Color Theory

However much of the terminology and information can be used for both spectrums. I hope you find this useful.

Color Theory: As far back as man can recall, color has played an important part in communication, psycology and even physical health. Let's face it, color has power.Your choice of color whether it be for interior design, graphic design, or fine art, can set the mood, and effect the viewer in many way ways. Knowing how certain colors reach a particular target market or elicit a specific emotional response is important for the practicing designer or artist.

Color theory encompasses a multitude of definitions, concepts and design applications. All the information would fill several encyclopedias. As an introduction, here are a few basic concepts.

Let's Start with the Basics:

The color wheel - This very important and sometimes intimidating device is essential to designers and artists alike.
You will see why later in the discussion. (Colors are approximations only) The color wheel is made up of 12 basic hues. 3 Primary 3 Secondary (Mixture of 2 primaries) 6 Tertiary (Mixture of a primary and a secondary)

The Color Wheel

PRIMARY COLORS

Red, yellow and blue

In traditional color theory, these are the 3 pigment colors that can not be mixed or formed by any combination of other colors. All other colors are derived from these 3 hues
Red- emotional and active, danger, love, warmth, life
Blue- passive, soft, cool, watery
Yellow- warm, vibrant, the closest to light and warmth

SECONDARY COLORS

Green, orange and purple

These are the colors formed by mixing the primary colors.

TERTIARY COLORS

Yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green and yellow-green.

These are the colors formed by mixing a primary and a secondary color. That's why the hue is a two word name, such as blue-green, red-violet, and yellow-orange.

COLOR HARMONY

Harmony can be defined as a pleasing arrangement of parts, whether it be music, poetry, color, or even an ice cream sundae.In visual experiences, harmony is something that is pleasing to the eye. It engages the viewer and it creates an inner sense of order, a balance in the visual experience. When something is not harmonious, it's either boring or chaotic. At one extreme is a visual experience that is so bland that the viewer is not engaged. The human brain will reject under-stimulating information. At the other extreme is a visual experience that is so overdone, so chaotic that the viewer can't stand to look at it. The human brain rejects what it can not organize, what it can not understand. The visual task requires that we present a logical structure. Color harmony delivers visual interest and a sense of order.In summary, extreme unity leads to under-stimulation, extreme complexity leads to over-stimulation.

Harmony is a dynamic equilibrium.Some Formulas for Color Harmony.There are many theories for harmony. The following illustrations and descriptions present some basic formulas .

Some Color Terminology:








Hue: The term hue is used to describe any pure color, with the exception of Black or White.

Chroma/Chromaticity: The chromaticity of a color is its saturation or intensity. For example if we are using an RGB palette a high chromaticity blue might be 0,0,255 or Red has a higher chromaticity than pink.
Value: The value of a color is its 'lightness' or 'brightness'. Now it might seem that chroma and value are the same thing but they are not. For example, if you take two high chroma colors like Blue and Yellow, Yellow has the higher value than blue because its 'brighter'.
Tone: A tone is any hue mixed with a grey (grey is a neutral of black and white)
Tint: A Tint is a hue mixed with white.
Shade: A shade is a hue mixed with black.
Complimentary Color: The color that is on the exact opposite side of the color wheel of one color. A neutral color is created when you mix these two colors together.

TIPS: When painting it is often better to use a color's compliment to darken an area of shadow rather than black. The reason being, it creates a richer more realistic shadow and when blacks are used in shadow they tend to 'flatten' them out.

references:
https://www.glidden.com
http://colormatters.blogspot.com