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How to Design a Color Wheel

A basic color wheel design should be made with a circle stencil and display the primary colors (red, blue, yellow) and the secondary colors (orange, purple, and green). A color wheel can teach how colors are created from the primary colors. In addition, color wheels can be used to teach corresponding colors, warm and cool colors, and even more advanced color theory. A color wheel, at its root, shows the primary colors which are the most basic hues of color and cannot be created by any others. Secondary colors are the basic combinations of the primary colors.

Things You'll Need

  • White Paper
  • Large circle stencil
  • Black writing marker
  • Ruler
  • Red coloring marker
  • Blue coloring marker
  • Yellow coloring marker
  • Orange coloring marker
  • Purple coloring marker
  • Green coloring marker
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Instructions

    • 1

      Using a black writing marker and the circle stencil, trace a circle onto the large white sheet of paper.

    • 2

      Using your ruler, draw a line that divides the circle into six even wedges. Do this by bisecting the circle with a horizontal line through the middle and then two lines, which form an x, bisecting the original horizontal line. Be sure that you draw the lines so that they create relatively even-shaped wedges.

    • 3

      Pick a wedge and color it in completely with your red writing marker.

    • 4

      Moving left, in anticlockwise direction, completely color in the second wedge from the red one with your blue writing marker. There should be an uncolored wedge between the red and the blue; this will be filled in later.

    • 5

      Again moving to the left, completely color in the second wedge from the blue one with your yellow writing marker. There should be an uncolored wedge between the blue and the yellow. This will be filled in later.

    • 6

      Now fill in the wedge between the yellow and the red, with the color orange. Orange is the secondary color that is created when the primary colors yellow and red are combined.

    • 7

      Fill in the wedge between the red and the blue with the color purple. The primary colors red and blue combine to create the secondary color purple.

    • 8

      Now, with your green marker, color in the wedge between the blue and yellow wedges. Primary colors blue and yellow combine to make the secondary color green. This completes your color wheel.

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