color theory

Neutral

Colors that are not found on the color wheel such as gray, beige and brown.

SHADE

Hue plus black.

TINT

Hue plus white (or water)

COMPLEMENTARY COLORS

Hues which are opposite each other on the colors wheel. The complement of red is green, the complement of yellow-orange is blue-violent, etc. When two complements are placed next to each other each color appears at its highest visual strength.

WARM COLORS

Red, orange, yellow, (red-violet, yellow-green), warm color tend to advance in visual space.

primary colors

Red, yellow, and blue. With these three colors (and black and white) all other colors can be made. The primary colors themselves can not be made by mixing other colors.

HUE

The name of a color as it appears on the color wheel: red, orange, yellow, red-violet, etc.

VALUE

The natural lightness or darkness of a hue or the amount of white or black in a color, pink is a light value of red, navy-blue is a dark value of blue, etc.

INTENSITY

The purity of a hue. A hue at its highest intensity has no other color mixed with it. A hue loses its intensity as another color is added to it.

TERTIARY COLORS

Those colors created by the mixture of an adjacent primary and secondary color. The tertiary colors are named by combining the names of the two parent colors, with the primary element listed first: orange + red = red-orange.

SECONDARY COLORS

Those colors which are created by the mixture of two primary colors in approximately equal proportions. The secondary colors are orange, violet and green.

Triadic

Three colors that are equidistant from each other on the color wheel (example: red, yellow and blue).

COOL COLORS

Violet, blue, green, cool colors recede in space

Shades

adding black to a pure hue

analogous colors

an analogous color schemes consist of any three or four adjacent colors on the color wheel.

Opaque

having covering power not permitting paper or other color