Which color is a secondary color? Secondary colors are an important concept for artists, designers, photographers, and anyone who works with color mixing. But what exactly makes a color “secondary”?
How Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Colors Are Categorized
The color wheel consists of primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. Primary colors are the most basic colors that can’t be created by mixing other shades. In traditional color theory, the primary colors are red, blue, and yellow. When you combine two primary colors, you get what’s known as a secondary color.
For example:
- Red + Yellow = Orange
- Blue + Yellow = Green
- Blue + Red = Purple
Tertiary colors take this a step further by mixing a primary and secondary color. For instance, red and orange makes red-orange.
This categorization helps artists systematically mix a wide range of hues. It also helps explain why certain color combinations seem to naturally complement each other.
Which Color Is A Secondary Color
Key Properties that Define Secondary Colors
What gives secondary colors their unique characteristics?
Vivid, Bright Appearances
The secondary colors tend to be very vivid, saturated, and bright in appearance compared to many other shades. This eye-catching quality lends them easily towards use in graphic design, web design, interior design, and fine art.
Perceived as Both Warm and Cool
Secondary colors have aspects of both warmth and coolness depending on what colors surround them. For example, purple can take on a warmer or cooler hue depending on whether you place warm or cool colors next to them. This versatility expands the usage for secondary colors.
Complement the Primary Colors
In color theory, complement colors are those located opposite each other on the wheel. Secondary colors naturally complement the primaries they were created from.
Some examples of complementary primary + secondary pairings include:
- Red + Green
- Blue + Orange
- Yellow + Purple
This harmonious relationship lets secondary colors enhance primary colors when paired skillfully.
Examples of Secondary Colors All Around Us
Once you learn to spot them, examples of secondary colors appear everywhere:
- Green grass and leaves
- Orange fruit like oranges, mangos, pumpkins
- Purple flowers like lavender and lilacs
- Blue waters meet yellow sands in tropical areas
Why Knowing Secondary Colors is Useful for Artists and Designers
Understanding secondary colors provides many practical benefits for artists, photographers, designers, printers, and more. Some examples include:
Allows Deliberate Color Mixing
When artists know the fundamentals behind mixing secondaries from primaries, they gain better control over the color blending process. They can expertly combine paints, dyes, inks, or digital colors to deliberately achieve precise secondary shades.
Helps Create Harmonious Color Schemes
Using complementary or contrasting secondary colors helps designers put together more visually appealing color schemes. For example, pairing purple banners with orange buttons. Or making green text pop against a red background.
Useful for Color Correcting
Sometimes prints, photos, paint mixes, or fabric dyes turn out more blue, orange, or green than intended. If someone doesn’t know secondaries are mixed from primaries, they’ll struggle to troubleshoot.
Allows Matching Existing Colors
Interior designers may want to perfectly match a secondary wall color for continuity. Graphic artists may need to color correct images to have accurate secondary shades. Understanding color mixing helps with precision matching.
The takeaway is that while secondary colors may seem basic, a deeper grasp of them empowers all kinds of real-world color-based applications.
How to Mix and Create the 3 Secondary Colors
Putting color theory into practice, you can manually mix secondary colors by combining primary paints, dyes, inks, or using digital tools:
Mixing Red and Yellow to Create Orange
- Start with a bright red and yellow base
- Add more yellow for lighter oranges
- Add more red for deeper oranges
- Mix evenly to avoid splotches
Mixing Blue and Yellow to Create Green
- Start with a bright blue and lemon yellow
- Add more yellow for lime greens
- Add more blue for forest greens
- Mixing green can take some trial and error
Mixing Blue and Red to Make Purple
- Start with a true red and blue base
- Add more red for reddish purples
- Add more blue for cooler eggplant purples
- Complement with yellow to intensify purple
Best Practices for Blending
- Use high pigment and saturated colors
- Thoroughly incorporate both shades
- Adjust ratios slowly
- Test mixed colors before painting/printing final project
Following basic color theory helps mix predictable secondary colors, but slight tweaking creates desired hue and vibrancy.
