Everything You Know About Warm and Cool Colors Is Wrong
Red, orange, yellow – warm colors right? Green, blue, purple are cool colors, right? Wrong. Warm and cool colors are not what you think they are.
The truth is, that every color is both warm AND cool, and that warm and cool colors are all relative to each other.
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Take purple for example. Purple is made up of red and blue, and lies between them on the color wheel. So two different ways to describe purple would be to call it either a warm blue, or a cold red. It can accurately be described both ways.
Green is either a very cold yellow, or a very warm blue. Orange can be described as being either a cold red or a warm yellow.
It also applies to the primary colors (red, yellow & blue). Take yellow, for example. Most lemons are a cooler variation of yellow, whereas mustard tends to be a warmer yellow.The color of lemons is often towards the cool, green side of the color yellow. The color of mustard leans towards the warm, orange side of yellow.
Using “warm” and “cool” to describe colors is simply a way of describing the hue of the color, or where it lands on the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple color wheel.
Want to learn more about warm and cool colors? Check our color theory worksheets.
More Color Theory Articles:
Colors Opposite on the Color Wheel
Are you surprised to learn that all colors are both warm and cool? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
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Good analogy…. Excuse me, I need to go document the cheese in my refrigerator. 🙂
Oh do share your results!
Haha!! This makes so much sense!! I admit to teaching my students the basics of ‘warm and cool’ colours…hence incorrectly (for years!), although already knowing that sometimes purple (for example) is indeed closer to red, or closer to blue, offering a cooler or warmer hue…I should lead with that and carry the colour wheel me at all times for reference! I finally put a more comprehensive colour wheel in my art bag when I visit my classes. Thank you for sharing this insight!