I am having trouble understanding why you've classified ultramarine blue as warmer and cobalt teal blue as cooler. When you go around the color wheel in the way you did here, I see how placing ultramarine next to red puts it nearer the start of the warmest side of the color wheel (red). But ultramarine seems more cool-toned because it is more purple than cobalt teal, which is closer to green, which is closer to the warmer end of the color wheel overall. Visually, ultramarine just looks so much more cool toned than cobalt teal. Can anyone help explain this?
Your sentence about ultramarine being next to the warmest color red is your answer. Red is technically the warmest color on the whole wheel, so when looking at the color wheel at face value, the idea is that anything that is closest to red is considered warmer and anything further away from red is considered cooler. So ultramarine is closer to red while cobalt teal blue is almost on the opposite side of the wheel. I found this difficult to accept as well, and honestly the semantics aren’t all that important in terms of color mixing. As long as you know that mixing colors close to each other on the wheel will yield more vibrant mixes, and mixing colors farther apart will yield more muted mixes, that is all the info you need to know to have a functional split primary palette. If you do some digging online, there’s actually a ton of debate on warm and cool blue. From a color temperature perspective, which is what the color wheel is based on, red is the warmest color on the spectrum while violet is the coolest color on the spectrum. So one could successfully argue that ultramarine is actually cooler, as it is the closest to violet, and pthalo blue is actually warmer. I’ve seen professional artists flip flop the nomenclature all the time. I personally avoid labeling the temperatures of my blues altogether.
@@timetotakeabreak thank you for explaining this! Your second paragraph is exactly how my brain works. If you put the colors in a line like a color spectrum rather than a wheel, ultramarine is near the coolest color - purple - and therefore cooler. Visually, there’s just no way ultramarine is warmer than cobalt teal. I’m glad I’m not the only person who struggles with this concept!
Thank you Maria! My new triad palette arrives today! 🎉
Thank you for this! As a new artist, so very helpful to me.
Hi Liz! Welcome to the watercolour community!
Triad!
I am having trouble understanding why you've classified ultramarine blue as warmer and cobalt teal blue as cooler. When you go around the color wheel in the way you did here, I see how placing ultramarine next to red puts it nearer the start of the warmest side of the color wheel (red). But ultramarine seems more cool-toned because it is more purple than cobalt teal, which is closer to green, which is closer to the warmer end of the color wheel overall. Visually, ultramarine just looks so much more cool toned than cobalt teal. Can anyone help explain this?
Your sentence about ultramarine being next to the warmest color red is your answer. Red is technically the warmest color on the whole wheel, so when looking at the color wheel at face value, the idea is that anything that is closest to red is considered warmer and anything further away from red is considered cooler. So ultramarine is closer to red while cobalt teal blue is almost on the opposite side of the wheel. I found this difficult to accept as well, and honestly the semantics aren’t all that important in terms of color mixing. As long as you know that mixing colors close to each other on the wheel will yield more vibrant mixes, and mixing colors farther apart will yield more muted mixes, that is all the info you need to know to have a functional split primary palette.
If you do some digging online, there’s actually a ton of debate on warm and cool blue. From a color temperature perspective, which is what the color wheel is based on, red is the warmest color on the spectrum while violet is the coolest color on the spectrum. So one could successfully argue that ultramarine is actually cooler, as it is the closest to violet, and pthalo blue is actually warmer. I’ve seen professional artists flip flop the nomenclature all the time. I personally avoid labeling the temperatures of my blues altogether.
@@timetotakeabreak thank you for explaining this! Your second paragraph is exactly how my brain works. If you put the colors in a line like a color spectrum rather than a wheel, ultramarine is near the coolest color - purple - and therefore cooler. Visually, there’s just no way ultramarine is warmer than cobalt teal. I’m glad I’m not the only person who struggles with this concept!