Color Theory

Secondary Color

Unlike primary colors that cannot be created as pure colors, secondary colors need to be made. So, how do you create secondary colors? The secondary colors for the artist working with paint pigments are green, purple, and orange. For the designer working with the light spectrum, magenta, yellow, and cyan are the secondary colors,and all other colors are derived from them but for this class, we'll be consentrate on the paint pigments secondary colors which are Orange, Purple, and green. Basically, secondary colors are created by mixing two primary colors in a given space. On the color wheel, secondary colors are located in between the primary colors.

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

Color mixing

Sometimes mixing secondary colors are easier said than done. When mixing secondary colors, the quantity of the primary color used has be a precise amount because it determines the shade/tone of the secondary color you'll produce. For example, when mixing a green color, start off with a good amount of yellow and smaller amount of blue because blue is a very powerful dark pigment and you will only need a little.

Please see diagram below

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