Use the Real Color Wheel

These are transparent primaries to paint with. Transparent yellow, transparent magenta and transparent cyan. These colors mixed will make red, blue and green, adding white will make them tints and opaque. This color wheel shows where the colors are positioned and how they get dark to match crystals.

Steps

  1. Consider the Real Color Wheel.
  2. Make Red: Use transparent Indian yellow PY:153 (Dioxine Nickel Complex) which has an orange mass-tone, transparent Indian yellow PY:150 (Nickel Azo Complex) which has a brown mass-tone or PY:100 Tartrazine which is water based together with the color magenta transparent PR:122 (Quinacridone).
  3. Make Blue: Use transparent magenta PR:122 (quinacridone) mixed with transparent cyan PB:15.3 (phthalocyanine).These colors were made with the transparent primaries.
  4. Make Green: Use transparent cyan PB:15.3 (phthalocyanine) mixed with transparent Yellow PY:150 (Nickel azomethine) or PY:100 (water-based Tartrazine).
  5. Using Transparent Yellow: Transparent Indian yellow Org/side is a red/brown hue in its mass-tone and has a cad. yellow light hue as its tint-tone. Transparent Indian yellow Brown/side is an ocher/brown hue in its mass-tone and a cad. yellow light hue in its tint-tone. All eight transparent Indian yellows lighten to cadmium yellow hues. PY:150, PY:153 & PY:100 make the brightest yellow, equal to cadmium yellow light or lemon yellow.
  6. Yellow darkens to brown, Cyan darkens to blue: In the RGB light model that is used with the computer yellow darkens to a greenish yellow and cyan darkens to a greenish cyan. Neither of these colors represent nature, they just subtract light to get darker. Rembrandt said that yellow goes through red and brown to get darker. In the sky cyan gets darker through blue. Crystal elements and the Real Color Wheel get darker this way also.

Tips

  • Mixing all three primary colors together will make a neutral dark or brown depending on the mixture.
    • Mixing any three split complement colors together will make a dark which can be tinted to a neutral gray.
  • Blue: Blue and red oxide or brown (both are dark reds) mix a neutral-dark. Blue is made with magenta and cyan.
  • All Greens darken with magenta, all magentas darken with green.
  • Anyone working with pigments can reliably find true opposite colors which will always mix to a neutral dark or shadow dark without using black pigment.
    • All of the RCW colors will darken by adding its opposite color until it reaches the shadow color or neutral dark.
  • Cyan: Cyan darkens to blue, like the sky. In light (RGB), red is the longest wavelength, it bends around the earth to give us red sunsets. In pigment red reaches across the center black and into the cyan to give us blue in the darkest cyan.
    • Cyan and red opaque or red transparent mix a neutral-dark.
  • All yellow-greens darken with blue-purple, all blue-purples, 36RCW#18, darken with transparent yellow-green 36RCW#36.
  • All of the RCW colors will darken by adding its opposite color until it reaches neutral-dark.
  • Burnt umber is the darkest orange, burnt umber and opaque cobalt blue will mix a neutral dark which can be lightened to a neutral gray, all neutral darks can be lightened to neutral gray. All opposition colors mix shadow colors.
  • Burnt Sienna (a mid-dark translucent orange) and cobalt blue will make burnt umber, the three transparent primaries will make any color,
  • Orange: Darken an orange object by first adding red, for a darker orange use raw sienna, burnt sienna or burnt umber. Burnt Sienna is dark orange. Burnt Umber is a darker orange.
    • Cad. Orange opaque and its opposite color, opaque cobalt blue will only make a neutral gray, orange is 3/4 opaque yellow and 1/4 magenta. That amount of opaque yellow plus opaque cobalt blue will prevent it from mixing to a really dark neutral, it makes a neutral gray instead. This is no problem if you make a transparent orange with transparent magenta and yellow, cobalt blue could be made with transparent magenta and transparent cyan.
  • Yellow: To reach a neutral dark use the darkest form of yellow, orange or red, all of which are brown umber, mix it with its opposite color blue. Cyan and red mix neutral dark, magenta and green mix neutral also.
    • [1] Dual-toned Indian Yellows w/ Images. All of these pigments are available in oils, acrylics and water colors.
    • Adding blue to any yellow color less than raw or burnt umber brings the color to the green side. Instead of just using a compliment, use a wide split-complement (a triad) to make the burnt umber first, then add the blue, cobalt blue or cyan. That will give you a dark neutral.
  • Red: Cad. Red Light will mix a red oxide hue, a burnt umber hue and a neutral dark with transparent cyan.
    • Red opaque lightens with the addition of opaque orange
  • An artist can create the shadowed areas of any colored object by combining that color with its opposite as found on this color wheel, the pigment names are on the back of the printed copy.
    • This formula will match the colors in nature every time. In my computer's plotter/printer I use a transparent yellow PY100, and because this yellow is not opaque it doesn't lighten the magenta and cyan when mixed. I use less printer black ink and bring more colors into the darker ones. [2]
    • The Real Color Wheel is copyrighted, I give permission for it to be used but not changed.

Related Articles

  • Construct-a-Color-Wheel
  • Paint-a-Sky-Using-Acrylics
  • Make-Brown
  • Teach-a-Child-About-Mixing-Colors
  • Draw a Color Wheel

Sources and Citations

Retrieved from "https://kipkis.com/index.php?title=Use_the_Real_Color_Wheel&oldid=283475"