This project will test your understanding of color and its more objective, measurable qualities. You will recreate Itten’s Color Wheel using only the primary colors (red, yellow, and blue). Below Itten’s Color Wheel I want you to lay out three gradient scales using the complimentary colors blue/orange, yellow/purple, and red/green.
Begin with a piece of mat board trimmed to 15"x20", often you can buy it pre-cut to this size. The exact center of your color wheel should be 7.5" inches from the top of your board and 7.5" from the left side. Set your compass to 3.5" so that it makes a perfect circle measuring 7" in diameter. Your color wheel should fit inside this circle.
The first compliment scale should begin 1" from the bottom of your color wheel. The scale itself is 1" high and 5" wide, thus you have room for five 1" squares. The first square should contain the yellow hue; the last square should contain the hue violet. The squares in between should gradually transition the viewer from one color to the other, so naturally the middle square should contain equal parts of both yellow and violet. The next scale orange/blue should begin ½” down from yellow/violet. The red/green scale should begin ½ down from red/green. 4" should remain at the bottom.
