Orange, Green, Violet
Tertiary Colours created by mixing any two Primary Colours in varying quantities	Blue Green, Yellow Green, Yellow Orange, Red Orange, Red Violet, Blue Violet

 Then there are:

Hues	The 12 base colours – three primary, three secondary and six tertiary, These are pure base colours used to make every other colour.
Tints	Paler colour created by adding white
Shades	Darker colour created by adding black

 And also:

Saturated Colours	Colour used from tube with very little water
Colour Washes	Paint mixed with water – varying amounts give different strengths of colour

 And let's not forget this (I think it's right):

Warm Colours	Have a lot of red or yellow in them, like reddish violet, or a yellowish green
Cold Colours	Have a lot of blue in them, like bluish violet, or a bluish green

 But cool and warm colours are very confusing, because the three primary colours can be warm or cool:

Colour	Warm	Cold
Blue	Prussian Ultramarine	Turquoise Cerlean Phthalo
Red	Alizarin Crimson Primary Red	Magenta Quinacrdone
Yellow	Cadmium Yellow	Cadmium Lemon

So, on the Colour Wheel we have the 12 hues around the edge, tints in the middle, and shades in the inmost circle. Each radiating strip of three colours should therefore be in the same family (I’m sure there is a name for this) and they ought to harmonise, but there’s lots more about this in the next chapter. I notice that primary colours are opposite secondary colours, but there's more about this in the next chapter as well.

The results of my colour mixing weren’t always quite what I expected, but I’m beginning to feel more confident (and competent) and the more I do, the more fascinating I think this is! 

Anyway, I did two colour wheels, one in cool colours, and the other warm, so I could see the difference between them. I wanted them to  be in the sketchbook, not in a separate container, and I didn’t want to spoil them by folding them in half, so I put each one in a plastic wallet, and threaded the holes in the wallet through the spiral of the sketchbook. It looks a bit weird, because they stick out, but it keeps them in place. There was a lot of reflection off them when I photographed them, so I've done a photo of each of them, out of the plastic wallet.