All about Colour « Gordon’s Gallery

Making a True Complementary Colour Wheel

Designed by Gordon Townsend

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Colour wheel with shades Tints

The advantages of making your own colour wheel from your regular pigments on your palette are.
You know the colours on the wheel are exactly the same as your paints therefore there will be less wasted paint,Your secondary colours will be brighterThe semi neutrals, neutrals, plus will stay closer to their original hue.
This colour wheel is different from the conventional three primary colour wheels that were designed by Munsell.And still taught to this day by art schools and is used also by artist.
The three primary colour systems does not take into account the colour bias of the primary colours for example a warm blue that leans towards red and a cool blue that leans towards green.
We now know that to make clean green the blue and the yellow primary must both have a leaning towards green, this is the same for all the primaries.

So in fact on the colour wheel you need a warm and cool version of red blue and yellow.

A warm red that leans towards orange a cool red that leans towards violet, likewise you need the same with the yellow and blue hues.

The problem with this however it makes a 15 segment colour wheel.

So consequently unlike the traditional colour wheel where you have a complimentary colour there is no colour directly opposite.

I have overcome this problem with my colour wheel by placing the compliment of each colour on an outer rim from the main wheel.

The compliment is made from an equal mix of the two colours beneath it.

Template

Enlarge this Template of THE TRUE COMPLEMENTRAY COLOUR WHEEL to the desired size and copy it onto 300gsm watercolour paper cold pressed.

You will need for this project

1 Pipette

Six containers for primary colours

Small mixing containers for secondary and tertiary colours

Mix a warm and cool of the primary colours at full chroma, enough to complete the entire wheel,

	Paint the six primary colours with three vacant spaces each side for the secondary and tertiary colours. A warm colour will have slight orange look a cool will look slightly greenish If in doubt as to the bias of a colour you can find by a process of elimination. Yellow for example first mix it with a known warm red such as cadmium red the mix it with a known cool blue such as cerulean. If it makes a bright orange then it is warm, conversely if it makes a bright green and a dull orange it is cool

	Measure with the pipette equal amounts of the cool yellow and cool blue this will give you the green hue. Make sufficient to carry out further mixing. Paint the middle space between the yellow and blue, this will leave a space either side for a Yellow green, and a blue green Mix the green two to one with the yellow and paint the yellow green. Mix the Green two to one with the blue and paint the blue green. Continue around the colour wheel making the other secondary and tertiary colours
	To mix the complementary of yellow take equal amount of the violet and the red violet as in the illustration And paint the outer space also shown in To paint the semi neutrals and neutral measure into the pipette one of violet and five of the yellow. Paint the next segment down from the bright yellow when dry this should look like a slightly dull yellow. To the mix add one violet and paint the next segment, this should look even duller. Continue on in the same manner for the next two segments. Complete the wheel using the same formula
	How To Use The Colour Wheel This colour wheel with shades and the colour wheel with tints . Which is shown at top of page is used in conjunction with templates that fit over the top of the wheels. The templates show a complementary colour palette. And also a Split complementary with discord or accent colours. Analogous colours with discord or accents. Triadic colours and Tetrad colour schemes. Or a full colour Palette
	How To Make the Templates The complementary Template at right was made from white card. Make a tracing from the blank colour wheel the segments you want to cut a window in So to show the colours of the appropriate colour scheme. There are four colour schemes below There is also a full palette scheme which is kept to as few colours as possible. And a Tetrad colour scheme that’s seldom used.