Color Theory: Deborah Mosch

Hue

- A pure color - Without tint or shade - An element of the color wheel - Think of "color wheel green" or any color on the color wheel

Colors

- Color wheel color names - What two colors on the color wheel will make such as "Yellow and blue make what? green." as well as "medium hansa yellow and phathlo blue make what? green." - How to make color wheel colors such as "How to make color wheel green: Green is a mixture of medium hansa yellow and phathlo blue."

Additive color

- Created by mixing a number of light colors with shades of red, green, and blue being the most common primary colors in the additive color system - Think of the colored flashlight exercise - Makes white - Colors involved: red, green and blue

Sharp edges

- Indicates visual distance - Shows contrast and is another way of saying contrast - Only clearly apparent when the colors are touching one another

Saturation

- Intensity - Refers to the dominance of hue in the color

Subtractive color

- The mixing of a limited set of dyes, inks and pigments to create a wider range of colors, each the result of primary or completely subtracting some wavelengths of light and not the others - Makes black - Colors involved: magenta, yellow, cyan - Think of printers

How to spell gray *just a fun fact*

A = America "gray" E = England "grey"

Middle mixture

A color that is VISUALLY equal distant between two parent colors. Not made by actually mixing the parent colors.

Color identity change

A color's ability to hold on to its properties regardless of background or changed by its background.

Dynamic balance

A composition that includes many diagonal lines. Theory says that diagonal lines are somewhat unsettling or instill a sense of movement, energy, or excitement

Static balance

A composition with the majority of lines that are horizontal or vertical. Theory says that the horizontal and vertical lines have a soothing, calm or tranquil effect on the observer

Color chording

A fanciful term sometimes used to describe color combinations which are decidedly agreeable, like the russet and green of a forest.

Visual weight

A measure of the force that an element exerts to attract the eye and maintain the viewer's attention

Three-quarter mixture

A middle mixture that is leaned towards one parent

Shades

A mixture of a color with BLACK

Tones

A mixture of a color with GRAY

Tints

A mixture of a color with WHITE

Grid

A way of organizing a picture plane along vertical and horizontal lines.

Symmetrical balance

Achieved by arranging elements on either side of the center of a composition in an equally weighted manner.

Actual lines

Actual lines are lines that are physically present, existing as solid connections between one or more points.

Focal point

An area of strong emphasis or visual weight If you have to ask yourself "does this have a focal point?" the answer is probably no

Accents

An element that is different from its surroundings that holds visual weight. Typically smaller than a focal point and is usually recurring across the piece.

Neutral gray

An intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is a color "without color." Can look muted when achromatic. Can look brown when chromatic.

Gestalt

An organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts: "Unified whole" 1. Grouping 2. Similarity 3. Proximity 4. Closure 5. Continuation 6. Alignment (grid) 7. Transition 8. Gradation 9. Figure/Ground 10. Symmetry 11. Repetition

Radial balance

Any type of balance based on a circle with its design extending from center.

Abstract

Art that does not attempt to represent external reality, but seeks to achieve its effect using shape, forms, colors and textures

Atmospheric perspective

Atmospheric perspective creates the illusion of depth by increasingly blurring the lines and details of objects or figures as the image regresses into the distance, as it would in nature.

Principles of design

Balance Gradation Repetition Contrast Harmony Dominance Unity

Color perspective

Closely related to atmospheric perspective, color perspective conjures depth by adjusting the saturation and hue of colors as space regresses. While the foreground of compositions using this perspective technique would reflect typical color saturation, as the image travels back into space the colors would transition first to greens and then to blues by the farthest depths of the composition.

Unity

Created by color unity, symmetry, repetition, etc

Extra credit question: Spell our professor's name

Deborah Mosch

Non-objective

Entirely imaginative shapes with no reference to, or representation of, the natural world

Horizon Line

Eye level line across the picture plane

Other names for positive/negative

Figure/Ground

Depth:

Foreground, middle ground, background

Naturalism

If a subject is drawn or painted completely straight, as faithful to reality as is possible, we call the style naturalistic

Implied lines/edges

Implied line/edges refers to the path that the viewer's eye takes as it follows shapes, colors, and forms along any given path.

Cool tones: how are they created?

