Colors that are visible under natural conditions are usually the result of mixing primary colors. There are three main methods of such mixing, namely spatial, mechanical, as well as optical.
Optical (additive) color mixing
Optical color mixing is based on the wave nature of light. Optical mixing can be obtained by rotating a circle with sectors painted in specific colors. The primary colors in this mixture are green, blue and red. In addition to them, there are two additional colors that give an achromatic gray color. With additive mixing of the primary colors, we get white.
To get a multi-color image, you can take three ordinary projectors with different filters of the primary colors and cross the rays from them. Thus, you can get any color on a white screen. An area of the screen, for example, which will be lit simultaneously in green and blue, will turn blue, and when the red and blue rays are added together, we will get a magenta color. By the way, note that when mixing watercolor paints, the colors are not so.
Optical color mixing is usually done with more sophisticated instruments. A vivid example is a television, in which various shades also appear as a result of a mixture of green, red and blue.
Spatial color mixing
Spatial mixing occurs when a person looks at small color spots touching each other from a certain distance. These spots merge into one spot - with a new color, which will depend on the color mixing of small areas.
The spatial fusion of colors results from light scattering. It is also affected by the structure of the eye and the rules of optical mixing.
The features of such a mixture should be taken into account in the work of the artist, since, most likely, the picture will be viewed from a certain distance. So, if you look at a picture painted with small strokes from a distance, they will visually merge, and it will create a holistic impression.
Spatial mixing is the basis for obtaining images of color shades when printing from raster forms. If we consider the areas formed by small colored dots from a certain distance, a person will not distinguish their colors, but will perceive the color as spatially mixed.
Mechanical color mixing
The third type of mixing - mechanical - occurs when mixing paints on paper, canvas or a palette. To better understand its mechanism, you need to draw a clear line between concepts such as “paint” and “color”. There are more colors that have an optical nature than paints with chemical properties.
As a rule, the colors of paints are less saturated than the colors of objects surrounding us, so young and inexperienced artists are faced with the problem of color reproduction. How to convey the variety of colors in nature with a dozen colors in a set?
Nevertheless, this problem is solvable if the artist knows about color science and knows how to choose the right coloristic and tonal relationships between colors. In principle, if we are talking about artists, sooner or later they all master the technique of mechanical mixing.
Very often, mechanical mixing of paints can give results similar to the results of optical mixing, but usually they are different. For example, while the optical mixing of all inks produces white, the mechanical mixing gives us gray, brown, black or brown. There is a color mixing table that tells you what color you can get as a result of mixing certain colors or rays.