Colour Basics

The Colour Wheel

To be able to make an informed decision about the right colours to put together you need to have a basic understanding of colour principle. A good place to start is the colour wheel.

The most basic colour wheel contains three segments, each containing one Primary colour; red, blue or yellow.

Primary Colour Wheel

Divide the wheel down to six segments. The three Primary colours are positioned an equal distance apart and in the segments in-between a colour is made from both the combination of both surrounding colours. These are the Secondary colours; purple, green and orange.

Secondary Colour Wheel

Divide the wheel down even further to 12 segments. As before all six colours (Primary and Secondary) are positioned equal distance apart, and in the segments between, a new set of colours are made from a combination of the two surrounding it. These are the Tertiary colours.

Tertiary Colour Wheel

Click Here to see some Unusual Colour Wheels in Life and Art