Primary, Secondary and Tertiary colours |
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| There are three Primary colours: RED, YELLOW and BLUE. Primary colours cannot be created by mixing other colours. |
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| Secondary colours are colours produced by mixing two primary colours. The secondary colour is midway between the two primaries. e.g. Mixing Red with Yellow will produce Orange, Mixing Blue with Yellow will produce Green and mixing Red with Blue will produce Violet. |
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| Tertiary colours are colours produced by mixing a primary colour with one of
its secondary colours. i.e. Mixing Red with Orange produces a Red Orange. Mixing Blue with
Green produces a Blue Green. Mixing Yellow with Orange produces a Yellow Orange etc. Note: Some art/colour references may use the term 'tertiary' to refer to a mix consisting all three primary colours. |
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| An even wider variety of hues can be achieved by varying the
relative quantities of the primary colours.
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The Colour Wheel |
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| The Colour wheel is a useful pictorial representation of the spectrum of
colours and can be used to simplify the understanding of the interaction of colours used
in a painting. It can also help with selection of a palette of colours, colour mixing, the
natural greying of colours, and colour perspective (also called aerial perspective). The simplified wheel opposite consists of the primary, secondary and tertiary colours explained above. The three primary colours Red, Yellow and Blue are shown in the large circles. Between each of the primary colours are the secondary colours, shown in the middle sized circles, which result from mixing the two adjacent primaries. The tertiary colours obtained from mixing the primaries with their respective secondary colours are shown in the small circles. As the colours progress around the wheel in any direction, each one is a gradual change from its adjacent colour. The colours on the right of the wheel shown opposite are known as cool colours - colours which are blue or have a leaning towards blue (yellow-green to blue-violet) The colours on the left, are known as warm colours - colours which are red or have a leaning towards red (yellow-orange to red-violet) |
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| Complementary Colours | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Complementary colours are those which are opposite each other on
the colour wheel. For example, red is opposite green. Green is made from the other two
primary colours so it contains no red. When these complementary colours are put together
in a picture the result is striking - think of poppies in a green field. Each colour makes
the other 'sing' and have vibrancy. Each primary has a secondary colour
which is its complementary and vice versa:
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Tertiary colours also have complementary colours but in these cases the
colours opposite will also be tertiary colours:
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| When complementary colours are mixed together, they have a neutralising
effect on each other so the resulting colour is duller (greyer). Adding red to green
neutralises the green and continued addition of red will eventually result in a colourless
grey or even black. What is really happening is that all three primaries are being mixed
together which, in the right proportions, theoretically produces black. Further addition
of red will produce a greyed red (brown). This neutralising effect is shown on the
extended colour wheel opposite where the colours become duller or greyer as they approach
the centre of the wheel. The colours produced in this way are often referred to as
'Neutral Colours' So, when you need to produce a natural dulling or greying effect on green, such as the shadow area of a tree just look at the colour wheel and - add a little red! If it's a blue green tree - add a little Red Orange. If you need a subtle grey for cloud shadow, use the blue used for the sky and add it's complementary. Using a complementary colours in this way produces a more natural and exacting dulling than using black or grey paint. It will keep your colours clearer, fresher and more alive.
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| Tints | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tints of a colour are produced when white paint is added to that
colour. In the case of traditional English watercolour, the white of the paper is used as
the 'White paint' component and tints are produced by adding more water to the colour
allowing more light to be reflected from the surface of the paper through the transparent
colours. In the diagram opposite, the colour wheel is shown inside the white circle. Tints produced from the colours in the colour wheel are shown in the outer ring of colours. |
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| Paints and the colour wheel | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pigments used to manufacture paints do not normally produce pure
red, blue or yellow and most contain traces of one or both of the other primaries. Because
of this it is difficult, if not impossible to produce the full spectrum of colours that
are present in nature by using a single Red, Blue and Yellow. The
answer is to select a palette of colours which will allow mixing of a much wider range of
colours but will also be restricted enough to make it easy to become familiar with them
and understand the interactions. The colour wheel has already been used to show the
progression of warm to cool colours and it also shows that each colour such as blue or
yellow has warm and cool versions of the colour. For example:
All the examples above are tertiary colours and many of the pigments used in the manufacture of paint also produce tertiary colours - so an 'optimised palette' should consist of two versions of each primary:
One such palette is given below though there are many alternatives to the specific colours chosen here. YELLOWS: Cadmium Yellow - (Warm Yellow, Yr), & Lemon Yellow (Cold
Yellow, Yb) The 'Yr' symbols means Yellow with a trace of red, i.e. primaries yellow (dominant) and red (trace) are present etc. |
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| And now for a bit of simple algebra that will brighten or dull
your day! - don't worry, it wont hurt. When you mix two or more colours together, you will know before you mix them whether you will get a subdued colour or a bright colour! If the mix contains all three primary letters it will be subdued to some extent
depending on the relative quantities of the primaries. Lets look at some examples: Cadmium Yellow mixed with Cadmium Red is Yr + Ry, result - bright orange
(contains only reds and yellows) With these near primaries in the optimised palette, it's not likely that they
will produce significantly subdued colours or greys by mixing any two of them together as
the trace colours are relatively small in quantity compared to the dominant primary
colour. Neither will mixing only two such colours produce mud. However, by mixing three
together, particularly if they include all three dominant primaries, subdued colours
(greys) will be produced - again this is shown by the presence of three upper case
letters. e.g: Note: In watercolour, the opacity of the paint also plays a part in a mixtures tendency to produce muddy colours. |
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| Of course you can use the 'mixing code system' with any colour in
your palette to help in assessing it's potential mixing properties. If the colour is a
near secondary, designate it with two upper case letters. e.g Orange = YR, Green = YB,
Violet = RB As you have seen from the colour wheel charts above, some paints will contain traces of all three primary colours. For example Yellow Ochre is a greyed yellow so in addition to yellow it contains traces of blue and red (Yrb). Payne's grey is a greyed blue (Bry) and similarly contains all three primaries. The conclusions from this when mixing colours are:
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Peter Saw asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Copying or reproduction of any paintings, parts of paintings, text or graphics on this site is not permitted unless otherwise stated.
