The principle behind the color wheel is that all colors derive from a mixture of three primary colors, which are red, yellow and blue. These three colors cannot be created by mixing together other colors. They are located in positions on the color wheel with the same number of colors separating one from the next. One color -- for instance, red -- is also the same exact distance from the next color, or yellow, as yellow is from blue.
Located between the primary colors are the secondary colors, which come from mixing two primary colors together. These colors are green, orange and violet. When blue and yellow are mixed together, they create green; when yellow and red mix, orange is the result and when blue and red are mixed together, violet is created.
Tertiary colors are located on the color wheel in the vacant space between the primary and secondary colors. These colors result from mixing together the colors on either side of them. The mixture of blue and green, for example, yields blue-green while the mixture of red and violet creates red-violet.
You can determine a color's complementary color by locating another color on the wheel that is 180 degrees away from the first color. For example, blue's complementary color is orange, red's complementary color is green and violet's complementary color is yellow. The interactive effect of pairing complementary colors is the creation of visual tension, which occurs because these two very different colors dramatically contrast one another. The complementary colors of both secondary and tertiary colors can be found in the same manner. Simply find the first secondary or tertiary color and then locate the color that is 180 degrees away from it on the color wheel.
Split complements are the colors that are located on the immediate left and right of a complementary color. When a color is paired with one of its split complements, the interaction between them is similar to the effect created when a color and its complement interact. The split complementary colors can set off a color brilliantly, but the effect is not quite as striking as the interactive effect created between two complementary colors.
The intensity of colors also determines how they interact. Intensity is a term that describes the brightness of a color. When painting and a small amount of a color's complementary color is added to the initial color, a neutralizing effect will result and the intensity of the color will be muted. When an initial color is intense and then paired with its complementary color after it has been muted, the color will still be set off but not in the same vibrant way as it would be if both colors were of the same intensity.