Art Encyclopedia - Colour Wheel
Art information > Art Encyclopedia > C > Colour Wheel
The colours of light can be arranged in a circle, called the colour wheel, as follows in a clockwise
direction: red / orange / yellow / green / blue / purple / red .
Primary colours are red, yellow and blue and in pigment-mixing these colours cannot be made and must
be obtained pure.
Secondary colours are made by mixing the primaries and they are:
1 - Orange made from a mixture of red and yellow.
2 - Green made from a mixture of blue and yellow.
3 - Violet (purple) made from a mixture of red and blue.
Colours opposite each other on the colour wheel are called complementary colours; they are the
colours furthest apart from each other on the colour wheel. Each primary has a complementary colour
which is a secondary. This complementary is formed by a mixture of the other two primaries, for
example, the complementary of red is green, green is a mixture of blue and yellow.