Leaning a color towards a cool hue such as green, blue and violet

Warm tones: how are they created?

Leaning the color towards a warm hue such as red, orange and yellow

Elements of design

Line Shape Direction Size Texture Color Value

Achromatic gray

Made with black and white

Chromatic gray

Made with color (typically the color on the opposite side of the color wheel)

Color unity

Made with: 1. Color scheme 2. Common / Dominant color 3. DDNA trick 4. Limited Palette

Optical mixing (color deconstruction)

Optical color mixing is a phenomenon that happens when a viewer perceives color in an image as a result of two or more colors that are positioned next to, or near each other. The perceived color is not actually on the surface. Instead, the color that the viewer perceives is what color(s) would result from the mixing of the colors that are actually on the surface. In other words, if yellow and blue are placed on a surface in close enough proximity to one another, the viewer may perceive that the color green is present - even though it is not on the surface at all. think of the project

Idealism

Polished up and idealized

Types of rhythm

Repetition, Alternating rhythm, Progressive rhythm

Simultaneous contrast

Such that one color will look like two when on different colored backgrounds.

Types of balance

Symmetrical, Asymmetrical, Radial (circular), Crystallographic (all over pattern), dynamic, static

Successive contrast

The colors are seen in succession, not at the same time. Also called an afterimage, the effect creates an illusion of seeing a ghost image after gazing at a color, making you see the color's compliment after a few moments.

Parent colors

The colors from which the middle mixture is based or from which a color is compared

Value

The lightness or darkness High value examples: white, yellow Low value examples: black, violet

Subject

The main idea or object (particularly a noun) represented in an artwork

Realism

The quality or fact of representing a person, thing or situation accurately or in a way that is true to life

Color relativity

The relationship of values, saturations and the warmth or coolness of respective hues can cause noticeable differences in our perception of color.

Temperature

The relative warmth or coolness of a color Typically warm colors: red, orange, yellow* Typically cool colors: green, blue, purple* *Any color can have any temperature

Asymmetrical balance

The two sides are not identical. However, the elements are arranged so that there is a sense of balance.

Movement

The way the eye moves across the piece. The visual appearance of the way the piece "flows" this is a shitty definition i apologize

Content

The work's essence of basis of what is being depicted

Psychic lines

This type of line is another "imaginary" line that differs slightly from implied line in that psychic lines are generally used to create eye direction form one element to the next. A great example of this in web is a photo of a person looking in a particular direction, or a series of arrows.

Gradation

Transition from one thing to another Examples: from high to low value, from one color to another, from saturated to dull, etc

There can be a cool red and a warm blue.

True

Translucency illusion

Using a three-quarter mixture to create the effect that one element is on top of another but that they are translucent and visible through the top element think of the project

Contrast

Visual edges created by the differing of values, hues, etc

Texture(s)

Visual texture, actual texture

Bezold effect

When a colors hue is affected by those around it. Particularly when a light hue and a dark hue are made into a design with the background alternating between dark and light hues which dramatically changes the appearance of the design. think of the project

Local Value

When working in black and white, an artist has to consider the lightness or darkness of the color tone of the object they are drawing

One way to create a tone:

achromatic gray + color

Mixing color by way of light is called

additive

Color schemes (4)

an arrangement or combination of colors, especially as used in interior decoration.

Several hues right night to each other on the color wheel create the color scheme called

analogous

The result of mixing all the subtractive colors theoretically is

black

The primary hues in the subtractive system are

blue, red, yellow

One other way to create a tone:

chromatic gray + color

The color scheme which employs two hues directly opposite on the color wheel, and their tints, tones and shades:

complementary

A middle mixture is a color which is visually _______ or between two parent colors

equi or equal distant

The secondary hues in a traditional 12-hue color wheel are:

green, orange and violet

The name or "base root" of the color is the property called

hue

The color scheme which employs one hue and its tints, tones, shades

monochromatic

The complement of blue is

orange

The primary hues in the additive system are

red, green, blue

The purity of the color is the property called

saturation

A hue plus black makes a

shade

Mixing color by way of pigments is called

subtractive

A hue plus white makes a

tint

Relative light and dark of color is a property called

value

The result of mixing all the additive colors is

white