COLOR

COLOR

R

O

Y

G

B

V

informal definitionsHUE – a particular gradation of color. It is another word for color.

PRIMARY & secondary

RED

BLUE

YELLOW

PURPLE

GREEN

ORANGE

Primary: Red, Yellow, Blue. All Colors come from these three

colors. Plus black and white.

Secondary: These colors are made by mixing two primary

colors.

COLOR WHEEL

HUE

R o y G B (i)V

• Red• Orange• Yellow• Green • Blue• ( Indigo- which is an unseen color in the

spectrum. It is a type of Blue-Violet)• Violet ( purple)

R

O

Y

G

B

V

Paul Cézanne, Still Life with Green Melon, 1902-06 BW

Paul Cézanne, Still Life with Green Melon, 1902-06 CO

Monochromatic

- using only one color

Picasso, Guernica, 1937

Mark Tansey, The Bricoleur’s Daughter, 1987

Gunther GerzsoSouthern

MichaelangeloSistene Chapeldetail (medallion)

Monochromatic medallion

Barnett Newman, Yellow Painting, 1949

Gunther GerzsoOpposite

Mark Rothko, untitled, 1968

Complementary Colors

opposites on the color wheel

When Complementary colors are mixed together they make brown.

unsettling, hard to look at, but they go together

Church, Frederic EdwinRainy Season in the Tropics1866, Oil on canvas, 56 1/4 x 84 3/16 in. The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Robert Delaunay, Circular Forms, c. 1912

Gunther GerzsoPersonaje

Barnett Newman, Dionysius, 1944, 67x49in.

Complementary colors

Analagous colors

Matisse,Seated Riffian,

1912-13

Complementary colors

Analagous colors

Monet, Impression: Sunrise, 1872

Analogous Colors

• neighbors on the color wheel

Van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1888

BUT WHAT ABOUT BLACK AND WHITE?

• Black makes a color darker- a shade

• White makes a color lighter- a tint

• Black and White are Non colors- they modify a color.

• Black and White can create value in colors.

• Black and white make gray so mixing both with a color will gray down a color.

Where does color come from?

• A ray of light is the source of all color.

• Without light, color does not exist.

• Light is broken down into colors of the spectrum. You can often see a variety of colors in a bright beam when you look at something like a rainbow.

Pigments

• Pigments are substances that can be ground into fine powder and used for adding color to dyes and paints.

• Pigments were originally derives from animal, mineral, and vegetable sources.

• Examples:– Purple from shellfish– Red dye from the dried bodies of

scale insects

• To create our own color wheel, we will be mixing different pigments together to create all the colors in the color wheel.

History of Color

• Colors are often symbolic.

• Let’s talk about what role color has played in different times in history.

In China…

• Yellow has religious significance and is still the Imperial color today!

In Greece and Rome…

• Red was believed to have protective powers.

• Purple was restricted to use by nobility.

The Egyptians

• Adorned walls of tombs and temples with brilliant colors of blue, tangerine, and green.

In the Italian Renaissance…

• Colors were vibrant reds, greens, golds and blues.

In the Rococo period…

• Tastes became very feminine, colors became less vibrant.

In 18th Century England…

• There was great elegance. Colors were rich, showing a strong Chinese influence in the use of red and gold.

VALUE

TINT – adding white to a hue, or a hue to white

SHADE – adding black to a hue or vice versa

A shade

• Color plus black

• Clue: It’s darker in the shade- we shade with a pencil to put in the darker parts on a white paper.

• Navy blue is a shade of blue

• Maroon is a shade of ___

A Tint

• Color plus white

• Pink is a tint of red

• Lavender is a tint of violet

And what about brown?

• Various browns are made by mixing all three primary colors together. Red, Blue and Yellow make brown. Mixing complements together will also work because you are basically mixing all three primaries with those two colors. Orange (R,Y) mixed with Blue will make a brown. Black and white can modify your browns to make them lighter or darker.

Robert Delaunay, Circular Forms, c. 1912

a very aware use of contrasts of complementary & analogous colors AND shades and tints

Franz Marc, Fighting Forms

SATURATION – brilliance or depth of color

LUMINENCE

LUMINENCE

LUMINENCE

LUMINENCE

Monet, Impression: Sunrise, 1872

Monet, Impression: Sunrise, 1872

Ellsworth KellyRed, Yellow, Blue I, 1963a/c, 3 joined panels, 90" x 90" overall

Ellsworth KellyRed, Yellow, Blue I, 1963a/c, 3 joined panels, 90" x 90" overall

Raphael, Madonna dell Granduca, c.1505

33x22in

Raphael, Madonna dell Granduca, c.1505

33x22in

Triadic Color Schemes

NOT JUST ANY 3 COLORS

Raphael, School of Athens, 1511

Ellsworth KellyRed, Yellow, Blue I, 1963a/c, 3 joined panels, 90" x 90" overall

Raphael, Madonna dell Granduca, c.1505

33x22in

Also note countershading

COLOR CONCLUSION• Color can be an important part of an artwork’s impact – notice it!

• Color can be optimized & analyzed for greatest effect

• Timbre in music is considered to be analogous to color in painting; some kinds of harmony and scales are also considered to be analogous to color in painting. They are DIFFERENT – try not to confuse them.

Color Wheel Project

Color Wheel Project

Students will design a Color wheelCriteriaStudents will use an original designStudents will use the original color, 2 shades and 2 tintsThe color wheel will be put in the correct orderThe each color on the color wheel will show its complementary color.

Examples