Poll: What are the Primary Colours?

[octafish]

I was explaining to my daughter the concept of Primary Colours, and being a photographer I was using RGB as the example and how you can mix these three colours of light to make any other colour. My wife told me that I would just confuse matters when it was time for my daughter to go to school. I had forgotten entirely that there are reflective primary colours. So simply, what do you think of as the primary colours, and why?

EDIT: My daughter is almost 3 by the way.

 

[viking97]

i think they're swell!

...what exactly is your question sir?

 

[WolfLordAndy]

Physics wise RGB

Art wise RYB

and design wise CMYK or RGB depending if its for print or digital...

 

[band43seat]

red blue yellow, no other

 

[Acier]

Generally the subtractive primaries come to mind when I think of them, just because I've done a lot of painting and other art so I've never had to deal with the additive ones much beyond elementary physics.

It could be confusing for your daughter since they tend to teach subtractive in school (because additive does you no good when you're trying to make that color with finger paint) but if she can grasp that they're is two separate groups great. But I would wait until she's older until introducing additive as there's not very much application for young kids.


Is that an answer? I wasn't clear on your question, but I hope this helps.

 

[trooper6]

What I learned from school: Red, Blue, Yellow.
We were told these were the basics because you can make the other colors from those three, but you can't those three from the other colors.
Red+Blue = Purple
Red+Yellow = Orange
Blue +Yellow = Green

 

[Dags90]

How old is your daughter? When I was 8 or 9 I got a book on optical illusions/optics in general that explained additive and subtractive colors. It probably will confuse her if she's going into something like kindergarten, because at that age it's hard for children to understand that their are two sets of primary colors, one for light and one for pigments. My youngest cousin typified this by saying my brother 'couldn't be Michael' because his brother was Michael. She'll probably learn the pigment one in school.

Now he gets it, but just a few years ago it was hard for him to think like that.

And obviously the primary color power structure needs to be brought down.

 

[Kieros]

Red, Green, and Blue. I'm better at physics than at arts, so I believe that more.

 

[octafish]

*Sigh* Well the Poll was
A/ Red, Green, and Blue
B/ Red, Blue, and Yellow
C/ Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and blacK
D/ John Travolta, Emma Thompson and Billy Bob Thornton
and
E/ Other