The Color Wheel

Knowing about the color wheel is one of the most basic things to start with in design.

Lets start with the primary colors. Some may know a little song that goes. The primary colors are 1 2 3 red yellow and blue. They are equally spaced apart on the wheel and are the colors that make all other colors. They are pure hues. You can not make them by mixing any other colors.

The next group is called the secondary colors. These are made by combining primary colors. They are orange, purple, and green and are also equally spaced apart on the color wheel.

The last one is Tertiary colors. They are made with primary and a secondary color. Their names are a combination of the two colors mixed. Like yellow or red-orange. The name of the primary color will always come first.

There are warm colors and cool colors on the color wheel. The warm colors are the colors of the sun and cool colors are the colors or the sea.

There 4 main color schemes: Monochromatic, Complimentary, Split Complimentary and Analogous. Monochromatic means, one chrome or one color. Complimentary is two colors that are exactly across the wheel from one another like red and green. Split Complimentary is one color and the two other sides of its compliment color, like blue, red-orange and yellow-orange. Analogous is colors that are adjacent to on another on the wheel. Like yellow-green, yellow, and yellow-orange.