Colour theory, Hue, and the colour wheel. Entry 1.

This will be the first of three entries on Hue.

It could be argued that Hue is the most defining characteristic of colour. Hue refers to the 'pure' colour, existing solitary without influence from either 'tint' or 'shade' (to be covered in Value, Entry 1 to 3). As the basic component of what defines colour, it is the starting point when considering colour composition, and hence Hue's are arranged and organized to create colour wheels, the source of reference for any creative colour work.

The colour wheel originally is designed around the visible colour spectrum. The colours produced by shining light through a prism of course fall on a linear scale. However, Sir Issac Newton suggested wrapping the spectrum around upon itself, and it was found that the colours merged seamlessly between each other, the Violet merging into the Red and creating a closed, comprehensive chart of distinguishable hues.

The Primary Colours.

The most basic colours, the primaries, Are generally accepted to be Red, Blue, and Yellow. It is often held by artists as far back as ancient Greece that Green should be included too.

The reason Red, Blue and Yellow are designated primary is that they can be mixed to create all other hues in the spectrum/colour wheel.

On a clock face, the primary colours would tend to fall at 12, 4 and 8. Spaced equally apart from each other. The spaces between are occupied by the result of mixing two adjacent primaries together.

The Secondary Colours.

The secondary colours are situated at the central point in the space between the two 'parent' primaries responsible for its creation, For example, Orange sits exactly between Yellow and Red, being the product of the two, mixed in equal quantities.

The three secondary colours are Orange, Violet and Green. Orange, as previously stated, is the product of Red and Yellow. Violet, the product of Blue and Red, And finally Green, the sum of equal parts Yellow and Blue.

The Tertiary Colours.

Tertiary colours are produced by mixing a Primary colour with a secondary colour. For example;

Mixing the primary Colour Yellow with the secondary colour Orange, the result is the Tertiary colour 'Yellow-orange'

The tertiary colours are placed in the wheel in the same manner the secondary colours are, Placing them between the parent colours.

The naming convention of these colours is always Primary parent colour first, followed by a hyphen, and the secondary parent colour.

The tertiary colours are Yellow-orange, Red-orange, Red-violet, Blue violet, Blue-green and finally Yellow-green.

This completes the standard colour wheel, comprising all visible hues of pure colour.