How to Make a Color Wheel for your Sketchbook

You have probably seen these color wheels in the store.  I pull mine out occasionally when designing a project but when I'm out and about painting I need a tool specific to me.

One using colors of my palette and on the paper I am using.

Now at home I have a binder filled with test sheets for reference and you can put in a little test swatch right on one of your sketchbook pages but why not take it a step further.

Trace and cut out a circle that will fit onto your sketchbook page.  Make it out of the same type of paper or as close as you can get.  If you have a coil binding you can just rip out a blank page to use. Trace on a smaller circle so you have an outer rim where the colors will go.

Using the your palette, here I'm using my field kit, make a color wheel.  I like 12 sections:
-  3 primary (Red, Yellow, Blue)
- 3 secondary  (Orange, Green, Purple)
- and 6 tertiary ( primary and secondary mixed together, i.e. greenish yellow)

On a page of your book draw a window that will show 4 analogous colors at once. Analogous colors are colors that sit side by side on the wheel.

Also make a little window that will only show one color directly opposite the middle of that other window.  I used the same circular objects I used to trace out the wheel.  You want your windows to be a bit smaller width wise that the actual color segments.

Using scissors or a paper cutter cut out your windows.

Poke a hole thru the center of your wheel, put it in place on top of your window page and mark the center thru that hole.

Poke a hole thru that page, insert paper fastener, put color wheel on at the back of that page.

Now you have a very useful tool.  It shows a 4 color analogous scheme as well as a contrast or complimentary color that goes with them and it's right in your sketchbook at your fingertips.

Turn the wheel and you get another color scheme. 
Applications:
- have your students construct this color wheel tool and then picking a color scheme paint a composition limited to these colors.
- paint side by side color sketches, one with only analogous colors and one adding in that complementary color.
- use the complimentary color for the focal point
- use this tool to analyze how other artists utilize these color schemes.