Art lesson - The Color Wheel

Click to enlarge Colour Wheel (Permission granted to reproduce colourwheel graphic for personal or classroom use - G. Conley)

The 12-part Colour wheel is a representation of the visual spectrum of light that us humans can actually see. It is the rainbow we see through the dispersion of white light through prisms and raindrops. The visible spectrum (traditional ROYGBIV) is a very small range of the whole electromagnetic spectrum that runs from radio waves on the long end to Gamma waves on the short end. Each colour has a specific wave frequency that our eyes perceive as different colour sensations. The basic colour groupings that concern artists are the Primary colours (3), the Secondary colours (3), and the Tertiary colours (6). Hue refers to the colour name, as in red, blue, and yellow are different hues. Colour saturation is to the strength of colour as it is presented. Chroma is the amount of grayness in a colour, achieved my adding white or black. V The interaction of one colour with another can achieve both highly dramatic as well as subtle glowing effects in your art. Understanding the potent interrelations of colour and light on the textures of the surfaces of what we see everyday is essential to the artist. Genré, technique and subject matter do not matter. You gotta know this stuff or you're going to do some strange pieces as you explore colour by hit and miss.

Primary Colours

Red, Yellow and Blue Lightwaves travel at different frequencies: Red is longest, Yellow is middle range, Blue is close to the short end (Violet)

Secondary Colours

Orange, Green and Violet Combining Primary Colours in pairs results in Secondary Colours. (Yellow + Red = Orange, Yellow + Blue = Green, Red + Blue = Violet)

Tertiary Colours

Filling in the Gaps The colours that fall between the Primary and Secondary Colour mixtures are Yellow-orange, Red-orange, Yellow-green, Blue-green, Red-violet and Blue-violet.

Complementary Colours

Yin and Yang Colours that are 180° opposite each each other on the Colour Wheel. Complementary colours afford the highest possible colour contrast and stability. Colours next to their complimentary counterparts set off a visual excitement in their contrast that jars us.

Getting that "Glow"

Did you know? Using lighter shades of complementary colours can recreate a "glow" of light and colour vibrancy.

Mixing Complementary colours

If you slowly mix a colour into it's complementary colour it gradually loses it vibrancy and it's identity as a colour. They neutralize each other and leave a variation of gray. Depending on the pigments used (see Mud) this is an essential tool for finding difficult mixes of warm and cool grays.

Split Complementaries

Indirect supplementaries Split complementary groupings have a colour and the two colours adjacent to that colours complement. Example: Yellow/Red Violet/Blue Violet.

Analagous Colours

Colour Neighbourhoods Groupings of 3 or 4 adjacent colours on the colour wheel. Here are four groups of three analogous colours.

Colour Key
How light is that shadow?

High Key High Colour Saturation Low Key High Colour Saturation High Key Low Colour Saturation Low Key Low Colour Saturation

Colour Key is the overall brightness and chroma (colour saturation) of a painting. High Key paintings are on the light end of the value scale. Low Key paintings are towards the darker end of the value scale. High and Low Key Paintings can have varying levels of colour saturation.

Colour and emotional temperature

Primary Colours - Red, Yellow, Blue
Red is the colour of blood and living things, it is warm. Yellow is the colour of the sun and warm gold flowers. Blue is the colour of coolness and water and distant skies.

Secondary Colours - Orange, Green, Violet
Orange is the colour of citrus on warm trees and the last warm rays touching the edges of a distant canyon. Green can be vital and growing or distant and alien. Violet can be rich with a neutral demanding presence or find itself in flashes of organic mischief.

Tertiary Colours - Yellow-orange, Red-orange, Red-violet, Blue-violet, Blue-green, Yellow-green
Yellow-orange is a flash of flesh and life. Red-Orange is a shouting invitation to celebrate it's presence. Red-violet is the shadows of sandstone canyons at dusk not yet cool. Blue-violet is a mystery with deepening shadows holding the night's chill. Blue-green is a cooling insistence that promises comfort in another place.

Our emotional response to colour

All the impressions I free-associated above, when taken as a whole, will give you a vague idea of a basic colour theory concerning our emotional response to colours and how those responses actually relate to the visual reality we find ourselves in. As well as inferring some hard-wired primal response to colour that we'll never likely get a handle on.

Frederick Edwin Church. "Twilight in the Wilderness", 40"x64",1860, oil, The Cleveland Museum of Art. From: Frederick Edwin Church & the National Landscape.

"Colour is strong stuff. It can take your breath away. The cliché of a blazing red streaked sunset is a cliché for a reason, we all share the same gut response to viewing one first hand. It's one of those moments of magic we try to rebirth to the real through our thoughts and actions as artists. We want to call notice to this experience through our creations...well don't you?"

Exercise your whole brain: Make a list of colours like I did above. Write down your emotional response to the colour as if it were merely a couple of attributes in a visual personality you are viewing. As in, "When you see Red, what immediately comes to mind. Then, using terms that will describe where in reality those colours are found, describe the tactile sense of temperature that colour brings to you. It usually relates to time of day or season and how far away the colour appears visually. "If you were cold and, all things being equal, you had the choice of a Red or a Blue blanket, which one can you see yourself warm in?" If you really look around you in nature and everyday life, what you see should validate any impression you may have written. If not, it may be time to adjust your poison of choice.