Personal Twelve-Part Color Circle
“I must see my twelve tones as precisely as a musician hears the twelve tones of his chromatic scale”
Objective
Create a personal color wheel based on Itten’s twelve-part color circle, using six co-primaries. Your color wheel does not have to be identical to Itten’s, but the logic of your design should be clear and the complementary colors should lie directly opposite each other for future reference.
Medium: gouache
Size: between 10”x10” and 15”x15” square
Reading: The Twelve-Part Color Circle from The Art of Color by Johannes Itten
In reality, all reds, yellows and blues are biased, to a degree, toward one of the colors that adjoin them in the color spectrum. Mixing secondary colors from three primaries will be compromised by these biases. For example, when a yellow with orange overtones is mixed with a blue with violet overtones, the resulting green will not be vivid. Truly vivid secondaries can only be achieved with primary colors both biased toward the target.
To illustrate the use of co-primaries, your color wheel should show both versions of the primary colors. For example, the spot allocated to yellow could be divided to two equal sections. The section adjacent to orange would display the co-primary with the orange overtone, while the section adjacent to green would display the one with the green overtone.
Vivid tertiary colors are obtained by mixing a secondary color with the co-primary biased toward that secondary.
Note: Violets obtained through mixing might not be as vivid as desired. Commercial violets made from a violet pigment are “purer” than those obtained by mixing. You are required to mix your violets and all other colors for this and other exercises/studies using the basic palette of the co-primaries (in addition to black, white and an earth tone such as burnt umber). You are free to expand your palette for the illustration assignments.
The suggested six co-primaries are Lemon Yellow (green bias), Golden Yellow (orange bias), Ultramarine Blue (violet bias), Sky Blue (green bias), Alizarin Crimson (violet bias), Scarlet (orange bias). The color names are based on the Winsor and Newton brand. You can use a different brand, but make sure you identify the overtones properly and choose your co-primaries accordingly.
Sources: Color - A Workshop Approach by David Hornung and The Elements of Color by Johannes Itten
“I must see my twelve tones as precisely as a musician hears the twelve tones of his chromatic scale”
Johannes Itten (1888-1967)
Objective
Create a personal color wheel based on Itten’s twelve-part color circle, using six co-primaries. Your color wheel does not have to be identical to Itten’s, but the logic of your design should be clear and the complementary colors should lie directly opposite each other for future reference.
Medium: gouache
Size: between 10”x10” and 15”x15” square
Reading: The Twelve-Part Color Circle from The Art of Color by Johannes Itten
"By way of introduction to color design, let us develop the 12-hue color circle from the primaries – yellow, red, and blue. As we know, a person with normal vision can identify a red that is neither bluish nor yellowish; a yellow that is neither greenish, nor reddish; and a blue that is neither greenish, nor reddish" full textThe six co-primaries
In reality, all reds, yellows and blues are biased, to a degree, toward one of the colors that adjoin them in the color spectrum. Mixing secondary colors from three primaries will be compromised by these biases. For example, when a yellow with orange overtones is mixed with a blue with violet overtones, the resulting green will not be vivid. Truly vivid secondaries can only be achieved with primary colors both biased toward the target.
To illustrate the use of co-primaries, your color wheel should show both versions of the primary colors. For example, the spot allocated to yellow could be divided to two equal sections. The section adjacent to orange would display the co-primary with the orange overtone, while the section adjacent to green would display the one with the green overtone.
Vivid tertiary colors are obtained by mixing a secondary color with the co-primary biased toward that secondary.
Note: Violets obtained through mixing might not be as vivid as desired. Commercial violets made from a violet pigment are “purer” than those obtained by mixing. You are required to mix your violets and all other colors for this and other exercises/studies using the basic palette of the co-primaries (in addition to black, white and an earth tone such as burnt umber). You are free to expand your palette for the illustration assignments.
The suggested six co-primaries are Lemon Yellow (green bias), Golden Yellow (orange bias), Ultramarine Blue (violet bias), Sky Blue (green bias), Alizarin Crimson (violet bias), Scarlet (orange bias). The color names are based on the Winsor and Newton brand. You can use a different brand, but make sure you identify the overtones properly and choose your co-primaries accordingly.
Sources: Color - A Workshop Approach by David Hornung and The Elements of Color by Johannes Itten
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