Drawing a color wheel is a wonderful experience since it represents the relationship between primary colors. It can be a terrific approach to learn about how these colors complement and combine with one another, which can help us in future painting and illustrating projects.
Since making your own color wheel is simple, grab the marker colors and follow the instructions below to get started.
| Difficult level | Beginner |
| Estimate time | 15 minutes |
| Drawing materials | Marker, Crayon, Brush, Compass and ruler |
| Painting materials | Watercolor, Color pencil, Pastel, Crayon |
| Surfaces materials | Paper |
How to Draw a Color Wheel – Step by Step
Step 1: Familiarize yourself with 3 primary colors and 3 secondary colors
Let’s categorize the colors you have at hand before you use them to draw the color wheels.
- 3 Primary colors: Blue, red, and yellow
Take these colors out of your marker case and set them aside. They are the basic colors of the color wheel. All of the colors that follow are a combination of these three.
- 3 Secondary colors: purple, orange, green.
Purple is a combination of blue and red, orange is a combination of red and yellow, and green is a combination of yellow and blue. So these are the three colors formed by combining two primary colors.
Step 2: Identify 6 Tertiary Colors
Now, we need to know about the 6 tertiary colors. Each of these colors is the mix of a secondary color with the two primary colors that created it.
- Purple + Red = Red-Violet
- Purple + Blue = Blue-Violet
- Green + Yellow = Yellow-Green
- Green + Blue = Blue-Green
- Orange + Yellow= Yellow-Orange
- Orange + Red = Red-Orange
- If you do not have these colors in the case, create them by mixing the color as instructed.
Step 3: Draw the color wheel
Now we know all 12 colors that make a color wheel, it’s time to present their relationships in our drawing:
- Draw a big circle and a smaller one as its center to create a wheel. Then, divide it into 12 pieces.
- Add the primary colors first. Make sure you leave 3 blank pieces between each of them.
- Now, it’s time to add secondary colors between the 2 primary colors that create them. For instance, orange is red and yellow combined, so orange will be in the piece between red and yellow.
- Make sure you leave a blank piece between each primary and secondary color.
- Now, fill in the blanks with tertiary colors using the same rules.
Step 4: Style your color wheel
Now that you know the order and relationships of the colors on the wheel, you may modify it to highlight specific groups of colors. For example, you can demonstrate primary colors by extending their pieces.
Conclusion
The purpose of designing a color wheel is to help you understand how the order of the colors on the wheel represents the relationship between them. You may use this simple technique to expand the color wheel so that it can display a much larger number of colors.
Remember that the color “wheel” does not have to be a circle; it might be a multiple-pointed star, a multiple-petal flower, or anything else. It’s all about having a good time while learning!
