Throughout the tutorials on this site we do refer to colors, color terminology, and the color wheel, so it seems worthy to take a few moments and define these terms.  We will be working with paint colors for this quick look at the color wheel.

Working with colors can seem confusing especially when those colors fall into the  different categories of light, color, and paint.  Each color wheel, those for light, color, and paint,  have specific properties.  Here we will be working with paint colors ... so our color wheel is an RYB wheel not the CMYK wheel for printing and computers or the CMY wheel of light.

Some basics to paint color:
1.  There are only three colors, called Primary ... red, yellow, and blue.
2.  White is the absence of all color ... think of an unpainted white canvas
3.  Black is the presence of all colors ... paint a canvas with every color in your box and it will end up black. (Remember, think paint not light)
4. Pure colors, those that have no added white, black, or brown are called hues.
5. Hues can be primary, secondary, and tertiary.  It is not how many pure colors are mixed but that all the colors contain no white, black, or brown.
6.. Colors that have the addition of white, black, or brown are called tones.  Both pink (red + white) and burgundy (red + black) are tones of the hue Red.
7.  Since there is no color Black, black paint is made by darkening either blue or green.  

PRIMARY COLORS

There are only three colors: red, yellow, and blue.  These are called primary colors.  That's it, just three.  Theoretically every other paint color that you need can be created from just the primary colors. Primary colors can not be created by mixing any other colors together. 

So you paint kit must contain these colors:
Cadmium Red Medium
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Ultramarine Blue

The painting above is created in Primary color hues giving the work an intense and primal feeling.

SECONDARY COLORS

The secondary colors are orange, green, and purple.  These colors are created by mixing equal amounts of two primary colors. How good a color you can create is dependent on the quality of the primary colors that you use.

Red + Yellow = Orange
Yellow + Blue = Green
Blue + Red = Purple

My paint kit does contain pre-mixed secondary colors:
Cadmium Orange Hue
Cadmium Verde Green (Permanent Green)
Dioxazine Purple

The quilt behind this Irish Setter puppy emphasizes secondary colors ... lots  of oranges and greens.  By beginning to add the secondary colors your palette is greatly increased and the color range you are using is more realistic.

A little artist's trick is used in this design to intensive the secondary colors ... the one primary color in the quilt is blue.  The blue is used in a repeating pattern, the pale blue squares with the fine pink flower.  The background behind the quilt is also blue, just a slightly deeper tone than the quilt squares.  By repeating the blue in the squares you eye believes they are part of the background and you therefore notice the orange and green squares as dominate.

TERTIARY COLORS

Tertiary colors are created by mixing one primary color with one secondary color. Pure colors, those that have neither white, black, or brown added are called hues.  All other color hues are made by mixing the primaries. Pure hues most often fall in the middle layer of your design.  For a scene with an grassy field in the foreground, barn complex in the middle ground, and mountain range in the background, the barn complex would be painted with the pure hues. 

Orange + Red = Red Orange
Since Red + Yellow = Orange this can also be written
(1/2 Red + 1/2 Yellow) + Red = Red Orange
or
1 1/2 parts Red + 1/2 part Yellow = Red Orange

This Golden Retriever pup sits in front of a quilt filled with an entire range of colors created from mixing red and blue.  The colors available has become unlimited to the artist.

Adding white creates pastel shades of a color hue.  Once a color has white, brown, or black added it is called a tone. In our scene example the light or white tones would fall in the background area and be used to color the mountain range. Pastels are used in the background areas because the atmosphere through which we look is filled with fine water particles.  These give a thin "white" appearance to the sky and therefore whitens the colors of the shapes that lie behind the air.

A soft and gentile feeling is added to a painting when it is created in white tones.

Adding black darkens a color hue without muddying the color. Dark tones or black tones are usually found in the foreground area of a painting, in our example this would be in the grassy field. Since the foreground is closes to us we begin to distinguish more and more shadows within the foreground.  This gives those shapes closest to us a darken tone.

The black tones throughout this painting push the eye toward the light on the church steps.  There is only one area of pure hue in this painting, the yellow 'light' in the front facing church window.  All other areas are done with tones.

Adding brown to a color hue mutes or muddies  the color. Brown or mute tones are used for shadows and shading.  Each area of our example painting would use varying mute tones to create that 3-d look. Go to MIXING COMPLIMENTS for more about brown tones.

This painting shows the three ranges of tones working together.  The background is the palest tones in the painting.  As your eye moves forward into the arrangement the colors become purer.  In the foreground the dark tones take over.  All areas use the brown tones for the creation of shadows.

Complimentary colors are two colors that lie opposite each other in the color wheel. Every color has a compliment and every tone of a color has a complimentary color of the same tone.

 If you wish one color to have more emphasis in a design than any other color you use a small touch of it's compliment somewhere in the pattern so that it touches that focus color.  Inside the eye are color rods that determine which color you are seeing.  These rods are divided into two parts, one part sees a particular color and the other part sees the compliment to that color.  So one rod would have a combination of blue and orange and another rod will be red and green.  Since a rod can only see one color at a time placing a small amount of it's compliment to that color in the design forces the eye to see the main color ... a small amount of orange makes the blue/orange rods see blue!

It is the pink-red tones through the feet and dogwood flower that are important in this painting.  The addition of pale green leaves next to this area intensifies the pink tones.

Red is the compliment to Green
Yellow is the compliment to Purple
Blue is the compliment to Orange
Pink is the compliment to Pale Green.
Dark Turquoise is the compliment of Burnt Orange

A color and it's compliment mixed together
 will create brown. 

There are only two colors used in this painting, blue and it's compliment orange.  Black and white were added to the palette for toning.  All of the brown in this design is created by mixing various amount of these two compliments.

This is a predominately pale tone painting.  There are no pure hues used and the dark tones are very limited through the shadow areas of the design.

Since the brown tones are so important in
 painting my kit contains:
Raw Sienna - a yellow brown
Burnt Sienna - a red brown
Raw Umber - a blue brown
Burnt Umber - a dark red brown
Van Dyke Brown - a black brown

The three primary colors mixed together will create black.  Where brown is made by mixing one part primary with one half part of the remaining two primaries, black is made by mixing equal parts of all three primaries. 

Again, there is no color black so even the pre-mixed colors in paint will be deepened tones of either blue or green.  Test your black paint to determine which hue the color is created from by thinning the color to a wash consistency with the appropriate media.

The background behind this Doberman Pinscher is a wash coat of Lamp Black, but notice how the color seems to be a blue-green tone.    Where the black has been toned with white along the left ear ridge you can again see the blue that is used to create Lamb Black.

This is a wonderfully big word for saying that you are only using one color to create your painting.  Mono, meaning one and chromatic, meaning color.

Paintings done in monochromatic style heavily rely on tones, the use of black, brown, and white additives to the basic color.   Using just one color forces the eye to concentrate on the shapes and shadows of the design, not the color work. 

The figure in this painting is in the monochromatic style.  From his hair, eyes, skin, and ornamentation, every area is a tone of burnt orange.   In the sample you notice the muscle curves, not his eye or ornament coloration.

Now that wasn't so bad, was it?