In my art class, I began the color mixing series. I’m currently working on the color wheel. And I use the word “currently” in an extended manner. This is the result after two three-hour sessions: an 18-slot color wheel.

A little of this, a little of that

Don’t let that solitary, non-color slot fool you (the blue-green slot; you can barely see my “BG” pencil notation). It is not the only task I have left. See those smudges? That’s me rubbing off wet paint in order to try to mix colors yet again to try to get the right hue (color). I can already tell that the last color I added is way off: the blue-ish slot to the left of the open space (the green-blue slot). And some of the other already-dried paints will have to be redone, as well. I can’t tell any difference in the red section.

The first to go on are the three primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. Thank goodness those come out of a tube of paint so I can’t hardly get them wrong, except for the blue, which needed some white to lighten it up or else it would have looked almost black.

Next are three secondary colors: orange (red + yellow), green (yellow + blue), and purple (red + blue). I’ve already done the purple a couple of times. On an 18-color wheel, the tertiary colors are also included: red purple, purple red, orange red, red orange, orange yellow, yellow orange, green yellow, yellow green, blue green, green blue, purple blue, blue purple.

Not only do they have to be the correct hue (color), they all have to be the same tone (light/dark value). I mix and re-mix so much, I may need multiple paint tubes of the primary colors to complete my wheel. No wonder art works are so expensive.