COLOR WHEEL

A 'color wheel' is a wheel used to show the relations of colors. The standard color wheel for light has colors of magenta, yellow, and cyan located at positions that can form an equilateral triangle when connected by straight lines, and another for red, green, and blue. Connecting all 6 of these points forms a hexagon.
For historical reasons, artists use a different color wheel that substitutes blue for cyan and red for magenta.

Contents

Color of the color wheel

Color schemes

Monochromatic color scheme

Analogous color scheme

Complementary color scheme

Split-complementary color scheme

Triadic color scheme

Tetradic color scheme

See also

Color of the color wheel

Typical artists' paint or pigment primary colors are blue, red, and yellow. The corresponding secondary colors are green, orange & purple. The tertiary colors are red–orange, red–violet, yellow–orange, yellow–green, blue–violet and blue–green.
A color wheel based on RGB (red, green, blue) additive primaries has cyan, magenta, and yellow secondaries.
Goethe's Theory of Colors was one attempt to define a color wheel and color theory based on experimental and philosophical principles.

Color schemes

Main articles: Color scheme

Color schemes are logical combinations of colors on the color wheel.

Monochromatic color scheme

A monochromatic scheme consists of different values of one color.

Analogous color scheme

Also called harmonious colors, are colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel. Some examples are green, light green, and yellow or red, orange and yellow.

Complementary color scheme

Main articles: Complementary color

Complementary colors are colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel, such as blue and orange, red and green, purple and yellow. These colors, when used side-by-side, make each other appear brighter. When they are mixed, they neutralize each other.

Split-complementary color scheme

A color scheme that includes a main color and the two colors on each side of its complementary (opposite) color on the color wheel.

Triadic color scheme

A triadic color scheme consists of three colors, such as the basic triad of red, yellow and blue primaries.

Tetradic color scheme

Tetrads are any four colors with a logical relationship on the color wheel, such as double complements.

See also

★ Color theory

★ Color circle