What is remarkable about this Color Wheel is the fact that all the colors shown here came out of just five tubes of paint, plus white. Nor is this all that can be accomplished with these few colors, for the range of hues possible from different combinations is almost infinite. The reason we stick to these tubes of paint (alizarin, ultramarine blue, viridian, cadmium yellow light, and cadmium red pale) and do not include such colors as black, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, umber, etc., is that the principle of the Color Wheel is based on that of "prismatic colors" (those which occur in the atmosphere)^ in which the heavier earth colors, such as ochre, sienna and umber, must naturally be excluded. This is obviously also true of black.
Yet, as you can see in the Color Wheel, it is possible to achieve hues strongly resembling the earth colors, while a combination of alizarin and ultramarine will combine to make a more intense black that is at the same.
Follow the rules as much as possible, but don't be rigid about it. Common sense and your own feeling for color are your best guide in resolving any discrepancy between what the rules say you should expect and the results you get. Consequently, when mixing two primaries to get your secondary color you have to take into account the fact that different tubes of paint don't all have the same tinting strength, so that more of one primary is sometimes necessary to produce a satisfactory secondary color. Here again I must remind you that tubes of paint include several other ingredients besides color, and (particularly in the more costly cadmiums) manufacturers will be more sparing in the use of certain pigments than in others.
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