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Color Wheel: History and Techniques

The first color wheel was presented by Sir Isaac Newton in the 17th century after discovering the visible light spectrum. At the time, color was thought to be a mixture of light and dark. Newton saw flaws in this theory and conducted experiments with white light using a prism, discovering that white light is composed of colors. He mapped these colors into the first color wheel known as ROY G BIV. His experiments also showed that secondary colors are made by mixing primary colors, resulting in the modern hue wheel used in art classes depicting primary, secondary, and tertiary colors that can be combined to create other hues. The document then discusses common color combinations used in design including complementary, monochromatic, analogous, triadic,

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Zenia Fe Llausas McVey
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83 views19 pages

Color Wheel: History and Techniques

The first color wheel was presented by Sir Isaac Newton in the 17th century after discovering the visible light spectrum. At the time, color was thought to be a mixture of light and dark. Newton saw flaws in this theory and conducted experiments with white light using a prism, discovering that white light is composed of colors. He mapped these colors into the first color wheel known as ROY G BIV. His experiments also showed that secondary colors are made by mixing primary colors, resulting in the modern hue wheel used in art classes depicting primary, secondary, and tertiary colors that can be combined to create other hues. The document then discusses common color combinations used in design including complementary, monochromatic, analogous, triadic,

Uploaded by

Zenia Fe Llausas McVey
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

COLOR WHEEL

DRAWING CONCEPTS AND STRATEGIES


HISTORY OF COLOR WHEEL
The first color wheel was
presented by Sir Isaac Newton
in the 17th century when he
first discovered the visible
spectrum of light. Around this
time, color was thought to be a
product of the mixing of light
and dark, with red being the
“most light”, and blue the “most
dark”.

“darkness was just an absence of light”


When most people think of color, the first thing that comes to mind
is the color wheel we were shown in elementary art class. This abstract
representation is meant to show the relationships between certain colors
in the wheel, and denotes the “primary”, “secondary”, and “tertiary”
colors, which can be combined in various ways to create a broader
spectrum.
Newton saw that this theory was flawed, and while in isolation as the
bubonic plague ravaged Europe, began testing the properties of white
light and “to try therewith the celebrated Phenomena of Colour”. In his
classic prism experiment, he noted that white light is composed of a
variety of colors. He then mapped these colors into an octave schema as
the first color wheel and the original ROY G BIV.
His experimentations also led to the discovery that all secondary
colors can be made by mixing primary colors. The mixtures of colors in
varying ratios resulted in different “hues” of novel colors from the
classic ROY G BIV baseline, and resulted in the first hue wheel, which
is likely the color wheel we are most used to seeing.
COLOR WHEEL OF THE PRESENT
TIMES
Primary Colors
Yellow

Blue Red
Secondary Colors
• Mixture of the primary colors

YELLOW + BLUE = GREEN RED + YELLOW = ORANGE

RED + BLUE = VIOLET


Color Combination
1. Complementary
colors
– these are two colors
that are on opposite sides
of the color wheel. This
combination provides a
high contrast and high
impact color combination
– together, these colors
will appear brighter and
more prominent.
Color Combination
2. Monochromatic colors –
Three shades, tones and tints of one base color. Provides a subtle and conservative color
combination. This is a versatile color combination that is easy to apply to design projects for
a harmonious look.
Color Combination
3. Analogous – these are
three colors that are side
by side on the color wheel.
This color combination is
versatile, but can be
overwhelming. To balance
an analogous color
scheme, choose one
dominant color, and use
the others as accents.
Color Combination
4. Triadic – these are Three
colors that are evenly
spaced on the color wheel.
This provides a high
contrast color scheme, but
less so than the
complementary color
combination making it more
versatile. This combination
creates bold, vibrant color
palettes.
Color Combination
5. Tetradic – the Four colors
that are evenly spaced on
the color wheel. Tetradic
color schemes are bold and
work best if you let one
color be dominant, and use
the others as accents. The
more colors you have in
your palette, the more
difficult it is to balance
“When life is BLACK & WHITE

Make sure you dream in color”


ACTIVITY
• Create a color wheel
Reference:
• [Link]
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.

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