Spin the Wheel: Discovering Colours

Look around the room you are in right now. How many different colours can you spot in 30 seconds? Now here is a tricky question: if someone took away every pot of paint in the world except for red, yellow, and blue, do you think you could still make green? Or orange? Or purple? Hold that thought — by the end of this lesson you will know the answer.

Artists use a special tool called the colour wheel. It arranges colours in a circle so you can see how they are related to each other. First, meet the primary colours: red, yellow, and blue. These three colours are special because you cannot make them by mixing other colours together. They are the starting point for every other colour. Now here is the exciting part. When you mix two primary colours together, you get a secondary colour. There are three secondary colours: • Red + Yellow = Orange • Yellow + Blue = Green • Blue + Red = Purple (sometimes called violet) On the colour wheel, each secondary colour sits between the two primary colours that made it. So orange sits between red and yellow, green sits between yellow and blue, and purple sits between blue and red. Colours that sit directly opposite each other on the wheel are called complementary colours. For example, red and green are complementary colours. When you place complementary colours next to each other in a painting, they make each other look extra bright and bold. Look at the colour wheel diagram. Notice how the six colours follow a pattern all the way around: red → orange → yellow → green → blue → purple → and back to red.