The Color Wheel

 What is a Color Wheel

When you construct a circle out of the spectrum of colors, you have a color wheel.  Primary colors on the color wheel are red, yellow and blue. The full spectrum of colors includes red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. In a circle or wheel arrangement, it is easy to see how the colors interact with each other. The chromo of a color is the intensity (amount of lightness or darkness in the color) and purity in the hue. A neutralized color is a color that has been muted or "grayed" so that it loses some of its intensity. The way a color is muted is by adding a small portion of the opposite on the color wheel, which is called the "compliment" of that particular color.  To the measure you add the compliment color is the measure that that color will be grayed or muted.  (If one adds equal amounts of the two colors you will come up with the color Black)

Also if on a color wheel you take equal amounts of the primary colors on the color wheel, which are red, yellow and blue, then you should be able to come up with the color of Burnt Umber (brown).

One thing about color mixing it is always exciting to work with, whether it be a color wheel, painting a picture, or decorating a room.