成人快手

Tertiary colours

A colour is made by mixing equal amounts of a primary colour and a secondary colour together. There are six tertiary colours. On the colour wheel, they sit between the primary and secondary colour they are mixed from.

Colour wheel with tertiary colours. Orange yellow, orange red, purple red, purple blue, blue green, green yellow
  • Orange and yellow mix to make yellow-orange (this may also be referred to as amber)
  • Red and orange mix to make red-orange (this may be referred to as vermillion)
  • Purple and red mix to make red-purple (this may also be referred to as magenta)
  • Blue and purple mix to make blue-purple (this may also be referred to as violet)
  • Green and blue mix to make blue-green (this may also be referred to as turquoise or teal)
  • Yellow and green mix to make yellow-green (this may also be referred to as chartreuse or spring green)
Woman with a Parasol, Paul Signac, 1893, oil on canvas
Image caption,
Woman with a Parasol, Paul Signac, 1893, oil on canvas

In Woman with Parasol (1893), Paul Signac creates a vibrant image based on tertiary colours.

Instead of mixing different colours of paint Signac applied small dabs of red-orange, blue-green, red-purple (and yellow) to his canvas. From a distance our eyes mix these to see different hues, tints and tones.

Using pure contrasting tertiary colours results in an intense, bright image.

Woman with a Parasol, Paul Signac, 1893, oil on canvas
Image caption,
Woman with a Parasol, Paul Signac, 1893, oil on canvas

Brown

Brown does not feature in a colour wheel. It is sometimes referred to as a tertiary or a colour.

Brown can be made in a variety of different ways, however three basic brown colours can be made by mixing complementary colours with each other. For example:

A range of complimentary colours that all mix together to make various ranges of brown.
  • Blue + a small amount of orange = Grey-brown
  • Red + a small amount of green = Red-brown
  • Yellow + a small amount of purple = Yellow-brown

By varying the amounts of each of these colours it is possible to make a large range of browns.