The Color Wheel

In this Art Quest, you learn more about the color wheel, prisms, hue, and value. After you complete this Art Quest take the online quiz to test your knowledge.

Artists often use a color wheel when planning the colors in their artworks. A color wheel is an arrangement of colors in a circular format.

Prisims
You probably learned in science class that a prism separates white light into different wavelengths so that you get a rainbow of colors. This rainbow of colors, bent into a circle, form a basic color wheel.

Hue
Hue refers to a color’s name. No matter how light or dark a color is, its hue is the name of the color on the outside of the color wheel. Those names are red, red-violet, violet, blue-violet, blue, blue-green, green, yellow-green, yellow, yellow-orange, orange, and red-orange. In this activity you will look at several paintings and see what hues the artists used. Let’s begin with this artwork by Miriam Shapiro.

Kimono, 1976
Miriam Schapiro

The colors shown here are some of the main colors in Miriam Shapiro’s artwork Kimono. Look at the color wheel. Which hue is the most dominant in this artwork? If you guessed red, you are correct!

Value
Some of the reds in the artwork are light and some are dark. When we speak of the lightness or darkness of a hue, we are referring to another art element—value. To lighten a hue, you add white. A hue that has been lightened is called a tint. Pink is a tint of red, and peach is a tint of orange.

You can darken a hue by adding black. A darkened hue is called a shade. Maroon is a shade of red, and navy is a shade of blue.