Lesson 2 (Pt. 1): The Color Wheel

"I would rather deserve honors and not have them, than to have them and not deserve them." - Mark Twain

This quote by Mark Twain is what I have made as one of my lifetime mottos. It depicts an attitude of desiring excellence rather than fame. Although it is always nice to put that extra metal on your wall, that extra trophy, it should not be a Christian’s goal in life. “For is it man's favour or God's that I aspire to? Or am I seeking to please men? If I were still a man-pleaser, I should not be Christ's bondservant.” (Gal. 1:10)

A Christian should always and only seek to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, and sometimes, (unfortunately), that means not being the popular one in the group.

In today’s society art is an abstract field of painting that makes no sense, has no purpose and is completely random, having experimented in leaving the basics far behind at the starting field. This is a sad reality. Our world is a world of chaos with confusion and despair on every side of us. Teens and adults are committing suicide at a record high, (around 60,000 a year in America alone) my cousin and best friend for years, (an artist) unfortunately was included in these statistics. . .

Instead of joining these abstract artists, Christians need to take a stand for excellence and order in this world. Our artwork should not mirror despair, chaos and hopelessness for we have the hope of God in us. Our artwork should be orderly with harmonic color schemes that mirror the perfect creation that God made for us to enjoy.

This is why the Color wheel is important. It helps us to keep colors and the principles of art in the right perspective. Without following the basic principles of the color wheel an artist can become flimsy with color and have no purpose for their painting.

THE COLOR WHEEL

The color wheel which is based on the colors of red, yellow and blue, is traditional in the field of art. It is the basics of the art world and a must for the Christian artist to know and to know well. If the artist does not know his or her color wheel they can be in danger of not balancing out their color hues correctly or arranging the wrong colors.

PRIMARY COLORS

The first three colors on the color wheel that you will need to know are the basics of all of the colors that you will find on the color wheel. These colors are the primary colors and they consist of red, blue, and yellow. All of the other colors are derived from these 3 hues.

SECONDARY COLORS

Secondary colors are the colors formed by mixing the primary colors. They are green, orange and purple.

TERTIARY COLORS

Tertiary colors are the colors that realist artists usually use the most. They are the colors formed by mixing a primary and a secondary color. That's why the hue is a two word name, such as blue-green, red-violet, and yellow-orange.

Although I’d like to talk more about the color wheel this post is getting way too long. =P So I will save the next part of the color wheel for later. =)

God Bless y’all! =)

~Rebecca