Tip of the month – September 2004

Color Star byJohannes Itten

Over the summer period, I met artists who had a color wheel in amongst their art materials. After the wheel was purchased, it was never used. I decided to ask WHY. Many considered it to be an important tool, but did not understand how to use it.

To understand the color wheel, you first need to know what it illustrates. There are many models to choose from and they all say basically the same thing.

The color wheel contains 12 different hues. The primaries (yellow, red, blue) are placed equidistant from one another forming an equilateral triangle

The Primaries

By mixing any 2 primaries, the result will be a secondary color.

When the secondaries are placed on the color wheel, they are located halfway between the 2 primaries from which they were created.

This is a total of 6 colors. The remaining 6 colors are called tertiaries or intermediate colors. An intermediate color is created by mixing a primary with a secondary that contains said primary.

The completed color wheel looks like this. This wheel was created with 3 primaries – Winsor yellow, permanent rose, and Winsor blue.

Try creating color wheels from different sets of primaries. By making the wheel yourself, you will gain an understanding of the 12 colors and their relationships to one another.

More Tips

For more information join Barbara's "tips" mailing list.