Download - The Gardeners Color Wheel
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Getting Started
If you invest a minute or two in reading the paragraph of color theory on the front of the wheel and the description of color schemes on the back, you can begin playing with the wheel and getting ideas for garden combinations now. But you will get more out of your Gardener’s Color Wheel if you read the booklet first. It won’t take long, and everything need to know is right there.
If you haven’t acquired The Gardener’s Color Wheel yet, you will be ahead of the game if you familiarize yourself with a few color terms.
Color Terms
For a start, the word color has only one synonym, hue. From now on, the two will be used interchangeably. The rest of the color terms you will meet here are familiar words used, in what may be to you, unfamiliar ways to describe the nature of hues and their variations.
About The Gardener’s Color WheelBy Sydney Eddison
www.thegardenerscolorwheel.com
YELLOW
GREEN-YELLOW
YELL
OW
-GR
EE
N
GR
EE
NB
LU
E-G
RE
EN
GR
EEN
-BLU
E
BLUE
VIOLET-BLUEBLUE-VIOLET
VIOLET
RED-VIOLET
VIOLET-R
ED
RE
DO
RA
NG
E-R
ED
RE
D-O
RA
NG
E
ORANGE
YELLOW-ORANGEORANGE-YELLOW
COOL COLORS
WARMCOLORS
WARMCOLORS
COOLCOLORS
TETRAD
Triad
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omple
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THE GARDENER’SCOLOR WHEEL
TINTS
TINTS
TINTS
TINTS
Color Theory for Gardeners
It’s easy! There are only two ways to use color in the garden,
contrast and harmony. Contrast is based on difference. Complementary colors, such as
red and green, have nothing in common. They are direct opposites on the color wheel and produce lively, attention-getting contrast. Harmony is based on likeness. Adjacent colors on the color wheel, such as red, orange-red, red-orange, and orange are harmonious. There is red in all four colors. The likeness results in a pleasing harmony.
DefinitionsWarm colors: Reds, Oranges and Yellows.Cool colors: Greens, Blues and Violets.
Hue: Another name for color.Tint: Any color + white.Tone: Any color + gray.Shade: Any color + black.
PURE COLOR
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Once Over Lightly: Understanding Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Colors
You have probably met primary and secondary colors in grade school. But here they are again.Red, yellow, and blue are the primary colors. Each is unique unto itself. Red contains no other color than red; yellow is yellow alone; and blue, entirely blue. From these three hues, all other colors can be made.
The secondary colors are orange, green, and violet. Each is made from two of the primaries. Orange is a combination of red and yellow; green, a mixture of yellow and blue; violet, of blue and red.
YELLOW
GREEN-YELLOW YELLOW-GREEN GREEN B
LUE-GREEN
GREEN-BLUE
BLU
E
V
IOL
ET-
BL
UE
B
LU
E-V
IOL
ET
VIO
LET
RED-V
IOLET
V
IOLET-RED
RED ORANGE-RED RED-ORANGE OR
AN
GE
YE
LLOW
-OR
AN
GE
OR
AN
GE
-YE
LLO
W
Primary
Secondary
PrimaryPrimary
SecondarySecondary
YELLOW
BLU
E
RED
Colors madewith Blueand Red
Colors made with Red and Yellow
Colors madewith Blueand Yellow
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The less familiar tertiary colors are made from one primary and one secondary. Orange-red, which is adjacent to red, is a combination of primary red and secondary orange. The mixture produces an orangey-red. The next color in the sequence is red-orange, which is also made from red and orange, but in different proportions. This mixture results in a reddish orange.
Pure Colors
Colors at their strongest are described as “pure”, “intense”, or saturated”. Saturated, in this case, is simply another word for “pure” or “intense”. The pure colors appear around the outside edge of the color wheel on both sides. Pure red is red at its reddest; pure orange, is orange at its most orange; pure yellow, yellow at its sunniest; pure green, green at its greenest, and so forth.
Color Modifications: Tints, Tones, and Shades
Less pure or less intense versions of each color are called tints, tones, and shades. Artists achieve these color variations by mixing paints. Nature achieves similar effects but in her own way. A tint is any color with white added. Pastels are tints. A tone is any color with gray added; a shade, any color with black added.
GREEN-YELLOW YELLOW-GREEN GREEN B
LUE-GREEN
GREEN-BLUE
BLU
E
V
IOL
ET-
BL
UE
B
LU
E-V
IOL
ET
VIO
LET
RED-V
IOLET
V
IOLET-RED
RED ORANGE-RED RED-ORANGE
YE
LLOW
-OR
AN
GE
OR
AN
GE
-YE
LLO
W
Tertiary Colors
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Finding Your Way Around The Gardener’s Color Wheel
With the front of the color wheel toward you, look at the pure, intense, industrial-strength colors around the outer rim. These full-bodied hues pack the most punch in color schemes. The inner concentric rings show progressively paler tints of all the hues. While pastels have less intensity than pure colors, their lightness makes them highly visible in the garden.
