50 ideas

Color Wheel Drawing Ideas

Deal one creative colour wheel project, with a line under it saying where the 12 colours go and what the wheel teaches.

More filters

Show all 50

Drawn: An eye with a 12-part colour irisAn eye with a 12-part colour irisBlack pupil, white glint. Rule 12 spokes from pupil to rim, yellow wedge at the top, then streak each darker at the rim.

Next step More art that starts from a circle

All 50 ideas

Round things cut into 12 17

A bicycle wheel with 12 colour gaps 12 spokes make 12 gaps. Colour the gaps in wheel order, leave the spokes white and make the tyre black.
A clock face with a colour for every hour Yellow at 12, orange at 2, red at 4, violet at 6, blue at 8, green at 10. The odd hours take the six tertiary colours.
A Ferris wheel with 12 colour cabins One cabin per colour in wheel order, each spoke matching its cabin. Cabins hang level, so every one stays upright.
A flower with 12 colour petals Draw the primary petals first at 12, 4 and 8 o'clock, the secondaries halfway between, then fit in the six tertiaries.
A lollipop swirl in 12 colours Pencil 12 straight spokes, then bow each one the same way. Colour in wheel order so the swirl seems to spin.
A mandala in three rings of 12 Inner ring mixed with white, a tint. Middle ring pure colour. Outer ring mixed with black, a shade. 36 cells in all.
A paper windmill with 12 blades Each blade is a wedge with one corner folded in. Colour the wedge one colour and its folded corner the opposite colour.

Show all 50 ideas (43 more)

Round things cut into 12, continued

A pizza cut into 12 colour slices One colour per slice. Put pepperoni on the three primary slices, peppers on the three secondaries, and leave six plain.
A play parachute held by 12 children 12 panels seen from above. Each child wears the colour opposite their panel: a red shirt at green, blue at orange.
A ring doughnut iced in 12 colour bands Pipe 12 bands across the ring in wheel order. Add sprinkles in each band's opposite colour: green sprinkles on red.
A rose window with a ring of pale tints Inner ring: 12 petals in pure colour. Outer ring: the same 12 mixed with white, which makes a tint. Black lead lines.
A slice of orange with 12 colour wedges A citrus slice has wedges already. Draw 12, leave white pith between them, and colour round from yellow at the top.
A snail shell spiral of 12 chambers Wind a spiral out from the centre and cut it into 12 chambers. Yellow in the middle, round to yellow-green at the lip.
A spider web with a colour in every wedge 12 threads out from the centre, loops between them. Sit the spider on the red wedge and colour it green, red's opposite.
A sun with 12 rays in three lengths Long rays for red, yellow and blue, medium for orange, green and violet, short for the six tertiaries between them.
An eye with a 12-part colour iris Black pupil, white glint. Rule 12 spokes from pupil to rim, yellow wedge at the top, then streak each darker at the rim.
An umbrella from above with 12 colour panels 12 wedges meeting at the tip. Yellow at the top, violet opposite at the bottom, reds down the right, blues up the left.

Animals and plants 16

A butterfly with six colour cells on each wing Mirror the opposites: red on the left wing faces green on the right, yellow faces violet, blue faces orange.
A caterpillar curled into a ring of 12 12 round body segments in a circle, one colour each in wheel order. Give it a white head next to the yellow segment.
A chameleon curled nose to tail Curl the body into a ring. 12 bands from yellow at the head to yellow-green at the tail, blended where they join.
A coiled snake with repeating colour bands Band the snake in wheel order from the head. The 13th band is yellow again, which shows the wheel has no end.
A curled-up cat with 12 colour stripes A sleeping cat is nearly a circle. Run 12 stripes across its back from nose to tail tip in wheel order.
A daisy chain of 12 in a circle 12 daisies joined in a ring. Petals take the wheel colour; each centre takes the colour straight across the ring.
A fish with 12 rows of colour scales Scales are rows of U shapes. Colour row by row from the head: yellow first, round the wheel to yellow-green at the tail.
A hedgehog with spines in 12 colour wedges Spines fan out in 12 wedges, yellow over the head round to yellow-green. Use short flicked strokes, not flat colour.
A ladybird with 12 spots in three sizes Three big spots for the primaries, three medium for the secondaries, six small for the tertiaries, in wheel order.
A lion with a 12-tuft colour mane Leave the face in the middle plain. Draw 12 mane tufts round it, yellow at the top, and colour round in wheel order.
A nest with 12 colour eggs in a ring Arrange 12 eggs in a circle in the nest, in wheel order. Speckle each egg with the colour of the egg next to it.
A parrot with 12 flight feathers in order Red head and chest. Fan 12 long feathers on the open wing in wheel order and blend each into its neighbour.
A peacock with 12 colour tail feathers Fan 12 feathers in a half circle, wheel order left to right. Paint each eye spot in the colour opposite its feather.
A tree with 12 colour leaf clumps Ring 12 cloud-shaped clumps round the crown. The warm ones, red through yellow, go on the side the sun is on.
A turtle with 12 shell plates round the rim Leave the centre plates grey. Ring 12 plates round the edge in wheel order, head at yellow and tail at violet.
Twelve koi swimming in a ring Each fish follows the tail of the one in front. One colour per fish, with white patches so they still look like koi.

