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The color circle, commonly known as the color wheel, is a circular arrangement of hues in the order that they appear in the light color spectrum.
The color wheel most commonly referenced has 12 segments and uses the subtractive color model. The color wheel is thus a vehicle for visualizing color and color relationships, and is also quite useful for mixing color, selecting color, and matching color.
Since we're talking about the color wheel, it's important to mention Johannes Itten, a 1920s Swiss painter and teacher who developed color theory as we know it today. He also wrote The Art of Color.
Itten's twelve-step color sphere is still in widespread use as a model for students of color theory.
There are various versions of the color wheel, and the differences between them are often associated with their use in particular professions. The image below shows the 12-step color wheel on top, a digital design wheel on the bottom right, and the additive/subtractive color wheel on the bottom left.
If you're a painter, you might see something more similar to the 12-step color wheel. However, you might still see alterations and different versions. If you're doing digital design in a program like Photoshop or Painter, you might see a wheel like the one on the bottom right.
The additive and subtractive color models also have their respective versions of the color wheel. A good way to remember these models is that in the additive color wheel, the colors mix to create white. In the subtractive color wheel, the colors mix to remove color, creating black.
Speaking of mixing, we will now discuss primary, secondary, and tertiary colors.
Triad is the name for three hues positioned on the color wheel in the shape of an equilateral triangle. If you look at the main color wheel below, you have a triad including the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow.
In the additive color wheel, you have the triad of red, green, and blue as the primary colors.
Secondary colors are hues that are the result of mixing two primary colors in equal amount. If you mix equal amounts of yellow and red, you get orange; if you mix equal amounts of red and blue, you get violet; if you mix equal amounts of blue and yellow, you get green.
Tertiary colors are hues that are the result of mixing two secondary colors in equal amounts. These would be colors like lime green, yellow-orange, and magenta.
Source: SOURCE: THIS WORK IS ADAPTED FROM SOPHIA AUTHOR MARIO E. HERNANDEZ
