Color Theory Book

COLOR THEORY

NANCY SMEDLEY GLEASON

Color Terms Hue: Another name for color Tint: Color + White Tone: Color + Gray Shade: Color + Black Value: The lightness or darkness of a color Saturation: The purity of a color

There are 12 hues. Any other color is a tint, tone or shade of one of these hues, unless it is a neutral.

What is color?

Color is the byproduct of the spectrum of light, as it is reflected or absorbed, as received by the human eye and processed by the human brain.

There are three families of colors: primary, secondary and tertiary.

PRIMARY colors: These are RED, BLUE and YELLOW. They cannot be mixed from any other color.

SECONDARY colors: These are ORANGE, GREEN and VIOLET. They are made by mixing two primary colors.

TERTIARY colors: These are RED-ORANGE, YELLOW-ORANGE, YELLOW-GREEN, BLUE-GREEN, BLUE-VIOLET and RED-VIOLET. They are made by mixing one primary and one secondary color.

Neutrals are colors without hue.

NEUTRALS: These are WHITE, BLACK and GRAY. White reflects all colors and black absorbs them all. Gray results from mixing white and black.

Color terminology:

Achromatic SchemeMonochromatic SchemeAnalogous SchemeExtended Analogous SchemeComplementary SchemeSplit Complementary SchemeTriadic SchemeContrasting Scheme

Full SpectrumColor Value (Light vs. Dark)Saturation (Color Intensity)Color Temperature (Warm vs. Cool)The 12 Hues

The Color Wheel

ACHROMATIC SCHEME

Achromatic colors possess no hue. They consist of the neutrals: white, black and gray. Neutrals modify the values and intensities of all hues.

MONOCHROMATIC SCHEME

A monochromatic color scheme is comprised of the tints, tones and shades of any one color or neutral.

ANALOGOUS SCHEME

An analogous color scheme uses any 3 shades, tints or tones of colors that lie adjacent to each other on the color wheel.

EXTENDED ANALOGOUS SCHEME

An extended analogous color scheme uses any 4 or more shades, tints or tones of colors that lie adjacent to each other on the color wheel.

COMPLEMENTARY SCHEME

A complementary color scheme uses a tint, tone or shade of one color and combines it with the color that lies directly across from it on the color wheel.

SPLIT COMPLEMENTARY SCHEME

A split complementary color scheme uses a tint, tone or shade of one color and combines it with the colors that lie adjacent to the color directly across from it on the color wheel.

TRIADIC SCHEME

A triadic color scheme is comprised of 3 colors on the color wheel which are equally spaced from each other.

CONTRASTING SCHEME

Contrasting colors are very similar to complementary colors. Colors that contrast help each other to stand out more vibrantly.

FULL SPECTRUM

All the colors on the color wheel or “all the colors of the rainbow”.

VALUE & SATURATION

Value is the relative lightness or darkness of a color. Saturation (or purity) describes how pure a color is. A color that is pure is clear and bright. Adding black causes it to become muddy and dark, giving it a shade. Adding white causes the color to become washed out or tinted.

COLOR TEMPERATURE

Colors can be divided into 2 groups: the warm (or aggressive) colors of reds, oranges and yellows, and the cool (or receding) colors of greens, blues and violets.

THE TWELVE HUES

The 12 colors that comprise the color wheel are red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet, violet and red-violet.

RED

RED-ORANGE

ORANGE

YELLOW-ORANGE

YELLOW

YELLOW-GREEN

GREEN

BLUE-GREEN

BLUE

BLUE-VIOLET

VIOLET

RED-VIOLET