I recently had a conversation with an art friend about mixing color. I was talking about primary colors and how disappointing it is to see people trying to mix colors from Red, Yellow and Blue when it yields such dull color mixes. I really feel it is antiquated thinking to think that all colors are derived from those ‘primaries’.

She insisted my Red wasn’t Cadmium enough.

But by mixing combinations of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow.  I’ve taught many classes on mixing colors. But I had a hard time conveying what is apparent in printing technology all around us:

Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are the only hues in this ink cartridge. Combine these with the Black cartridge and your printer can make any color.

And yes, that ‘ink’cludes making what is considered Primary Red and Blue.

Master the mystery. Re-write the history. The future of colour is in the cards…

So FINALLY, I met someone who is fascinated with unlocking the mystery of color and pummeling the Primaries as much as I am: Meet Tracy Holmes.

Tracy was at both the NAEA and NAMTA conferences this year, at the same time as I was. What brought us together was that I had Copic Various Reinkers in BG, RV and Y sitting out on my demo area – and Tracy can’t pass some CMY without taking notice.

This lady has an amazing website called Breakthrough Colour. And products that help to explain color, along with ‘Leap Day’ blog posts that walk you through the system to truly understand how colors mix and why they work together the way that they do. It’s so ingenious, it was actually a massively successful Kickstarter campaign in 2015!

Starting just with the Colour Basics cards, I felt excited. It seemed like instead of having an idea of what goes where and why – I now had a real, tangible understanding of it.

And I haven’t even begun pouring through the entire BTC deck that I bought from her website.

So I just wanted to share something that has made my color happy heart go thumpity thump.

I am not affiliated with Tracy in any way – just love that sweater she’s got on, we had dinner together while at NAMTA in Salt Lake City and think she is on to something wonderful for geeks like me that want to UNDERSTAND.

So check out her website. The Leap Lessons alone are worth your time if color is your thing and you just want to know why…