What are the

    ‘Primary

    Colours’?
      ‘An effort to dispel the confusion wrong and misinformation - for artists’

 

       by Peter Turner

 

'The Gondola Park'
using just the three primaries
Watercolour 7" x 11"

 
     
 

The wrong information—Believed to be fact for several hundred years, widely accepted by the art community and published in many current text books:– The Primary Colours for paint/dyes and inks are Red Yellow and Blue. The secondary colours are Orange, Green and Purple. Complementary colours can be found opposite each other on the colour wheel.
 

The Artists Colour Wheel:

The traditional Artist's colour wheel. In this version the centre has been inverted to show the complements, none of which are correct - colours opposite each other on the wheel should be complements.

Corrected Colour Wheel.
 

The Facts—The relationship between Additive and Subtractive mixing:

 

The Primaries for Light (RGB) and Paint (CMY) are the complements of each other

The characteristics of Paint, Dye and Ink primaries:

  • Cannot be mixed from any two other colours
  • All three mixed equals Black
  • The three colours capable of producing the most other colours

Using Paint Dye and Ink:

Green = Yellow + Cyan
Red = Yellow + Magenta
Blue=Cyan + Magenta

Red cannot be a primary because it can be mixed from Magenta and Yellow, Blue cannot be a primary because it can be mixed from cyan and magenta.
   

The Correct Pigments are: Primary Blue - Cyan PB15:3, Primary Red - Magenta PV19, Primary Yellow PY97. Also known as 'Process' colours.

Maimeri (Italy) is one of only a handful of makers offering artists' watercolour and oil paints labelled ‘primaries’: e.g. Maimeri Blu: superior watercolours, Primary Blue - Cyan 400, Primary Red - Magenta 256, Primary Yellow 116, see:
 http://www.maimeri.it/CGIDEV2P/SIT030.PGM?VARIA=ENAQ001&V4=Watercolours&VX=

Note: Maimeri and Schmincke primary Oil Paints: do not work as primaries and cannot be recommended. 

 

Winsor & Newton Artisis' oils and watercolours have close to correct primaries: Winsor Blue Green shade - Cyan, Permanent Rose - Magenta and Winsor Yellow are effective in practice.

Maimeri Blu and W&N paints are available from http://www.jacksonsart.co.uk

 

For more information see  'The Truth about Colour'  (300kb pdf)

 

and the book  'Oil and Watercolour Demystified'  by Peter Turner.

Turner runs two-day painting workshops at Marsh Studio Hungerford. 

see  www.art-courses.org