Color Theory
Artists use color theory when creating their artworks. It is a set of color guidelines that ensure that when you choose your colors for your artwork, you will have the effect that you want.
Color is what the eyes see when light is reflected off an object.
There are 3 main parts to a color:
- Hue: What the color actually is, the name of it (red, blue etc)
- Value: How light or dark that hue is.
- Intensity: How bright or dull that hue is.
COLOR SCHEMES:
Primary Colors: red, blue and yellow. You can mix these 3 colors in different amounts to create all the colors on the color wheel.
Secondary Colors: green, orange and purple. These are the main 3 colors created when you mix the primary colors.
Tertiary Colors: a color produced by an equal mixture of a primary color with a secondary color adjacent to it on the color wheel.
Analogous Colors: These are any 3 colors that sit next to each other on the color wheel. Choosing an analogous scheme ensures that your work has a sense of harmony.
Complementary Colors: colors that sit opposite each other on the color wheel: red/green, blue/orange, yellow/purple. You would use these color sets when you want things to stand out and have contrast. (Think about sports logos, they are usually complementary colors)
Hue: when the colors are at their brightest.
Tint: pastels, when you add white to colors.
Shade: when you add black to colors.
Monochromatic Color Scheme: lights and darks of one color. (ex: if it was a blue monochromatic color scheme, the artwork would be all light blues, medium blues and dark blues.)
Warm Color Scheme: reds, oranges, and yellows. This gives an artwork feelings of anger, energy, excitement, etc
Cool Color Scheme: blues, purples and greens. This gives an artwork feelings of calm, sadness, peace etc.
Artists use these different color schemes to enhance the narrative of their work and to add emotion to it. By using specific color schemes, artists can control the feeling a viewer has when seeing their artwork.
Assignment # 3: Color Wheel and Tints and Shades Scales
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