Charting a color family

- Asking my students at RISD to create a color chart…often induces groans of discomfort,…mostly because it sounds too much like math.…But creating a chart is an easy way to learn…and remember color combinations.…One way to develop a chart is to create a grid…in the formation of a times table.…Start with a wide variety of colors on the side of the chart…and repeat the same across the top,…then combine them in equal amounts for each color.…This kind of chart gives a clear array…of options for deciding impossible palettes.…

Another kind of chart could involve…a combination of two colors.…With full saturation of yellow on this end…and full saturation of blue on the other,…each color decreasing in quantity or percentage…as it moves in the opposite direction.…This could help when deciding on…what kind of secondary colors two primaries might make,…or the crossing of two complements.…A simple chart for tracking all the combinations…of a set of primaries could look like this;…very much like a family tree.…

A value scale chart establishes a color…