Watercolor Color Wheel

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

• Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolors: Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue, Permanent Rose, Intense Blue (Phthalo Blue)
• Winsor & Newton Cotman One Stroke Brush, Size 1/2 or Similar
• 9"x 12" Cold Press Watercolor Paper
• Ceramic or Plastic Watercolor Palette Well
• Container of Water
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Paper Towels
• Optional: Compass

DIRECTIONS:

1. Protect your work surface with paper or plastic (recommended) and assemble supplies & tools.
2. Fold and tear the 9"x 12" watercolor paper into a 9" square.
3. Find circle shapes to trace in the center of the paper, ie: 2 different size tape rolls. Or, use a compass with a pencil to create two concentric circles.
4. There will be 12 color areas when complete. First, plan for the primary 'pie' shapes of color. Red at the center of the top, and yellow and blue on the lower left and right of the paper. Imagine the points of an equilateral triangle are the center of each of the primary color 'pie' shapes.
5. The top edge of each pie shape is about 1 1/2 inches. Use a ruler and pencil to draw a cross in the center of the circle top to bottom and left to right. The point where the lines cross is the center of the circle.
6. Place the ruler on the center of the circle and rotate around the circle drawing the boundary of each pie shape. The measurements don't have to be precise to work. Use best judgement on creating equally-sized pie shapes.
7. Once all the shapes are drawn, there will be a total of 12 pie shapes ready to be filled with color.
8. Place a pea-sized amount of the red, yellow, and blue in different wells of the watercolor palette.
9. Take the brush and wet it, and then use it to wet the red.
10. Paint the pie shape at the top/center with the red.
11. After cleaning the brush in the wash water, repeat this process with the yellow and paint it in the 4th pie shape clockwise from the red. There should be three pie shape spaces in between the red and the yellow.
12. Repeat these steps but with the blue. Once the primaries are complete, the circle should have red at the top, yellow at the bottom right, and blue at the bottom left. There should be 3 empty pie shapes between each color.
13. Make sure the brush is clean and then scoop up a tiny amount of yellow and put it in a new well on the palette.
14. Then, take a small dab of red and mix it into the tiny yellow scoop to create orange. Adjust the amount of red and yellow as needed until a clean orange (secondary color) is achieved.
15. Paint the orange in the empty space directly in between the red and the yellow. There should be a blank space on either side of the orange when complete.
16. Repeat these steps, but with yellow and blue to create green.
17. Repeat the steps again, but with blue and red to create violet.
18. Now it's time to create tertiary colors. These are a mix of a primary color and a secondary color.
19. Clean the brush and then mix a tiny dab of red into the orange mixture. This will create red-orange. A different water well on the palette may be needed to mix the red with the orange. While mixing, make sure there is a good balance between the red and orange.
20. Paint the red-orange into the empty space between red and orange.
21. The rest of the color wheel involves these previous steps, but with each adjacent primary color and secondary color to get the following colors: yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, and finally red-violet.
22. The final color wheel should be a pleasing transition between primary, tertiary, and secondary colors.
23. Enjoy the completed color wheel and use it as a guide for future color mixing.