subject: Red By Any Other Name [print this page] Red is one of the primary colors, which means it can not broken down into any other color. It also means that no other colors can be mixed to get red. Yellow and blue are the other two primary colors. All other pigmented colors are derived from combinations of yellow, blue, and red.
When talking about light, white is the combination of all colors of light. Think of a rainbow. All the colors of the rainbow are included in white light but you don't see those colors until the light wave is broken up. When the light passes through drops of water the light is broken into its colors. Black is the absence of light.
Pigmented colors such as paint, oils, or pastels have different characteristics. Different red shades are composed by adding other colors to red, adding white, or adding black. White and black are not considered true colors. Colors that have white added are considered tints. Colors that have black added are considered shades.
Scarlet, ruby, fire engine red, crimson
These shades are very close to pure red. Pure spectral red is the color of fine rubies. Adding a bit of yellow to red brightens the color to fire engine red. Adding blue darkens the color to crimson.
Pink, baby pink, shocking pink, dark pink
Red with various amounts of white added makes the different shades of pink. Baby pink has quite a bit of white added. Dark pink, which is just a few shades above red doesn't have much white at all.
Fuchsia, cerise, lilac, purple
Purple is equal parts red and blue. Add more red and fuchsia results. White can be added to get lilac. Black can be added to get to dark purple.
Peach, terra cotta, brick, blood, rust
Equal parts red and yellow result in orange. Adding a touch of blue muddies the color to brick, terra cotta, and rust. Adding white to orange red results in peach.
Other color information
Picture a circle with red, yellow, and blue at equal distances around the circle, perhaps, noon, four o'clock, and eight o'clock. Orange is placed exactly halfway between red and yellow. Green is placed halfway between blue and yellow. Take a virtual paint brush and smear the colors starting with red and going towards yellow then towards blue then towards red. That's the basic color wheel. Shades and tints can be varied by adding amounts of white and black.
