Color Wheel

The color wheel is a basic color system that displays combination and correlation of colors as well as it is a universal visual representation of the modern color theory. In the color wheel colors are arranged according to their chromatic relationships where primary colors are located at equal distance from each other and connected by secondary and tertiary colors.

History of the Color Wheel

People were making attempts to systemize colors since centuries. The first person to arranged them into a circle was Sir Isaac Newton. In 1706, he created a circle of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet colors. By rotating the color circle with fast speed all colors where visually blurred into white. Newton correlated each of his seven colors with a music note and a planet name.

Obviously, at that time there was increase of interest in color systematization. In the artists’ manual published in 1708 there were two illustrations of the color wheels attributed probably to Claude Boutet. One color wheel contained 7 colors: crimson, scarlet, orange, yellow, green blue and violet. The other one consisted of 12 colors: crimson, red, scarlet, orange, golden, yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue, violet and purple.

Then, in the beginning of the 19th Century, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe presented his system of colors and study of physiological effect on people of color in his work “Theory of Colors”. For the purpose of studding interaction and visual effect of diametrically opposed colors he synchronized his color wheel.

Nowadays we are using 12 color circle created in 1855 by Michel Eugene Chevreul, a French chemist, who developed the law of color contrast and complimentary colors effect. His ideas about visual effect of dots of one color above another color were widely used by impressionists.

The Color Spectrum

The most common example of the color spectrum is rainbow. When white light is passing through water particles in the air it refracts and produces colors of electromagnetic spectrum. As the result we see an amazingly beautiful colorful arc in the sky. The same happens to white light beam when it passes through a prism.

Additive and Subtractive Systems

The additive system explains process of mixing light of different colors. It is used in computer screens, TV, projectors and other light sources. The founder of the additive system was James Clerk Maxwell who in 1860 determined additive primary colors: red, green and blue. It is also called RGB system. When these three primary colors are mixed in equal proportions we see white color (optical mixing).

The subtractive system demonstrates process of mechanic pigment mixing such as artistic paints or ink. By mixing of all primary colors we receive black color.

Primary Colors

According to different color systems, color theory recognizes two sets of primary colors.

Three primary subtractive colors are yellow, red and blue. They are called so because they cannot be received by mixing other colors. In opposite, all the other colors can be received by mixing these three colors in different combinations and proportions.

Primary additive colors are red, green and blue as light of these colors cannot be received by mixing other colors.

Secondary Colors

Secondary colors are those created by two primary colors.

Secondary subtractive colors are orange, green and violet. Orange is created by a mixture of yellow and red. Green is the result of combination of yellow and blue. Violet is a mix of red and blue.

Secondary additive colors are yellow (red + green lights), magenta (red + blue lights) and cyan (green + blue lights).

Tertiary Colors

Tertiary colors are created by mixture of primary and secondary colors. Their names usually consist of two words, such as yellow-orange, orange-red, red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green and green-yellow.

Complimentary Colors

Complimentary colors are those that are located opposite to each other on the color wheel. For example, complimentary color for orange is blue and for red is green. Goethe noticed that complimentary colors look brightest next to each other since they are the most contrasting to each other. This optic effect is used widely in art and design. When designers want to make an object stand out, they use its complimentary color as a background.

Analogous Colors

Analogous colors are those located close together on the color wheel. For example, orange, red-orange, red and red-violet are analogous colors. Analogous colors are often used for creation of harmonious color palettes for design or art projects. Alternatively, harmonious color palettes that include several analogous colors can be combined with one complimentary color. Presence of a complimentary color in small proportion is used not only to emphasize objects but as well to increase vivacity of the image. An example of this method can be “The Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh, where he used different shades of blue in combination with orange color.

Warm and Cold Colors

Color wheel can be split in two parts: all shades of yellow and red are warm and the rest are cold colors. It is noticed that warm colors look advanced comparing to cold colors and objects of warm colors seem to be bigger than objects of the same size but of cold colors. These peculiarities of warm and cold colors are widely used for visual effects creation. According to color theory, color palettes created using only cold or warm colors look more harmonized.

Certainly, human eyes recognize much more colors than a basic color wheel includes, but systematic arrangement of colors in the color wheel allows following interaction and correlation of colors as well as choosing harmonized color combinations for art and design purposes.