Deciphering the Color Wheel

 

Understanding color is key to good design, memorable art and unforgettable photography. We learn the primary colors when we are kids as part of our language development, then go on to school where we learn to blend paints and make the dreaded “poo” color when all the temperas mix together. In art class, we recreate the color wheel and learn about secondary colors and complementary colors.

That is where the usual color knowledge stops, unless you dig deeper and find that color is so much more than just a color wheel or a box of paints. Color has broader meaning and variety, the spectrum of color is infinite. Let’s visit some of the deeper aspects of color and how color “works” differently for light and pigment respectively.

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Light and Pigment

First and foremost, “What is Color?”

Color is the aspect of an object when light travels through it or reflects off it.

One thing is extremely important when we talk about color; The presence of light. Without light there is no color, independently of it traveling through or reflecting. Light is the basis of color as it is perceived by our brains.

Notice that in the definition of color, there are two important instances; 1. When light travels through an object and 2. When light reflects off an object. Color that is seen when light travels “through” is commonly known as RGB (Red, Green and Blue) an is used mainly in screens. Color that is seen when light “reflects” is known as CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) and is used mainly for printing.

When you design on the computer, you are seeing the colors from the light behind your screen and your files will be in RGB mode. On the other hand when you read a printed magazine the colors you see are created from the light reflecting off the object. These are printed in CMYK mode and that is why when you send your designs to be printed you need to switch the mode from RGB to CMYK.

This can get a bit complicated when we talk about paints and pigments because those primary colors are still considered to be red, yellow and blue. Children are still taught in school that the primary colors are red, yellow and blue and that the color wheel stems from those three colors. In reality, the REAL primary colors that will TRULY mix to make all the colors with the help of black and white are Magenta (a tonality of red), Cyan (a tonality of blue) and yellow.

Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and Complementary

Reviewing the basics of the color wheel as most people know it is that the three primary colors are red, blue and yellow, and the three secondary colors are green, purple, and orange. These six colors fit in the “six color” color wheel with the secondary colors in between the primary colors. Going deeper we have the “12 colors” color wheel that include the primary, secondary and six tertiary colors.

These are a mix of one primary and one secondary color and are called; red-orange, yellow-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, yellow-green, and blue-green. Complementary colors are the colors that are directly opposite each other in the color wheel; so orange and purple, red and green, orange and blue, and so on.

The COMPLETE Color Wheel

So if Red, Yellow and Blue are not the primary colors we use in print but instead we use CMYK, and if screens use RGB, is there three different color wheels? No, not exactly. It all fits in the same color wheel but they are known as different color “systems” When you have a complete color wheel that includes RGB and CMYK you will notice that all the colors fit together, and actually complement each other.

Let’s separate RGB and CMYK for the sake of explaining their definitions. RGB is an additive color system and CMYK is a subtractive color system. What is added and subtracted? Light! When you mix Red and Green light it makes yellow light, when you mix blue and red light it makes magenta light and when you mix blue and green light it makes cyan light.

Moving on to the complete color wheel, you can easily recognize it in the color picker inside your editing program. Every color you pick will show you its CMYK values and it’s RGB values, which will help you when getting your digital art ready for printing. The Complete Color Wheel exists to make your life a little easier but in truth CMYK and RGB like I said before are two totally different color systems, each with its own set of primary colors.

RGB for screens, CMYK for printing. For painters and fine artists, some still use the classic red blue and yellow idea and some incorporate the CMYK, the ones that do will always have richer color combination and mixtures!

 

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Further Definitions of Color

Going deep into the definitions and qualities of color is almost like a lesson in alchemy and magic. What we learn as children turns out to be so much more complex and that can create confusion later on.

Have ever seen the pantone color swatch book? Or even a wall paint sampler?  Then you know what a treat it is to look through a. You will have noticed that the colors are not “just” primaries, secondaries and tertiaries but rather a plethora of tones, tints and shades.

There are different ways to define color qualities, some used mostly by fine artists and others used in digital manipulation. It is helpful to know all the definitive no matter what art medium you work with. The more you know about color, the better equipped you will be to use it!

  • Hue: A hue is the name of a color in its pure form. It applies to mixed colors as well but in their pure sense, for example purple, brown, dark green. Hue is sometimes referred to as the colors we teach children. So basically hue is simple a pure color.
    • In the CMY color system, the darkest a pure color can be is a muddy gray, because no mix of pigments will ever make black. That is one of the reasons K, black is added to the printing system.
    • In the RGB color system the darkest color mix is black because it is not mixed but rather light is taken away.
  • Value: Value refers to how dark or how light a color hue is. There are a few different definitions inside the term “value”; tint, shade and tone are different ways of explaining a color’s value.
  • Tint: A tint is referred to the color when white is added to it. As soon as you add white to a pure color, it’s called a tint. The progression from pure to white can include many tints that are considered a color in its own right. For example; Blue is the hue, and the light blue, celeste, baby blue and pastel blue are tints.
  • Shade: A shade is essentially the opposite of a tint in the sense that instead of adding white a color, it is black that is added. Therefore, the shade progression graduates from the color to black.
  • Tone: A color tone is when a color is mixed with a grayscale; meaning when a color is mixed with some black and some white in different quantities. The reason why tone is used sometimes instead of tint and shade is because the definition of tone is when a color is mixed with black and white.

As you can see, color is an entire universe in its own right and you are better off knowing that the primaries of red blue and yellow are not exactly how color works. How much did you really know about color? If you are a designer then all this is old news but if you are just starting, I hope I helped you understand a bit more about the depth of color.