Now, flip the color wheel over. Again, you will find the strong, pure colors around the outside. The inner rings show you deeper and deeper tones and increasingly dark shades of the colors. Tones and shades in the garden stand out less at a distance than tints. Tones are great blenders and take the edge off bright, intense colors.
YELLOW
GREEN-YELLOW YELLOW-GREEN GREEN B
LUE-GREEN
GREEN-BLUE
BLU
E
V
IOL
ET-
BL
UE
B
LU
E-V
IOL
ET
VIO
LET
RED-V
IOLET
V
IOLET-RED
RED ORANGE-RED RED-ORANGE OR
AN
GE
YE
LLOW
-OR
AN
GE
OR
AN
GE
-YE
LLO
W
CO
OL
CO
LORS
WARM C
OLORS
WA
RM
CO
LORS COOL COLORS
TETRAD
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THE GARDENER’S COLOR WHEELDeveloped by SYDNEY EDDISON with The Color Wheel Company
Style No. 338804/2006
Philomath, OregonPhone: (541) 929-7526Copyright © 2006 The Color Wheel Company
SHADES
TONES
SHADES
TONES
TONES
SHADES
TONES
SHADES
Color Schemes for the Garden
Complementary (Contrast): Two colors directly opposite each other on the wheel.
For example - red and green.
Split Complementary (Contrast): One key color, plus the colors on either side of its complement. For example - yellow, blue-violet and red-violet.
Triad (Contrast): Three colors equally spaced from each other on the wheel. For example the three primaries - red, yellow and blue.
Monochromatic (Harmony): A single color combined with its tints, tones, and shades. For example - an all green garden.
Analogous (Harmony): From three to five adjacent hues on the color wheel, sharing a common color, such as blue-violet, violet, red-violet with the possible addition of violet-blue and violet-red.
Analogous-Complementary (Harmony and Contrast): Three adjacent colors on the color wheel plus the complement of one of them.
PURE COLOR
YELLOW
GREEN-YELLOW YELLOW-GREEN GREEN B
LUE-GREEN
GREEN-BLUE
BLU
E
V
IOL
ET-
BL
UE
B
LU
E-V
IOL
ET
VIO
LET
RED-V
IOLET
V
IOLET-RED
RED ORANGE-RED RED-ORANGE OR
AN
GE
YE
LLOW
-OR
AN
GE
OR
AN
GE
-YE
LLO
W
CO
OL C
OLO
RS
WA
RM
CO
LO
RS
WA
RM
CO
LOR
S
C
OO
L C
OL
OR
S
TETRAD
Triad
Sp
lit C
omple
men
tary
Com
plem
enta
ry Developed by SYDNEY EDDISON
THE GARDENER’SCOLOR WHEEL
TINTS
TINTS
TINTS
TINTS
Color Theory for Gardeners
It’s easy! There are only two ways to use color in the garden,
contrast and harmony. Contrast is based on difference. Complementary colors, such as
red and green, have nothing in common. They are direct opposites on the color wheel and produce lively, attention-getting contrast. Harmony is based on likeness. Adjacent colors on the color wheel, such as red, orange-red, red-orange, and orange are harmonious. There is red in all four colors. The likeness results in a pleasing harmony.
DefinitionsWarm colors: Reds, Oranges and Yellows.Cool colors: Greens, Blues and Violets.
Hue: Another name for color.Tint: Any color + white.Tone: Any color + gray.Shade: Any color + black.
PURE COLOR
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Tints, Tones and Shades in Garden Flowers and Foliage
In the plant world, we have an enormous array of pastel flowers and pale gray-green or “silver” foliage. There is a more limited range of extremely dark-hued leaves and blossoms. In between, lie many low-intensity foliage tones: the orange-toned leaves that appear bronze, such as the new cultivars of coral bells with names like ‘Marmalade’; the rich but muted red tones of red Japanese maples; and the smoky violet tones of plants, such as the purple smokebush.
The Difference between the Artist’s Color Wheel and The Gardener’s Color Wheel
Most color wheels for artists settle for twelve pure hues, with three variations of each, and show how to mix them. Gardener’s don’t have to mix colors but they need a greater range with which to work. The Gardener’s Color Wheel expands the number of hues to 18 pure colors and 216 variations. Even so, it is impossible to do more than approximate natures infinite variety.
The expanded range of hues found in The Gardener’s Color Wheel is not unprecedented. The original color wheel (below), designed in the 18th century by British engraver, Moses Harris, offered the same number of pure colors and variations.
Pure red Pink Red tone Red shade