Colour is created when light is reflected into the viewer’s eye.
In art, colours are arranged on a colour wheel. The colour wheel was developed by Isaac Newton who took the colour spectrum and bent it into a circle.
The colour wheel shows primary colours, (colours that can’t be mixed), secondary colours (made by mixing two primaries) and tertiary colours (made by mixing a primary and secondary colour).
Colour theory helps the artist to mix desired colours from primary colours. It’s only a theory and can’t be proven but it is nevertheless useful to the artist. Colour theory is based on the colour wheel, colour value and on which colours work well together - also called colour schemes.
There are various colour schemes which define the primaries. The most common is the Red, Yellow, Blue model. Another popular scheme uses Cyan, Magenta and Yellow as the primaries. There are several other and each works well in different situations.
Colour is described by its hue – red, green etc. (Hue the name we give a colour.)
A colour has intensity called chroma, also known as saturation, brightness or purity. The more pure the colour is (less of other colours mixed in), the more intense or saturated it is. In painting only small amounts of saturated colours are usually used as accents. Too much saturated colour can give a garish result. The chroma of a colour is not the same as its value.
Colours also have value. Value is how light or dark the colour is, as discussed in Element 5 above. Each colour falls on the value scale from light to dark. Yellow would be near the top (light end) of the scale while purple would be found near the bottom end. To change the value of a colour you follow the Colour Mixing Rules.
Art supply stores sell interactive colour wheels which are essential to the artist working with colour. I recommend this Color Wheel.
