primary colors | Outside The Lines

The world is filled with infinite shades of color, from a candy-apple-red sports car to a smoldering orange sunset to the crisp green of springtime grass. The popular color wheel simplifies the shades into 12 distinct colors to help illustrate the variations.

Arranged in a circle with 12 sections, the wheel presents a visual representation of the primary colors in the following order: blue, blue/green, green, yellow/green, yellow, yellow/orange, orange, red/orange, red, red/purple, purple, blue/purple. The colors are arranged in a chromatic sequence, with complementary shades opposite one another. These are all of the standalone colors that cannot be created by mixing other hues. Secondary and tertiary hues can then be created by mixing three primary colors (traditionally red, yellow, and blue).

The color wheel is further segmented into active and passive hues. Active colors (reds, oranges, yellows) will appear as more dominant when placed against passive shades, while the passive colors (purples, blues, greens) appear to recede when viewed near the active ones.

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Read more Segmation blog posts about Primary colors:

A Closer Look at Complementary Colors

Gender/Color Divide

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The color wheel is a tool used to identify relationships between colors. Also known as a color circle, the most popular organization of this artistic device includes primary, secondary, and tertiary colors.

Not only is the color wheel useful, it can also be fun. An interactive game created by Method of Action, an educational website for creative quizzes and peer feedback, allows individuals to test themselves on 6 elements of the color wheel.

The Most Popular Color Wheel

It is likely that you have seen a color wheel with 12 divisions, consisting of three primary colors, three secondary colors, and six intermediate (or tertiary) colors.

By using the test at http://color.method.ac/, you can explore how well you know color hues and saturation, in addition to complementary, analogous, triadic, and tetradic color combinations.

To best understand the results of your color wheel test, read more about what these terms represent.

6 Elements of the Color Wheel

Hue is the main property of color. The common term stands for “pure color”. This means there is no black or white pigments added to give the color a tinted or shaded effect. Some unique hues include red, green, blue, and yellow.

Saturation represents the brightness of a unique color. Often times, a color will become brighter when white pigments are added and dull when black is incorporated. This is how shades of a color are created. In addition, saturation brings about terms like, “light blue” and “dark blue”.

Complementary colors exist opposite one another on the color wheel. It is said that putting complementary colors together can energize a color scheme. This is because there is a high contrast between colors like blue and orange, or red and green.

Analogous colors sit adjacent, or next to one another, on a color wheel. These groupings are said to be “pleasing to the eye” and are often found together in nature. To create an analogous grouping within a color scheme it is important to have a hue be the main color.

Triadic colors are schemes created by three colors that are spaced equally on the wheel. An example of a triadic color combination is red, blue, and green; between each color are two colors not included in the grouping.

Tetradic color schemes are made up of four colors rather than three. These combinations are made of a primary color mixed with the secondary color placed next to it. Yellow-orange or blue-green may be seen in tetradic schemes.

There is so much to learn about the color wheel. To know more, read the other posts Segmation has published about the color wheel. They are listed below.

Also, be sure to head over to http://color.method.ac/ and take the color wheel test. When you are done, come back to this blog and share your results by leaving a reply on this post. We look forward to seeing how well you know the color wheel.

Sources:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/24/2730597/method-of-action-color-game

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/01/test-your-color-matching-skills-quiz_n_2388079.html

More Segmation blog posts about the Color Wheel:

– Color Theory Basics: Color Combinations

https://segmation.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/color-theory-basics-color-combinations/

– Color Theory Basics: The Color Wheel

https://segmation.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/color-theory-basics-the-color-wheel-2/

– Introduction to Color Expert Johannes Itten

https://segmation.wordpress.com/2011/06/14/introduction-to-color-expert-johannes-itten/

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