For the next few months, I will be examining the color wheel from the point of view of working with a dominant color.

To start, I will be looking at a visual created with Winsor yellow as the dominant color in the mix.

The second visual will have cadmium yellow/orange as the color that is in all the mixed colors.

Both of these visuals have a top line of saturated color; a second of lightly diluted color; a third line of well-diluted color; a fourth line in which white gouache (body color) is added to the mix.

I am suggesting that you create similar visuals with your colors. Choose a cool and a warm yellow for the first two visuals. Mix the cool yellow with each of your colors; mix the warm yellow with each of your colors.

There are some interesting differences to note on these visuals. On my visual created with Winsor yellow, as soon as I move around the color wheel starting at permanent rose and going to sap green, I can see the influence of the Winsor yellow in each of the mixes.

When cadmium yellow/orange is the dominant, I start to see its influence in the mixes.

But in addition, look at the differences in the resulting mixes using the same second color with both of the yellows.

Winsor Yellow + Ultramarine blue

Yellow/orange + Ultramarine blue

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