Digital media is what you typically see on your monitor screen. Its primary colors are Red, Green and Blue (click image to enlarge). In this case when you mix colors you get brighter colors that eventually create white. This is also known as Additive color. Additive color occurs when light is projected directly from the tiny red, green and blue dots that make up your monitor or television screen. It is important to know that the human eye contains RGB receptors.

While many artists think that the RGB color wheel (the digital color wheel) should be used instead of the traditional, RYB color wheel to create visual complements, it definitely should be used in digital art, where the light is directly projected and not reflected.

To help understand the difference between the two color systems, subtractive and additive, the way we see an apple is a good example of subtractive color. We see the color of a red apple because that color is bounced off the surface and into our eyes, where the rest of the light spectrum is absorbed by the object. It is called subtractive because the whole of the light spectrum is absorbed by the object except for the color we actually see. The other colors are subtracted from the whole.

In contrast, additive color occurs when colors are added together to create a color that we see. The light is generated and projected, not reflected.

Play around with the color mixer flash application or follow the link to the next set of tutorials.

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