Creating a color wheel involves understanding primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. Let's explore how to make them.
Understanding the Color Wheel Basics
A color wheel is a visual representation of color relationships. It's built using additive or subtractive color mixing. For paint (subtractive), we start with:
- Primary Colors: Red, Yellow, and Blue. These cannot be created by mixing other colors.
- Secondary Colors: These are made by mixing two primary colors:
- Green (Blue + Yellow)
- Orange (Red + Yellow)
- Purple (Red + Blue)
- Tertiary Colors: These are formed by mixing a primary color with an adjacent secondary color. Examples include red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, and red-violet.
Steps to Create Your Color Wheel
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Gather Supplies: You'll need paints (acrylic, tempera, or gouache), a pencil, a ruler, and sturdy white circles cut into equal sections. (Referencing CREATE A COLOUR WHEEL | THE COLOURGURU).
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Primary Colors: Begin by placing your primary colors (Red, Yellow, Blue) on the wheel, leaving spaces between each.
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Secondary Colors: Fill the spaces between the primary colors with their corresponding secondary colors (Green, Orange, Purple).
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Tertiary Colors: Mix a primary color with a neighboring secondary color to create the tertiary colors. For instance, mix red and orange to get red-orange and place it in the appropriate section of the wheel. Continue this process for all remaining sections. (As noted in a source, "Begin this color wheel by adding the primary colors, leaving three blank sections between each one. Then, place the secondary colors in the middle spaces between the primary colors. Next, mix secondary colors with primary colors to create colors to place in the empty triangles.")
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Complete Your Wheel: Once all sections are filled, you have a completed color wheel showcasing the relationships between colors. Remember, the accuracy of your color wheel will depend on the quality of your paints and your mixing technique.
Helpful Resources
Several online resources and videos can guide you further:
- YouTube Tutorials: Search for "how to make a color wheel" on YouTube for various step-by-step tutorials. (Super Easy Colour Wheel | Beginner-Friendly! | 5 Minutes - YouTube, How To Make A Colour Wheel - YouTube, How to Paint an Accurate COLOUR WHEEL (Step by Step) - YouTube, Color Wheel Tutorial - How To Mix Paint - YouTube)
- Online Color Tools: Use online color palette generators to experiment with color harmonies. (Color wheel, a color palette generator | Adobe Color)
