the artist color wheel is the artist's favorite tool for creating beautiful art

• Master color using the artist color wheel.

Understanding color gives the artist a great advantage in our painting skills. We use the knowledge of color to create beautiful paintings.

Color is a beautiful gift from God. It brings joy to our lives. Imagine if, we went through our lives like in a black and white movie. I can't and I am so glad for all the colors around us.

Color is one of the main joys of being an artist.

what is the artist color wheel?

The renowned physicist Isaac Newton gave us the color wheel in the 1600s. He was famous for explaining gravity, but he also devised the theory of light and color.

The Color Wheel

He noticed when light goes through a prism, it is divided into rainbow colors.

The seven rainbow colors are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and purple.

Artists have been using the knowledge of the color wheel to improve their paintings ever since.

Today the artist color wheel uses twelve colors. It excludes indigo and uses the other six rainbow colors.

Color is the artist's wonderful tool for expression.

What exactly is color?

When light shines on an object, some of the light rays bounce back, off the object. The other light rays are absorbed by the object.

The light rays that bounce off an object are its color.

For example, a green object bounces green light rays and absorbs the other colors. Dark objects absorb most of the light rays. That's why they look dark because almost no rays are bouncing back.

Color is just plain fun!

The wise artist will use color to express different emotions in our paintings. Warm colors generally create good feelings and cool colors feel calm and peaceful.

Red is an exception to this generality. Red is considered the romantic love color. That's why men give their ladies red roses. But, red may also portray anger or rage.

Orange is an energetic color that implies haste or impulse.

Yellow is a happy, sunshine color. It may also be seen as a warning, as in our caution traffic lights. Also, cowards are called yellow.

Green is associated with the out-of-doors and nature. It certainly has a strong tie to money. Sometimes people may be called green with envy.

Blue is a peaceful, calm color that reminds us of the sky and water. It stimulates trust and loyalty.

Purple or violet has long been associated with royalty and elegance. It may also be used to portray courage.

How to use warm and cool colors in our paintings.

the primary colors

Primary Colors

The twelve colors of the artist color wheel are based on the primary colors; yellow, red and blue.

The paint colors closest to the primaries are;

• Cadmium Yellow Light,
• Permanent Rose
• and Phthalo Blue.

All other colors are variations or mixtures of these three primary colors.

How to mix paint colors

the secondary colors

Secondary Colors

• Secondary colors are the first mixture of the primary colors.

When we mix two of the primaries together, we get a secondary color.

We mix yellow and red to get orange.

Yellow and blue mixed together make green.

By mixing blue and red we get purple, also called violet.

The secondary colors can have some variation. It depends on exactly which yellow, red or blue were used for the mixing.

what are tertiary colors?

Tertiary Colors

• When we mix a primary color with a secondary color from either side of it on the color wheel, we get intermediate colors called tertiaries.

For example, mixing primary yellow with green (a secondary color) gives us yellow-green.

If we go to the other side of yellow and mix it with the secondary color orange, we get yellow-orange.

The tertiary colors are; yellow-green, yellow-orange, red-orange, red-violet, blue-violet and blue-green.

Learn more about the Color Wheel from Wikipedia

using warm and cool colors

The artist color wheel contains warm colors and cool colors.

Red, orange and yellow are considered warm colors.

When warm colors are used in a painting, they appear to advance forward in the painting.

Blue, green and sometimes violet are usually considered cool colors.

Basically any color containing blue is considered cool.

When cool colors are used in a painting, they seem to recede into the distance.

use color to Contour the form of objects

Glazing with watercolor

• Because we know that warm colors advance, we paint the part of an object that is closer to the viewer with warmer colors.

• And because cool colors recede, we paint the parts of an object turning away from the viewer with cooler colors.

Cooler and darker colors on the edge of the mangoes show them turning away from our view.

If the edge has bright light shining on it, we won't paint it darker. But, we would still paint it cooler to show it turning away.

But you may say, yellow, orange and red are all warm colors. You are correct.

Yellow is the warmest color. But the less yellow in a color, the cooler it gets. Because orange contains less yellow, it is cooler than yellow. Red is cooler than orange and much cooler than yellow.

we use color to create distance in our paintings

Paintings are usually done on a two dimensional surface, such as canvas or paper. We use color to create the illusion of distance and depth on our two dimensional surface.

• Colors get lighter and cooler, when they are viewed from the distance.
  

Particles of dust and moisture in the air block the view of things, so they look lighter. This phenomenon is called aerial or atmospheric perspective.

Therefore, less saturated colors look farther away. Yellow, which is our warmest color starts disappearing in the distance and blue takes over.

Artists use cooler colors in the distant parts of a painting to make them recede. We use warmer colors in the foreground portions of the painting to make them look closer.

"Springtime" is a prophetic painting.

The painting above used the two things to give the illusion of distance on a two-dimensional surface.

1. The distant mountain colors are less saturated, lighter.
2. Adding blue simulated aerial perspective and moved the mountains into the distance.

Notice the colors in the foreground are much warmer and saturated compared to the distant mountains.

use the artist color wheel to select colors for our palette

When we are learning to paint, it's a good idea to begin with a limited palette of the primary colors; yellow, red and blue.

• Cadmium Yellow Light, Permanent Rose or Cadmium Red Medium and Ultramarine Blue, plus white.

Learn more about color by painting with a limited palette.

An expanded palette of a warm and cool version of each primary makes it easier to mix other colors.

• A full color palette would include a warm and cool version of each of the six basic colors of the artist color wheel; yellow, orange, red, violet, blue and green.
  

There is no need for black on our palette. It's easy to mix black, brown and grey.

the color wheel is a super tool for artists!