Pre-class prep

Your homework assignment, to be completed prior to the first class meeting, is to view the two videos below (“Mix any color” and “3D colorwheel”), then download and complete the PDF pre-test. It is recommended that you watch the videos several times, to strengthen and reinforce your understanding of the concepts and terminology.


Mix any color in pigment or light by first recognizing that all colors originate from three primaries plus black or white. The true primaries, understood and used in the printing industry for decades, were unknown to most artists and art schools. This brief video hopes to dispel the misconceptions of mixing color in both pigments and light. Additional proof can be found by examining the Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black inks of every computer printer. These are pigment primaries. Light primaries, Red, Green and Blue-Violet are the secondary colors of pigments. Every TV or computer monitor depends on RGB color to generate an entire spectrum.


An animated building of a 3D color wheel with identifying text. The full dimension of color relationships can be viewed in this animated movie. This is part of Dick Nelson's DVD "Dimensions of Color," used as his teaching device for the serious student of color. Having studied with the 20th Century master of color Josef Albers at Yale, Dick has incorporated many lessons from his mentor and added some of his own color revelations.

[gview file=”https://dicknelsoncolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ColorClassPreTest2013.pdf”]