An infinite variety of tones and shades can be created from combining primary colours and from adding white and black, which of course makes choosing the colour you like not quite as simple as it first sounds.

When deciding what colour to use in the home, first think about what colour – or tones of colour – instinctively appeal to you when you see them by chance. The sort of colours that you like to wear can be helpful here, although that is not to say that if you are wedded to black then your home should be nothing but an underworld symphony.

Prismatic colours are violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red – the seven colours seen from the decomposition of a ray of light when passed through the prism. The colours of spectrum have varying tones because our eyes are more sensitive to some colour than to others. Yellow is always light in tones because our eyes are most sensitive to it, whilst pure red and pure blue appear the darkest. In dim light, our eyes are most sensitive to green and blue, and any red becomes very dark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nuances of colour – all the subtle hues and tones we see around us – are made by adding basic yellow, reds, blue and black, either to each other or to white; and, depending on the balance of pigments combined, either cold or warm tones of colour are created.

Originally, artist used basic earth and metal pigments and experimented mixing different pigments together, as well as mixing them with white, to arrive at the colour they wanted. Today, the large paint companies do the same thing commercially, and on huge scale, using modern, synthetic pigments; but I think it helps to remember that every colour is simply a combination of other colours and that, depending on the strength and colour values of the originals, different new colours can be created in profusion.