Project: Building a library of colours
Exercise: Primary and Secondary Colours

  • Primary: Red, Yellow, Blue
  • Secondary: Green, Violet, Orange
  • Tertiary: Red Violet, Violet blue, Blue Green, Green Yellow, Yellow Orange, Orange Red
  • Cool colours: recede, tranquil, calm, passive
  • Warm colours: advance, passion, energy, active

The colour wheel (original graphic from: http://www.artyfactory.com/color_theory/color_theory_terms_1.htm with bits added on):

The colour wheel

A weekend searching around the house, a walk about town (and just one or two pictures from my archive):

Images arranged in a 'colour wheel' (click to enlarge)

Primary colours

  • Yellow – found in abundance… food, signage, also very apparent in greens (adjusting ‘yellows’ in Photoshop has a huge effect on grass, foliage…)
  • Red – very common, found in lots of food stuffs, signage
  • Blue – difficult to find in nature, extremely rare in food

Secondary colours

  • Green – lots of food stuffs, foliage (of course)
  • Orange – lots of orange foods
  • Purple – feminine (?), rare in foods…