Tertiaries: Color Fusion

Tertiaries: Color Fusion

Recent post explored and celebrated the  Primary Colors and the Secondary Colors.  Today, we play with  those magical fusions of hue, the Tertiary Colors.

Red-orange

Red-violet

Blue-violet

Blue-green

Yellow-green

Yellow-orange

Tertiary colors are created by mixing one primary color, with one secondary color. The names of these mixtures describe their components: Red-orange, Red-Violet, Blue-violet, Blue-green, Yellow-green, Yellow-orange, as depicted above.

The Tertiary color star below lays them all out beautifully and clearly, expressing and elucidating the Traditional painting (RYB, or “Red, Yellow, Blue”) color relationships and mixtures.

The Tertiaries play out in nature…red-orange leaves show the glory of Fall.

This exterior palette showcases hues of both red and blue-violet.

Blue-green expresses fresh and clean…fused as it is, from the colors of grass, new growth,  water and sky.

Gradations of yellow-green look like the green grass was mixed with sunlight.

This yellow-orange garage door brilliantly punctuates its gray exterior, creating an accent as powerful as the sun.

What tertiary colors have You used? I hope this post has illuminated these hues for You, and shown You their important place in the RYB color pantheon.