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A tertiary colour is made by mixing equal amounts of a primary colour and a secondary colour together. There are six tertiary colours. On the colour wheel, they sit between the primary and secondary colour they are mixed from.

• Orange and yellow mix to make yellow-orange (this may also be referred to as amber)
• Red and orange mix to make red-orange (this may be referred to as vermillion)
• Purple and red mix to make red-purple (this may also be referred to as magenta)
• Blue and purple mix to make blue-purple (this may also be referred to as violet)
• Green and blue mix to make blue-green (this may also be referred to as turquoise or teal)
• Yellow and green mix to make yellow-green (this may also be referred to as chartreuse or spring green)

In Woman with Parasol (1893), Paul Signac creates a vibrant image based on tertiary colours.

Instead of mixing different colours of paint Signac applied small dabs of red-orange, blue-green, red-purple (and yellow) to his canvas. From a distance our eyes mix these to see different hues, tints and tones.

Using pure contrasting tertiary colours results in an intense, bright image.

Brown

Brown does not feature in a colour wheel. It is sometimes referred to as a tertiary or a neutral colour.

Brown can be made in a variety of different ways, however three basic brown colours can be made by mixing complementary colours with each other. For example:

• Blue + a small amount of orange = Grey-brown
• Red + a small amount of green = Red-brown
• Yellow + a small amount of purple = Yellow-brown

By varying the amounts of each of these colours it is possible to make a large range of browns.