Other Ways to Make Secondary Colors
While manually mixing from primary paints is the classic method, there are also handy shortcuts to obtain secondary colors:
Using Computer Color Picking Tools
Modern software like Photoshop or Illustrator have built-in color pickers that display secondary shades. Artists can conveniently sample these digitally generated colors for their projects.
Using Premixed Paints and Inks
Many paint brands offer premixed secondary shades right on the shelf. This saves artists the effort of measuring out and blending primaries themselves when basic secondaries are needed.
Ordering Custom Mixed Colors
For specialty projects, artists can order custom mixed secondary paints, dyes, inks, and digitally printed fabrics. These services will color match to exact hue, brightness, and saturation specifications.
While these may be pricier than DIY mixing, custom matching saves much effort and leftovers. Premixed secondary shades also offer reliable consistency for touch-ups over long projects.
In summary, secondary colors can be generated in traditional or modern ways thanks to color theory fundamentals remaining relevant even with new technologies.
Examples of Secondary Colors in the Real World
Beyond the color wheel and paint jars, secondary colors appear across nature and manmade objects:
Secondary Colors in Nature
Vibrant secondary colors arise in plants, minerals, animals, weather, and seasonal shifts:
- Green foliage like grasses, vines, shrubs turning reddish-orange in autumn
- Purple and blue minerals in rocks and gemstones
- Orange beaks on toucans, plus carrots, squashes, persimmons
- Red sunsets blend with blue skies into intermediate purples
Use of Complementary Secondaries in Human-Made Items
Deliberately pairing complementary secondary and primary colors creates visual brilliance:
- Blue and orange team uniforms and equipment
- Purple packaging graphics contrasted with yellow logos
- Red warning signs and green directive signs guide safely
Common Color Pairings
The secondary colors are especially well-suited for use in traditional decorating schemes based on the complementary relationships between primary and secondary hues. A Few Examples Of Visually Satisfying And Also Very Useful Secondary Color Pairings
- Blue and Green (cool secondary colors): Blue greens evoke water, sky, and nature, so they are calming. Different shades of light blue and light green are also appropriate or necessary for refreshing interiors.
- Red and Purple—The Secondary Warm purple color beside the hot red primary establishes a good contrast. If you want to convey an image of luxury, boom, automaker-style red and gold! It’s also nice with darker jewel tones.
- Yellow and Orange — Colors that evoke warmer vibes, both secondary orange and primary yellow are sure to bring you cheer as they represent energy technology sunlight; warmth sunshine steadfastness optimism. Preventing over-loading with different saturations.
By strategically using secondaries, you can tap into the communicative efficacy of color associations. Smart use of primaries heighten detail attention in combination. It evokes certain emotive responses independent of its ornamental value. So here are a few properties of secondary colors that set them apart.
Conclusion
Secondary colors have characteristics that set them apart as a sort of bridge between the simplicity primary and complexity tertiary. Bright and vivid oranges, greens, purples active as the primary pop-colors but assimilating into more natural harmonious tones. Knowing why secondary colors are unique in the color wheel can help artists to better design attractive visuals intentionally. It also means that custom secondary colours can be mixed with predictable results for jobs where colour accuracy is critical.
We all have seen (and are continually reminded) of the primary colors that every day surrounds us in nature and manmade objects, but by discovering the secondary color combinations found at work within them also helps to further raise our appreciation for their multitude.This is important to not only have a better understanding of how secondary colors sit in the color wheel, but also help artists do it intentionally when needed for creating more visually pleasing designs. This also allows you to consistently blend custom secondary colors when higher color accuracy is required for jobs.
It is also recognition of secondary colors, which are already present everywhere in nature and man-made objects that heighten appreciation for the diversity they bring to our visual world. Which makes our relationship with secondary colors that much more appreciable the next time you see a bright leaf, post office sign.
