CREATIVITY LESSON 2: Tertiary Colors
You will explore basic block shapes and create a painting with tertiary colors in this creativity lesson.
When a primary color is mixed with a secondary color, it does not create a new color, but a kind of mixture of the two. These in-between colors sit between the primary and secondary colors and are called tertiary or intermediate colors. Tertiary means the third in order. We name these colors with
the primary first and then the secondary color: yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, red-violet, red-orange, yellow-orange.
We often think about mixing white into a color to lighten it. We think about mixing black into a color to darken it. These methods accomplish the task, but they also dull the brightness or intensity of the color. The next time you want to lighten a color such as the green shown below, add yellow to make yellow-green. When you want to darken green use blue to make blue-green. These tertiary colors keep your mixtures bright!
View Video “Introduction: The Color Wheel, Part 3.” It’s time to mix tertiary colors. Add the tertiary colors to your color wheel. Next, find simple objects like the blocks above. Look at them to draw the outlines of the shapes. Fill in the front of the shapes with a secondary color. On one side, mix the lightest of the tertiary colors that sit next to that secondary color on the color wheel. On the other side, mix the deepest of the tertiary colors that sit next to that secondary color on the color wheel. Work with the different secondary colors as you explore color mixing. You will learn which pencils to mix to get the specific colors you desire.
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