Hellooooo Gut Friends. I can’t believe how fantastic last weeks Personal Anatomy Drawings turned out. You can check out all the drawings GUT members made in our community chat . Common denominator amongst everyone? We all seem to have a pretty good sense of humor about ourselves. Thank goodness . Also, we are a pretty darn good-looking bunch, if I don’t say so myself. Mwah. Now for something completely different. As promised, this week our very own GUT color expert Lena Wolff is back with the next chapter of our deep dive into the fascinating (and often daunting) topic of Color. In part one , Lena helped us get to familiar our existing, at-the-ready colors through creating color charts. This week, we build on that assignment. Lena is teaching us about…
How to make violet with primary colors
The colour perceived by the human eye is a concept based on the theory of electromagnetic radiation of the optical range. Isaac Newton was the first who brought visible colours into a system and made a colour circle of seven sectors matching seven colours of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, blue, violet). White is pure light, which contains the entire colour spectrum, and black is darkness, the absence of light.
The main colours of the circle are red (Carmine (319)), yellow (Lemon (214)), blue (Bright Blue (509)), when they are mixed, they get three additional (orange, green, violet). Primery colours of the circle are red (yellow (Lemon (214), Carmine (319), blue (Bright blue (509)), when they are mixed, they get three additional (orange, green, violet). The modern basic model of the spectral circle generally accepted in colour science – a twelve-part colour circle – was created by Johannes Itten. With the help of a spectral circle, colour harmonies are constructed based on opposite or adjacent colours, as well as colours that form isosceles and sharp-angled triangles, rectangles and squares with their arrangement in the colour circle. White (white or white paper) and black are added to the spectral colours in painting.
Pairs of colouгs that are diagonally to each other in the spectrum are called additional colours (or complementary) this is a synonym for the concept – opposite colours. The three primary colours of the first order are placed in an equilateral triangle so that yellow is at the top, red is at the bottom right and blue is at the bottom left.
Then this triangle fits into a circle and on its basis an equilateral hexagon is built. In the resulting isosceles triangles, we place three mixed colours, each of which consists of two primary colours, and thus obtain second-order colours:
- Yellow + Red = Orange
- Yellow + Blue = Green
- Red + Blue = Violet
- Yellow + Orange = Yellow-Orange
- Red + Orange = Red-Orange
- Red + Violet = Red-Violet
- Blue + Violet = Blue-Violet
- Blue + Green = Blue-Green
- Yellow + Green = Yellow-Green
«WARM» & «COLD» COLOURS.
The theory of light gives the artist an idea of how colour waves of different lengths perceived by the eye show themselves. Different sections of the spectrum differ from each other in wavelength and frequency. Violet waves are the shortest and tonally weak, and red waves are the longest and most intense. This property gives us a feeling of warm-cold shades of colour.
In painting, knowledge of the optical properties of light and colour is used when solving illumination (cold light – warm shadow and warm light – cold shadow), when solving heat-cold relations and when transmitting light-air medium: what is closer to us is warmer, what is further is colder.
The colours of the spectrum are divided into warm and cold according to their position in the system. Such a separation serves only as a starting point for further characteristics. Since physiologists noticed long ago that the effect of warm colours on the body corresponds to a warmer feeling, and cold ones to colder, it is quite fair to believe that the admixture of warm colour to cold makes it only warmer, but not warm. Warm-cold property is not an absolute, but a relative quality of colour.
Any colour can be warm or cold not due to an admixture of another colour, but with respect to another colour, for example, Prussian Blue is warmer than Ultramarine, Madder Lake Red is colder than Cadmium Red, and Ultramarine and Prussian Blue together will be cold with respect to Madder lake Red and Cadmium Red, which belong to warm colours.
Warm-cold property of the colour also depends on saturation. Optimally saturated, pure colours will always be perceived colder than their corresponding weakly saturated colours. Thus, the absolute division of colours into warm and cold for painting, in which colour is always taken in a relationship, does not mean anything. For painting practice, not the definitions of “cold” and “warm” are much more important, but the definitions of “warmer,” “colder.”
Completing the theme of colour theory, it is necessary to say once again that the ability to see colour and reproduce it in painting can be nurtured, developed, and the artist’s reasonable use of all the chemical and physical properties of paints will be a guarantee against unsuccessful colour experiments. This knowledge will help to achieve the desired result in painting and will make the best use of the features of the material in the work.
