Artists need to know their colours. If you would like to be an artist you need to know all about how colours are made by mixing colours together.
Colours are often displayed on a COLOUR WHEEL to show how they are related.
TERTIARY colours are the next set of colours after our SECONDARY colours. Tertiary colours are created when we mix a PRIMARY colour with an adjacent SECONDARY colour on the colour wheel.
The 6 TERTIARY Colours
In Art, the six TERTIARY COLOURS are: RED ORANGE, RED VIOLET, BLUE VIOLET, BLUE GREEN, YELLOW GREEN, YELLOW ORANGE
How are they made?
> Red Orange: Red Orange = Red & Orange
> Red Violet: Red Violet = Red & Violet
> Blue Violet: Blue Violet = Blue & Violet
> Blue Green: Blue Green = Blue & Green
> Yellow Green: Yellow Green = Yellow & Green
> Yellow Orange: Yellow Orange = Yellow & Orange
Don’t Forget!
When we say or write a TERTIARY colour’s name, we always say or write the PRIMARY colour first. For example we always use the name RED-ORANGE, not Orange Red.
But what about PURPLE?
Sometimes people call the Secondary colour made by mixing RED & BLUE as PURPLE. The colour Purple is actually what is called a tertiary colour (A colour created by mixing a primary with a secondary colour.) Another name for purple is BLUE-VIOLET. As well as PURPLE this colour is also sometimes know as INDIGO.
More Information
To further your colour knowledge, don’t forget to read our other blogs on primary,
tertiary and complementary colours. If you would like a print out of our colour wheel
posters, have a look on our website under RESOURCES > COLOUR WHEELS.
Here you will find printable colour wheels available in both English and U.S spelling.
