There are three basic categories of the colour theory which are useful. The colour wheel, colour harmony, and the context of how colours are being used.

Colour theories create a consistent structure for colour. For example, if we have an assortment of fruits and vegetables, we can organize them all by colour and place them on a circle which would show the colours in relative to each other.

A colour circle, being based on red, yellow and blue, is traditional in the field of art. Sir Isaac Newton developed the first circular diagram of colours in 1666. Since then, scientists and artists have studied and designed many variations of this idea.

Primary Colours: Red, yellow and blue

In traditional colour theory that are used within paint and pigments, primary colours are the 3 pigment colours that can’t be mixed or formed by any combination of other colours.

Secondary Colours: Green, orange and purple

These are the colours that are formed by mixing the primary colours together.

Tertiary Colours: Yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green

 & yellow-green.