Color Theory

Color theory, as it applies to the arts is a set of basic rules or understanding of how to mix colors in order to achieve a certain result, a harmonious combination of colors. This is done in relationship to how the colors work with the light that is their source. Sir Isaac Newton, an English Mathematician who lived in the 1600’s, is credited with the discovery of the color spectrum that is usually represented on a color theory wheel used in "color theory."

In color theory, there are two kinds of color, perceived color and spectral color. Each type uses three primary pigments.

In perceived colors the three primary pigments, are red, blue and yellow or RBY and it is these three colors from which all other colors can be mixed into secondary colors, (the colors in-between the primary one on the wheel.)

So red and yellow make orange,

yellow and blue make green,

and blue and red make purple!

Spectral color, which used in computers and television, has different primary colors. The three primary “light” colors are red, blue and green, or RGB, from which, with the light that is emitted all other colors can be mixed.