What is colour?

Colour is what the eyes see when light is reflected off an object

Colour has 3 properties: Hue, Value and Intensity

Hue is the name of a colour such as red, yellow, blue.

Value is lightness or darkness of a hue or colour. The value of a hue can be changed by adding black or white

Intensity is brightness or dullness of a hue (colour). Pure hues (colours) are high-intensity colours while dull hues are low-intensity.colours.

There are three primary colours; red, blue, and yellow.
Primary colours are hues (colours) which can be mixed to create all other colours.

There are three secondary colours; green, orange, and violet.
Secondary colours are the hues between the primary hues on the colour wheel. The secondary hues are create by mixing two primary hues.

To get orange, you mix equal parts of red and yellow. To get Violet, you mix equal parts of red and blue. To get green, you mix equal parts of blue and yellow.

Complimentary colours
Complimentary colours are colours that are across from each other on the colour wheel. Violet and yellow are complimentary, Blue and orange are complimentary, and red and green are complimentary.

Intermediate colours
There are six intermediate colours, red-orange, red-violet, blue-violet , blue-green, yellow-green, yellow-orange. These colours are created by mixing a secondary colour with a primary colour.

Warm colours
Warm colours express warmth: they are red, yellow and orange.

Cool colours
Cool colours have the feel of being cold or cool; they are blue, violet and green.

Understanding colour is just as important as understanding the colour wheel, maybe even more so, but it is essential to learn as much as you can about each of those elements.