Colour Wheel Presentation
Senior 3 · Fine Arts
Colour Wheel Presentation
Lesson 2 of 4
25 min
A sign painter in Musanze is asked for a shop board in turquoise and lime. He does not own either paint. He owns red, yellow, blue, black and white, and he knows that turquoise is close to blue-green and lime is close to yellow-green. Fifteen minutes later he has both. In this lesson you will learn to mix all six tertiaries from the three primaries, and to check by eye that each one is right.
Definition
Palette: the surface on which paint is set out and mixed, such as a plastic palette with wells, a plate or a tile.
Swatch: a small test patch of a colour painted on paper, used to compare and record mixes.
Pigment strength (tinting strength): how much a paint changes a mix. A strong paint, such as most blues and violets, takes over a mix in small amounts; a weak paint, such as yellow, needs much more.
A tertiary is correct when it looks halfway between its two neighbours on the wheel. Equal amounts of paint rarely give this, because pigments differ in strength. Judge with your eyes, not by counting brushfuls.
| Tertiary | Start with | Add, little by little | Watch out for | Similar paint names |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow-orange | yellow | orange | too much orange: just orange | amber, marigold |
| Red-orange | orange | red | a dull red if the orange was muddy | vermilion |
| Red-violet | red | violet | violet takes over fast | magenta |
| Blue-violet | violet | blue | very dark: test a thin layer | indigo |
| Blue-green | green | blue | blue is strong: add a speck at a time | teal, turquoise |
| Yellow-green | yellow | green | too much green: just green | lime, chartreuse |
Paint a chart with one row per tertiary: the primary swatch, the secondary swatch and the tertiary swatch, with its name written under it in neat lettering. Note beside each roughly how much of each paint you used. This chart becomes your guide when you paint the colour wheel in the next lesson.
Worked example 1: a blue-green that is just blue
Habimana starts with blue and adds green. However much green he adds, the mix still looks blue.
Diagnosis. Blue is a much stronger pigment than green, which already contains weak yellow. Starting with the strong colour means the weak one can hardly move it.
Fix. Start again with green and add blue a speck at a time, testing each step on paper until the swatch looks halfway between blue and green.
Worked example 2: mixing enough for a group
Keza's test showed that 1 spoon of blue to 4 spoons of green gives the right blue-green. Her group needs a mix made with 20 spoons of green. How much blue should she add?
Keep the ratio the same:
She needs 5 spoons of blue. Mix a little more than you need: matching a colour exactly a second time is very hard.
<em>How to Paint an Accurate COLOUR WHEEL (Step by Step)</em>, from the Winged Canvas channel. Watch how the painter judges each tertiary against its neighbours, and notice how much less of the strong colour goes into each mix.
Warning
Keep colours clean. A brush with a trace of red in it will dull a green. Rinse in the first pot, finish in the clean pot and blot on the cloth before every new colour.
Safety. Never put a brush in your mouth to point it. Mix powder paint gently so the dust does not rise, and wash your hands after painting.
Tip
Light first, strong last, test on paper. Start with the lighter or weaker paint, add the stronger one in specks, and judge the dry swatch between its two neighbours.
Practice
Which two paints do you mix for red-violet, and which do you put out first?
Why should you judge a mix on paper rather than on the palette?
Give the tertiary closest to each paint name: (a) turquoise; (b) vermilion; (c) lime.
Mutesi's yellow-orange looks the same as her orange. What went wrong, and how should she fix it?
A test mix of 2 spoons of red with 3 spoons of orange gives a good red-orange. How much red is needed with 15 spoons of orange?
Studio task. Mix all six tertiaries and paint a recording chart: for each, a primary swatch, a secondary swatch and the tertiary swatch, each 3 cm square, labelled neatly.
1. Red and violet; start with red, the lighter of the two, and add violet little by little.
2. Paint changes as it dries and looks different on a palette than on paper, so only a dry swatch on paper shows the true colour.
3. (a) blue-green; (b) red-orange; (c) yellow-green.
4. She added too much orange, so the mix lost its yellow. Start again with yellow and add orange in small amounts, testing against yellow and orange swatches.
5. , so spoons of red.
6. Check: each tertiary passes the halfway test; swatches are flat and evenly painted; names are written primary first.
Which tertiary was hardest to mix, and what did you learn about the strength of the paints you used?
Sources and credits
