The Colour Wheel
The painter's map for mixing colour. Tap a colour to see its complement and neighbours, then use Coach Mariaan to match your painting to a reference photo.
Yellow
Primary
Complement (opposite)
VioletAnalogous (neighbours)
1. Primaries
Red, yellow and blue can't be mixed from other paints. Every other colour on the wheel comes from them.
2. Secondaries & tertiaries
Mix two primaries for orange, green and violet. Mix a primary with its neighbouring secondary for the six tertiaries, like blue-green.
3. Hue, value, saturation
Hue is the colour family, value is how light or dark it is, saturation is how intense. When matching a photo, check value first — squint!
4. Complements calm & pop
Opposite colours side by side make each other glow. Mixed together they neutralise — a touch of green calms a too-red cheek.
5. Warm & cool
Reds, oranges and yellows feel warm and come forward; blues, greens and violets feel cool and recede. Warm lights usually mean cool shadows.