Color functions and affects us: aesthetically, physically and psychologically

Color has 3 attributes: hue, value and intensity

Hue – the name of a color

Value – lightness or darkness of a color

Intensity – brightness or dullness/saturation, strength or purity

Local color – known or conceptual:

“Apple red” would be understood as a term designating a red hue.

Optical color – perceived or perceptual:

Actual color, or variety of color, as seen in a red apple.

Achromatic – “no color” or B & W/Grey

Monochromatic – “1 color” with values of that color

The Color wheel is an ocular arrangement of 12 hues.

Primary colors – red, yellow, blue

Secondary colors – a mixture of 2 primary colors

Intermediate colors – 1 primary and 1 secondary color mixed together

Complementary Mixed colors – colors directly opposite each other on the color wheel.

Analogous – 3 to 6 colors adjacent to a key color with 1 color in common

(most often a primary)

Complementary - colors directly opposite each other: red/green

Split complementary - key color with the 2 colors next to it’s complement:

orange + blue-violet & blue-green

in large areas, creates intensity

in small adjacent or strokes, creates neutrality = a grey or neutral tone

Tint – color + white

Tone – color + grey

Shade – color + black

Neutral grey – a mixture of 3 primary colors, or equal amounts of B & W

Grisaille – French term for a study in black, white, and grey

Triad – 3 colors evenly and equally spaced, forming a triangle

Tetrad – double complementary contrast forming a square or rectangle

Saturation – monochromatic color + 1 intense shot of color

Warm colors – red, orange, yellow = hot, exciting, emphatic / advance

Cool colors – blue, green, violet = calming, soothing, depressing / recede

Color may suggest that space is flat or 3D or ambiguous.

Unmodulated = flat space

Modeled from light to dark = volume or 3D

Bright colors – typically advance

Dark colors – typically recede

Color Symbolism: The symbolic meanings of the different colors are influenced by cultural and even geographical factors.

White – purity, antiseptic, light, airy

Purple – royalty, insanity

Yellow – caution, attention, knowledge, good luck

Green – faith, calm, hope, environmentally safe

Blue – trust, immortality

Red – passion, anger, hunger, danger

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