primary colors...

alright this has brought on some discussion in my household so i figured i better do my research. here's what i found out....

apparently if you are involved with art or painting or can remember what you were taught in elementary school then you would most likely say that the primary colors are red, yellow, & blue. the reason being, they say, is that you cannot make these colors by blending other colors. they are unique and will not be replicated. and if your old enough to remember the Glad commercials you heard that yellow and blue make green not blue and green make yellow.

now if you are involved with graphic arts, design, photography, or have a television you may think of the primaries as red, green, & blue or RGB. the reason these are considered primaries in these fields is that the combination of the three creates white. these are considered "additive primaries". now, when the different combinations of 2 of these additive primaries overlap they create 3 other primary colors (where i was wrong in my previous blog post). the difference is that when you combine these three new primary colors, they make black and are therefore called "subtractive primaries". in my fellow bloggers defense, yes it is still a primary but in my defense, yes it is still a secondary since technically you can combine 2 colors to make yellow. sounds weird i know but the more you combine additive primaries, the lighter your result is.

bottom line is our kindergarten teachers were wrong! here a good link for how to make yellow.
and here's a visual of the new and improved additive and subractive color wheel.

oh yeah, and turns out yellow and blue don't make green. looks like the happy days guy was wrong too! color combination misrepresentation is apparently a big deal these days. apparently lots of artists are scratching their heads trying to use old science.