[Nfb-krafters-korner] color wheel and some info about colors

[Cathy]

Color wheel
Hi all,

I did research on colors a few years ago wishing to understand which colors
would go with which other colors. 
I am going to be writing colors next to one another on a line or in a list,
but attempt to picture them as triangles that meet in the center to form a
wheel. This is what a color well looks like.


Primary colors are a pure color and there are only three of them: red,
yellow and blue.

Then there are secondary colors and these are equal parts of two of the
primary colors mixed together.  There ARE ONLY THREE OF THOSE AS WELL. They
include 
Orange: which is a combination of red and yellow? 
Green: which is a combination of yellow and blue?
Violet: which is a combination of red and blue?

Then there are tertiary colors which are combinations of one primary and one
secondary color which are adjacent to one another.  There are seven of
these. They include:
Red/orange, yellow/orange, yellow/green, blue/green, blue/violet,
red/violet.

Then there are quartic colors and these are combinations of two adjacent
tertiary colors.as you will notice, they have ½ one color and ¼ of two other
colors. There are five of these. They include:
Cinnamon which is red/orange and yellow/orange
Citron which is yellow/orange and yellow/green
Olive which is yellow/green and blue/green
Forest which is blue/green and blue/violet
Eggplant which is blue/violet and red/violet so picture these colors in a
wheel instead of a line, there is the primary color wheel, the secondary
color wheel, the tertiary color wheel and the quartic color wheel. One color
is next to another and they eventually meet. Of course you can make one huge
wheel including all of these colors.
So colors match if they are next to one another on the wheel, but they also
match if they are opposite to one another. For example, if we had a wheel of
only the primary and secondary colors it would consist of six colors
including:
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.  
The red would be opposite to the green, 
 The orange would be opposite to the blue
The yellow would be opposite to the violet.

However it is more complicated than that. White is often added to any of
these colors to make the shade lighter. If a good amount of white is added
the color is considered to be a pastel shade. A pastel of a color would not
go well with a non-pastel color in most cases even when the colors are
matching in other aspects. . 

Some pastel shades include:
Pink, which is pastel red,
Peach which is pastel orange,
Pastel yellow doesn’t have a special name,
Mint green pastel green,
Baby blue is Pastel blue .
Lavender is pastel purple.

Brown or gray can also be added to a color to darken it. 

Colors are also considered either warm or cool
Warm colors include yellow, orange, and Red.
Cool colors include green, blue and violet.
So a brown color may have a hint of red or orange so that is a warm brown. 
A gray might have a hint of blue so it is a cool gray.

There is so much more about this I have learned and could explain, but this
will get you started I hope.

Cathy F