Scenes and objects 17

A calendar wheel with a colour for each month One wedge a month. Hottest months get the warm colours, red through yellow; coldest get blue-green to blue-violet.
A carousel seen from above with 12 horses Draw the round roof as 12 wedges in wheel order. Let 12 horses' noses and tails peep out from under the rim.
A city skyline wrapped round a tiny planet Draw a small circle as the ground and stand 12 buildings on it, all pointing outward. One colour each, windows white.
A colour wheel with two triangles inside Join red, yellow and blue with a triangle, then orange, green and violet with another. Together: a six-pointed star.
A gumball machine sorted into 12 wedges Fill the glass globe with gumballs sorted like pie slices, yellow at the top. Red body, grey coin slot, white glint.
A quilt block of 12 pointed blades 12 wedge blades round a plain centre, in wheel order. A different tiny pattern on every blade: dots, checks, stripes.
A ring of 12 crayons, points to the centre Each crayon is a long box with a cone tip. Write the colour name on every wrapper, hyphens included: red-orange.
A ring of 12 handprints in paint Print hands in a circle, fingers outward, washing between colours. Work round in wheel order so neighbours sit together.
A round palette with 12 paint wells Fill red, yellow and blue first. Mix each secondary from two primaries, then each tertiary from the two beside it.
A spiral staircase of 12 colour steps, seen from above 12 wedge steps round a centre post. Darken one edge of each step by adding black, a shade, so the steps seem to drop.
A village of 12 houses round a green From above, 12 roofs ring a round green in wheel order. Each front door is painted the colour of the house opposite.
A wheel laid out from found objects Draw a circle with 12 wedges. Fill each with small finds of that colour: bottle tops, leaves, buttons, sweet wrappers.
Three paint tubes squeezing out a whole wheel Only red, yellow and blue get a tube. Let the blobs spread and overlap to make the nine colours in between.
Twelve hot-air balloons rising in a ring One colour per balloon, striped with its opposite: violet stripes on the yellow balloon. Draw the far balloons smaller.
Twelve ice-cream cones in a ring Cones point to the centre, one scoop each. Invent a flavour for each: lime for yellow-green, blueberry for blue-violet.
Twelve kites flying in a circle Diamond kites with tails pointing to the centre. Tie two bows on each tail in the colours either side of it.
Twelve tiny landscapes, one in each colour One wedge, one colour: paint a hill, a tree and a sky using that colour plus white and black only. Tints and shades.

How this list was compiled: Own work: the projects, wording, levels and layouts are ours. Colour order on the red-yellow-blue wheel (3 primary, 3 secondary and 6 tertiary colours, 12 divisions) was checked on 2026-09-18 against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_wheel and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tertiary_color; the opposite pairs red and green, yellow and purple, blue and orange against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complementary_colors; tint and shade against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tint,_shade_and_tone; warm and cool colours against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_theory. Licence: own work

How it works

A colour wheel does not have to look like a pie chart. These 50 color wheel drawing ideas turn the same 12 colours into an umbrella, a peacock's tail, a village seen from above or a caterpillar chasing its own tail. Each hint says which colour goes where, so the finished picture still works as a wheel.

Read the full guide

The order every project follows

Clockwise from the top: yellow, yellow-orange, orange, red-orange, red, red-violet, violet, blue-violet, blue, blue-green, green, yellow-green. Red, yellow and blue are the primaries. Orange, green and violet are the secondaries, each mixed from two primaries. The six hyphenated colours are the tertiaries, a primary mixed with the secondary beside it. On a clock face the primaries land on 12, 4 and 8.

What each wheel teaches

Some of these color wheel art ideas teach more than the order. A butterfly with six colour cells on each wing pairs the opposites: red faces green, yellow faces violet, blue faces orange. A mandala in three rings of 12 adds white for tints and black for shades. The best color wheel painting ideas use three paints only, as in Three paint tubes squeezing out a whole wheel, because mixing the other nine is the lesson.

Mark every 30 degrees with a protractor for 12 equal wedges. Without one, quarter the circle and split each quarter in three.
Colour the three primaries first, then the secondaries between them. The tertiaries go in last, and slips show up early.
Pencil each colour's name in its wedge before you start. It is easy to lose your place around blue-violet.

Questions and answers

What are the 12 colours on a colour wheel?

Three primaries (red, yellow and blue), three secondaries (orange, green and violet, which some wheels call purple) and the six hyphenated tertiaries between them, such as red-orange. This is the traditional painter's wheel taught in art class. Screens and printers start from different primaries, so their wheels differ.

Which projects suit younger children?

Start with A pizza cut into 12 colour slices or A caterpillar curled into a ring of 12, which need only circles and wedges. Twenty of the 50 are in Easy. The 13 hard ones, such as A Ferris wheel with 12 colour cabins, suit older classes. Paint and small found objects need an adult close by.

Does it matter which colour goes at the top?

No. The wheel is a loop, so it can start anywhere and run either way, as long as the neighbours stay in order. These projects put yellow at the top so that every hint can use the same clock positions. Turn your wheel and red still faces green.