Colours Of The Martian Colour Wheel

A selection of real world examples of the colours in the wheel...

There are various problems with naming colours after real world exemplars:

  • Real world exemplars exhibit more than one colour. - Due to the 3D shape and surface texture of real world objects and the use of just one or two light sources, there are normally 3 tones present, associated with full light, partial shade and full shade. If the surface is smooth, (such as the sea or a cut stone), there is also significant reflection from other objects, such as the sky, to consider.

    For this reason the colour associated with the exemplar will normally be the predominant colour, normally this will be the middle tone. If a group of these exemplars are placed together and you stand back the colours will tend to blend into one and again this will normally be the colour of the exemplar.
  • Real world exemplars vary both in hue and intensity. - One of the great beauties of the real world is that each object is unique. Each grain of sand is different from the next. Each ruby, each lemon, each ham will be different in colour from the previous. In some cases the range of colours associated with a particular object is so great that they cross borders on the colour wheel and can thus not be used as an exemplar. An extreme example of this are roses which cross many borders.

    Wherever possible I have chosen exemplars that do not cross borders, however this is not always possible and in such cases I have chosen the most common colour of the exemplar.

It has been far more work assembling this list of exemplars to name the colours on the Martian Colour Wheel than I had imagined. There are only so many ideas in one's head and many days were spent trawling the internet trying any and every thing that came to mind to track down an object of the required colour.

I have done the best I could and am pretty happy with the result, nevertheless, no doubt I have missed some good exemplars along the way. I apologise for not being perfect. However this colour wheel is not yet set in stone and I welcome any good suggestions. If you have any, just email me with a decent image and I will consider it and possibly include it.

A big thank you to all who have helped me with this project:

  • Firstly to my father who looked at my idea in its early stages and gave some good advice on colour partitioning and the hues orange and azure.
  • Secondly to my partner Anna Linden, who used her painter's eye to check and correct my work. My colour vision is not as good as hers and without her I would have made numerous errors. She also suggested various exemplars. Great help Anna!
  • Thirdly to my friends Richard & Brigitta West who took an interested look at the project while they were visiting and suggested Dragon Fruit.

No thanks to all those who belittled my work, said it was impossible, said it had already been done, told me I was wrong when I was right, criticised an error but refused to correct it on the grounds it was asking too much, told me I was wasting my time and that I should do something useful, asserted incorrect opinions as facts etc. I won't name names. You know who you are. I merely make the point that if all the creative people in the world listened to such as them, we would still be living in caves and banging rocks together for music.