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Understanding Paint Color
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12 Color
Color Wheel
The best way to understand color and how colors relate to each other is the classic color wheel. There are three primary colors: red, blue and yellow, from which there are three secondary colors mixed: orange, green and purple. Mixing the secondary colors with the primary colors makes the other six intermediate colors.
To fully understand color you need to know that color is three dimensional. Not only do you have the twelve colors called "hues" represented around the color wheel, but if you add white to these pure hues you will get "tints" of these pure colors. For example if you add white to red you will get "pink". If you add black to these pure hues you will get a "shade". The "tint' or "shade" of a color is refered to as the color value.
Furthermore, the pure hues are the considered the highest saturation or purest color. If you add the hue directly opposite of a hue it will bring that hue closer to the "center" of the color wheel (another dimention of the wheel). The intensity and pureness of a color is referred to as the "chroma". The direct center of the color wheel is neutral or gray (various tints and shades of gray).
The Munsell Color System (below) demonstrates the three dimentional aspect to color and the color wheel.
The colors around the color wheel are referred to as "hues"
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The three primary colors (blue, red and yellow) and the three secondary colors (green, orange and purple)
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