Theory of color

A «primary color» is a color that we can't get by mixture. There are three :
the red, the blue (cyan) an the yellow.
If we speak about painting, the magenta or the purple are the closest colors to the pure red. The ultramarine will be used for the cyan and the cadmium yellow for the yellow.

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If we mix two primary colors we get a secondary color. Thus, with only these three colors we can create orange, violet and green.
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Theoretically, it's thus possible to create all the colors of the chromatic spectrum by differently mixing the quantities.
Unfortunately in practice, the pigments that compose the painting don't react very well. That's why you have to buy several colors... see the basic pallet
A «complementary color» is the opposite color of an other one on the chromatic circle.
is the complementary of
is the complementary of
is the complementary of
By mixing a primary color and its complementary, we can create some neutral grey or some brown according to the proportions. To create beautiful greens, we advice you to use a mix of Windsor blue and lemon yellow. Concerning the orange, we prefer a mix of yellow and cadmium red.
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