Color Practice

Here’s a way to easily create a basic color wheel. 

1. Begin with a triangle. Label the points red, yellow and blue.  These are the Primary Colors

2. Draw an upside down triangle over the first one. The colors for this second triangle come from mixing the primary colors.  If you mix red with yellow, you get orange. Label that new triangle point. Yellow and blue create green, and blue and red create violet. These are the 3 secondary colors. Label these triangle points.

3. Now it’s time to create the final colors of the basic color wheel.  These are made by mixing a primary color and a secondary color, creating the tertiary colors. These colors are yellow-orange, red-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, and red-violet.  Place their initials in the proper boxes.

Once you’ve learned the basic 12-step color wheel, you can use it to discover important color relationships that artists use all the time. Now you can too, whether it’s to pick out a new outfit, or redecorate your living room. Let’s find these important relationships using the color wheel.

Complementary colors

These colors are opposite from each other on the color wheel and are very vibrant and active when used together because they stimulate our eye and get our attention.  Perhaps that’s why we use red and green for traffic lights, for example. To find complementary colors, draw a line from one color directly across the center of the color wheel to its complement. You’ll see that a line from red will lead to green. Now find the complements of yellow and blue.

Analogous colors

Analogous colors are next to each other on the color wheel. If you wanted a more subdued color scheme, you’d want to select colors that have something in common, like yellow, yellow-green and green, rather than the vibrancy of the complementary colors.  Circle another group of analogous colors using the color wheel.

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Important Color Relationships

When you understand color relationships, you’ll begin to have fun expressing just the right message using color in any creative project. Use the color wheel to find these: