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Consider for a moment the modern use of primaries in society today.
On the one hand, light is used as a source to produce images on
our electronic devices. By using red, green and blue light as primary
colours the combination of these three, in different ratios, we get
different colours. Red and green light make a yellow colour. Green and
blue makes a bright sky blue colour. Red and blue gives us a pinkish
colour. These colours find their origin in emitted light and when you
mix red, green and blue together, the result is white light. This is
known as the “additive colour” system. Examples found of devices
making use of additive colour are: Cellphone screens, digital cameras
and LCD television screens.
On the flip side, pigmented powders and liquids with a different set
of primaries are used to produce coloured images. For instance,
the pigmented powder in your basic colour printer consist of cyan,
magenta, yellow and black. When mixing yellow and magenta, it
produces a red colour. Mixing magenta and cyan ends up as a dark
blue colour. Mixing yellow and cyan gives a green colour. These colours
find their origin in reflected light where the light source is outside
of the coloured objects. When mixing cyan, magenta and yellow
together, the result is almost black. This is known as the “subtractive
colour” system. Examples are magazines and other printed media.
Considering the above, primary colours can be different from red,
yellow and blue. Our education also taught that mixing the primaries
red, yellow and blue will give you black. I have tried this on many
occasions and ended up with some strange warmish earthy colour,
nowhere near black. Black and white is easy, but the grey areas...
that is where art is. I stuck with graphite and charcoal for many years,
and got to know value gradations really well. This wasn’t a bad thing
in the end. It just took 30 years of research to realise that colour can
be less complicated.
Modern colour theory produces lots of colours from two different
sets of primary colours. We interact and function in a colourful,
technologically-driven society, filled with printed and digital images.
Many artists consider the use of colour simply as the brighter, the
better. Take confidence in your early education – yes, primaries do
mix all the other colours. But, your choice of those primaries can
be complicated by the plethora of colours that your local art dealer
stocks. The best thing to do, is to take your colour wheel and decide
on your choice of colours. This visual aid greatly simplifies the choice
of colours you need to put on your palette.By choosing your palette before you start your painting, you will save
yourself time and a lot of paint in the process. Furthermore, if you
really want to get to grips with colour, my advice is to start with three
or four colours, black and white. Get to know the colour range you are
able to mix using these limited colours, and you will notice how easily
the harmony of colour happens. (images 1,2 and 3 below).Scan your reference and circle each colour you see on your colour
wheel (tip: keep your printed colour wheel inside a cellophane bag
so that the marks can easily be removed later). Assess your colour
choices and decide to either stick with them, or to be artistic. This
choice can also shift your selected colour areas to include more less
colours. Being artistic will allow for a wider choice of colours based
on what you feel is missing, even if it means marking off a totally
different choice. This selection is known as the colour palette or the
colour range.Not all colours seen in nature exist in tubes of paint. Tip: Make a
colour wheel using paints straight out of the tubes. Don’t mix them
with other colours. If a colour out of the tube seems awfully close
to black or you cannot recognise the colour, mix in a tiny amount of
white to identify the colour more clearly. Place the colours around the
wheel, lay them down similar to your printed colour wheel.1 2 3