Art quiz vocab

Hue

: Hue identifies a color by its name: red ~ blue ~ yellow

Color wheel (memorize color wheel.)

A conceptual tool for organizing color order called primary, secondary, and tertiary/intermediate hues. The twelve color wheel shows relationships of hues in a simple form that lets us see relationships at a glance. Some of these relationships are:

Dimensions of Color

All color has three dimensions: hue ~ value ~ intensity. The words hue and color are often used interchangeably, but there is a real difference. Color contains all three dimensions, while hue is only one part of color.

Analogous Colors

Any neighboring groups of three or four hues on the color wheel. These colors are relatives because they share the same bloodlines. Families of color do not end distinctly at any point, but seem to intermarry with their neighbors.

color triad

Any three colors that form an equal triangle will establish a color triad relationship. This color organization allows the artist to use a range of striking color contrasts with a harmonious outcome. Primary colors would be an example of a color triad set

Complementary colors

Colors opposite one another on the color wheel. In this sense, no color is more different from red than green. If red and green are side by side, the red looks redder and the green looks greener. A small amount of a complimentary color added to a color will dull the color.

Intensity

Intensity refers to a color's purity...the absence of any visual mixture. Intensity is a color's dimension of brightness or dullness. Other words used for brightness in intensity are: saturation, brilliance, purity, and high-intensity.

Warm and Cool colors

The warm colors are: red ~ orange ~ yellow. The cool colors are: blue ~ green ~ violet. Colors are called 'warm' or 'cool' because of a perceived temperature and our psychological associations. Warm colors seem to visually advance while cool colors seem to recede.

Neutrals

These are mixtures that contain no hue: black ~ white ~ gray.

Tint and Shade

These identify the value mixture achieved by using white or black in a color mixture. Tint refers to the result of a hue lightened in value by the addition of white. Shade refers to the result of a hue darkened by the addition of black.

Monochromatic

This refers to a color scheme that consists of only one color with white and/or black added to achieve tints and shades.

Split complementary colors

To find a set of split complimentary colors one needs to decide on a color, find it's compliment, chose the colors on either side of the compliment, and then drop the compliment. This group of three colors will form a "Y" shape on the color wheel.

value

Value is the degree of lightness or darkness of a color. As white is added, the color becomes 'higher' in value. Conversely, as black is added the value becomes 'lower' in value. A high value of red would be pink and a low value of red would be burgundy.