A color wheel is a tool often used by artists and students. A color wheel is a diagram that displays a layout of colors and explains their relationship to each other. Color wheels often show (at minimum) primary, secondary and tertiary colors. They can be used to show which colors come together to form other colors and which colors make up color schemes that are visually acceptable to humans.
Primary Colors
Primary colors are colors that cannot be made from any other colors. The primary colors are red, yellow and blue. These colors are used to make all other colors on the color wheel.
Secondary Colors
Secondary colors are made by mixing two primary colors. The three secondary colors are orange (made by mixing red and yellow), green (made by mixing yellow and blue), and purple/violet (made by mixing red and blue). The secondary colors fit between the primary colors on the color wheel. Therefore, a very basic color wheel with only primary and secondary colors in it will appear in this order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and back to red.
Tertiary Colors
Tertiary colors are made by mixing a primary color with a secondary color. On the color wheel, a tertiary color will appear between the primary color and secondary color that made it. There are six tertiary colors: red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green, yellow-green, yellow-orange, red-orange.
Color Scheme
A color scheme is a limited selection of colors derived from the color wheel. Colors in a color scheme are related to each other through their position on the color wheel.
Monochromatic Color Scheme
A monochromatic color scheme is derived from shades and tints of one color only. A single color will be picked from the color wheel and variations of saturation of that one color will be used.
Analogous Color Scheme
Analogous colors are two or three colors that appear beside each other on the color wheel. An example of this type of a color scheme includes red-orange, orange, yellow-orange.
Complementary Colors
Complementary colors are colors opposite one another on the color wheel. Complementary colors are seen as being opposites of each other, and they are often used in pairs because of their high contrast to each other. A complementary color scheme is often made up of a pair of complementary colors, combined with variations of saturation of those two colors.
