Function of Light

Properties of Color

Expressive Qualities

Optical Effects

Subtractive 2

There are two systems that are generally used when working with subtractive color. The printing industry uses a system called CMYK in which all of the colors are created by mixing cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks on white paper. Other artists use some variation of the familiar color wheel that uses the three primaries, red, blue, and yellow along with black and white. Painters sometimes use a "split pallet" that includes a warm and a cool of each primary for a total of six. Ostwald and Munsell are two other well-known subtractive color systems.
 

Slide the three circles left and right to see what colors are achieved when mixing the primary colors in the subtractive system. The resultant hues are based on those that would be created when mixing three actual paints: a red, a yellow and an ultramarine blue.