[am4show have=’p9;p58;’ guest_error=’Guest error message’ user_error=’User error message’ ]
Imagine you’re a painter and you’ve only got three colors to paint with. Which colors do you have on your palette?

You should be thinking: red, yellow, and blue. (And yes, you are right if you’re thinking that the real primary colors are cyan, magenta, and yellow, but some folks still prefer to think of the primary colors as red-yellow-blue, but either way, it’s really not important which primary set you choose for this particular lesson. We’ll get more specific and use the right colors in the next lesson, so stick with me for now…)

Here’s a trick question – can you make the color “yellow” with only red, green, and blue as your color palette? If you’re a scientist, it’s not a problem. But if you’re an artist, you’re in trouble already.

The key is that we would be mixing light, not paint. Mixing the three primary colors of light gives white light. If you took three light bulbs (red, green, and blue) and shined them on the ceiling, you’d see white. And if you could magically un-mix the white colors, you’d get the rainbow (which is exactly what prisms do.)

If you’re thinking yellow should be a primary color – it is a primary color, but only in the artist’s world. Yellow paint is a primary color for painters, but yellow light is actually made from red and green light.

Click here to go to next lesson on How to Paint with Light

[/am4show]