How to make violet with primary colors
“Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun.” Pablo Picasso
Split-Primary Color Mixing
© 2000 Nita Leland
If you learn the split-primary color-mixing system, you’ll never make mud again, unless you intend to! It’s really quite simple. You use just six colors, including two of each primary hue. The trick is in choosing the right colors and then combining them correctly to get the optimum result. The illustration shows you a bright, high-intensity color wheel mixed with split primaries. Here’s how it works:
Make a circle with a three-legged figure in the center, like a clock with three hands. At the top of the circle (12 o’clock) to the right of the line, place Winsor Lemon or Cadmium Lemon (or another color that looks similarly cool and lemony, but not Lemon Yellow Nickel Titanate. Place New Gamboge, Cadmium Yellow or Indian Yellow to the left of the line. Next, going clockwise around the circle to four o’clock, place Winsor Blue (Green Shade or Red Shade) or Phthalo Blue above the line and French Ultramarine below the line. Continuing clockwise to eight o’clock, place Alizarin Crimson or Permanent Rose below the line and Winsor Red, Permanent Red, Scarlet Lake or Cadmium Red above the line.
- To mix the green family, mix the blue and yellow within the lines to the right of the circle. First mix green, and place it midway between blue and yellow; then add more yellow for yellow-green and more blue for blue-green.
- To mix the violet family, mix the crimson or rose with the blue within the lines at the bottom of the circle. First mix violet midway between blue and red, then add more blue for blue-violet and red for red-violet.
- To mix the orange family, mix the red and yellow within the lines to the left of the circle. First mix orange midway between red and yellow, then add more yellow for yellow-orange and more red for red-orange.
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A brief history of the color wheel
In the mid 1600’s, Sir Isaac Newton conducted his famous prism experiments, often referred to as his, “celebrated phenomenon of colors.” Before this, bizarre speculation abounded about the nature of color and vision. For example, around 400 BC Plato was a leading proponent of Emission Theory , the idea that the human eye projects rays of light, like a flashlight beam, in order to see. This is, of course, the complete opposite of what’s actually going on! Even two thousand years after Plato, during Newton’s time, the reciprocity between light, object and the human eye was deeply misunderstood. Newton’s prism experiments revealed that objects in and of themselves are not “colored.” He demonstrated that a prism, when struck by sunlight, does not generate the colors of the rainbow in and of itself. Instead, the prism makes visible or reveals the full range of colors contained within sunlight that we are able to perceive as humans. Newton never came to fully understand the nature of light as wavelengths, but his work proved that our ability to see color is generated by light itself. In tandem with his experiments, Newton developed the first circular diagram of colors in 1666, published in his book Optiks in 1704.
Artists and designers have played around with color wheel variations ever since. What’s the purpose of painting color wheels?
As someone who teaches color theory, I’ve found that the subject is best understood through experiential hands-on practice, instead of just talking about it. The color wheel is a visual example of the foundation of color mixing and it demonstrates important color relationships. When we paint color wheels, those color relationships begin to make sense. Share
Color Wheel Terminology.
It’s useful to communicate with a shared vocabulary when learning about color to better collectively understand what we’re actually talking about! Here are some of the basic terms related to the color wheel.
Primary Colors
The primary colors are Red (Magenta), Yellow, and Blue (Cyan) . These colors are the foundation of color mixing. Together, these three colors present the strongest force of hue and intensity. They are indivisible, meaning they cannot be mixed and can only be found directly, right out of the tube (or pencil, etc). Conversely, all of the other colors in the color wheel can be mixed with a combination of two primary colors. Note: “Red” isn’t reeeeally a primary color. Magenta is a more true primary and will generate more vivid saturated secondary colors (i.e violets and oranges) than red. You’ll see this when we do the exercise.
Secondary Colors
- Orange – a mixture of red/magenta + yellow
- Violet – a mixture of blue/cyan + red/magenta
- Green – a mixture of blue/cyan + yellow)
Tertiary Colors
These are the intermediary secondary colors that lean toward one or another of the related primary colors. Their hue names are always hyphenated, as they are a combination of the color located on either side of them on the color wheel. On the color wheel image above, these are only visible in the outer ring.
Analogous Colors
Analogous colors are closely related hues situated side by side on the outer ring of the wheel. For example, blue and violet are analogous, etc. Pairings of analogous colors are often easy on the eyes.
Complementary Colors
Complementary colors are found directly opposite to each other on the color wheel. Pairs of complements placed next to each other create a visually dynamic, electrifying effect. But when mixed together, complements generate highly desaturated colors, or neutrals, such as grays, browns, muted mauves and dull greens.
Color Temperature
Color temperature relates to the idea of colors appearing “warm” or “cool” and may generally be related to notions about the opposing phenomena of fire and ice. Generally, warm colors are seen on the right side of the wheel, yellow to red-violet, and cool colors are on the left, yellow-green to blue-violet.
All of this will begin to make sense as we paint the color wheel together! Let’s get into it!
