A color wheel or color circle is a chart that organizes color hues around the circumference of a circle. It was invented by Sir Isaac Newton to prove his theory that light was the sole source of color. The wheel illustrates the relationships between primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. Primary colors are red, green, and blue: secondary colors are orange, green, or violet (purple); tertiary colors are yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, red-violet, red-orange, and yellow-orange. The color wheel aids in determining which colors work together harmoniously or are “complementary”.
A color wheel is a tool that can be used by artists, designers, and everyday people to choose colors that work well together. Artists typically employ color wheels for mixing paints to achieve desired colors, while designers might use them to select colors for their products or projects.
Mixing paint properly is important because it can be difficult to achieve the exact color you want by randomly mixing the colors. A color wheel can help you achieve the desired color with much more ease.
There are a few different types of color wheels, but the most basic and commonly used one is the 12-color wheel. Other types include the 10-color wheel and the 8-color wheel. The benefit to using a 12-color wheel is that it offers a greater range of colors, while the 10-color wheel is more limited. The 8-color wheel is even more limited, but it can be helpful for those just starting to learn about color theory.
