COLOR WHEEL BASICS

By Rio

Basics
The color wheel is comprised of main colors (on the outer ring): red, purple,
blue, green, yellow, and orange. The inner ring are pastel versions of the main
colors. If there was a third outer ring, it would be a darker shade.

The colors orange, red, and yellow are known as the warm colors. These
colors are bright, cheerful, and are associated with anything hot which is why
they are aptly called warm colors.

Purple, blue, and green, on the other hand are the cool colors. These three
colors are often used in shadows among other things which is why they are
called cool colors.

Terms
Some useful terms that you should familiarize yourself with:

Hue - A pure color; the color itself (red, yellow, blue, etc.)

Intensity - refers to the brightness of a color. In order to lower a colors intensity (dull down), add a small
amount of its complement; its opposite color (more about complements later). For example, to dull down red,
add a bit of green. If equal amounts of red and green are mixed, the color becomes brown not a dulled down
red.

Value - refers to the lightness or darkness of a color. For example, to lighten a color add white.

Primary Colors - red, yellow, and blue. They are the basic colors that make up all the other colors of the color
wheel. For example, if you mix red and yellow - you get the secondary color: orange. Mix red and blue - you
get purple. Mix blue and yellow- you get green. And from there you can create tertiary colors like turquoise (a
blue green color) or fuchsia (a red purple color).

Secondary Colors - orange, violet, and green. These are made mixing any of the primary colors as explained
above.

Tertiary Colors - Colors made by mixing a primary and its secondary color.

Neutral Colors - when equal amounts of two complementary colors are used, a neutral grey or brown is made.

Using the Colors

Colors adjacent to each other are called Analogous Colors. These colors are beside each other in the color
wheel such as red and orange, green and yellow, green and blue, blue and purple, etc.

Colors across from each other are called Complementary Colors. Colors such as purple and yellow, green

© 2003 MangaTutorials.com unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. This tutorial is for personal use PAGE 1
only. For other uses, please contact the author for permission.
 and red (x-mas colors!), and blue and orange can be matched together.

If you try to match colors that are not Complementary or Analogous, they do
not fit together as well. Try to stick to using complimentary and analogous col-
ors as much as possible.

If you want to use other color coordination besides the one's mentioned, you
may do so but you might have to take up a bit of time mixing and matching.

The Other Color Wheel: CMY

The color wheel described above is the traditional color
wheel where the main colors are grouped based on the
classic methods of mixing color through paints. These are RGB (red, green, blue). With
the advent of computers and printing, a new color wheel emerged called CMY (cyan,
magenta, yellow) color wheel as seen on the right.

So, which one should you use? Either one is usable though most people tend to favor
RGB in general over CMY. If you are interested in publishing your work, you will have
to use CMYK as that is what is used by printing presses though.

Tips
1. When using color, you have to consider other colors as well. For example, if you use a white background as
the color wheel above right, the colors in the wheel look brighter whereas the colors with the black background
above look darker. Colors take on the "effect" of the color surrounding it!

2. When you create a character, your choice of color will make the character look either a good guy or a bad
guy. Good guys usually have "lighter" color clothing as opposed to bad guys which have "darker" shades of
color. This does not mean that you have to give your good guy character's all pastel colors -- what it means, for
example, is that if a good guy has a blue shirt then as a bad guy the shirt color will be blue also but in a darker
shade.

3. Look at the composition of the colors in a picture. Try to achieve balance. Take this ex-
ample here to the left. When I colored this guy, the orange stood out a lot. I mean a lot!! To
dull down the orange I used a dark blue background - orange's complementary color. That
is balance. Try to consider it when you color your drawings or other images.

© 2003 MangaTutorials.com unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. This tutorial is for personal use
only. For other uses, please contact the author for permission. PAGE 2