ColourEVIP 3rd ESO

Colour is...A quality we can find in

any object.

Something that helps us understand what we are looking at.

Colour gives us additional information about the object we are looking at.

Colour as physic and visual phenomena

There are 3 factors that allow us to perceive colours:

1.Sight

2.Light

3.Objects’ Chemical properties

Colour TheorySir Isaac Newton was one of the first scientists to

investigate colour theory. Around 1671-72 he discovered the origin of colour when he shone a beam of light through an angular prism and split it into the spectrum - the various colors of the rainbow.

This simple experiment demonstrates that colour comes from light - in fact, that color is light. Scientists investigate the properties of

color theory whereas artists explore its visual effects.

SIR ISAAC NEWTON (1643-1727)The refraction of light through a glass prism.

Colour Terms

Additive colours involve the mixing of coloured light.

The colours of a TV screen are a good example of this.

Additive primary colours are red, green and blue.

Additive secondary colours are magenta, cyan and yellow.

Colour Terms

Subtractive colours involve the mixing of coloured paints, pigments, inks and dyes.

The traditional subtractive primary colours are: magenta, cyan blue and yellow.

Subtractive secondary colours are: red, blue and green.

The Spectrum

The spectrum is the colours of the rainbow arranged in their natural order: Red - Orange - Yellow - Green - Blue - Indigo - Violet.

Colour Qualities: hues

Hue is one of the main properties of any colour.

It is the name of every colour.

Usually, colours with the same hue are distinguished with adjectives referring to their brightness or darkness: “light blue”, “pastel blue”, “dark blue”...

Colour Qualities: Hues

Hues have a circular order as illustrated in the color wheel above. The color wheel is a useful device to help us explain the relationships between Primary, Secondary and Tertiary colors.

Primary Colours

Red, Yellow and Blue are primary colours. These are the three basic colours that are used to mix all hues.

Secondary Colours

Orange, Green and Purple are secondary colours.

They are achieved by mixing two primary colours. together.

Tertiary Colours

Tertiary coulors are more subtle hues which are achieved by mixing a primary and a secondary colour that are adjacent on the color wheel.

Analogous colours

Analogous colours are placed next to one another on the color wheel. These colors are in harmony with one another.

Opposite and complementary colours

Opposite colours are diagonally opposite one another on the color wheel. Opposite colours create the maximum contrast with one another. You can work out the opposite colour to any primary colour by taking the other two primaries and mixing them together. The result will be its opposite or complementary color.

Colour tints and shades

A tint describes a colour that is mixed with white.

A shade describes a colour that is mixed with black.

Colour Qualities: Value

When we describe a colour as light or dark, we are discussing its value or brightness.

This property of colour tells us how light or dark a colour is based on how close it is to white.

Using values, we can find magenta colour as very light magenta, light magenta, dark magenta or very dark magenta.

Colour Qualities: Saturation

Colour saturation is used to describe the intensity of the colour in an image.

It defines a range from pure colour (100%) to grey (0%).

A pure colour is fully saturated. It means that its mixture contains only a unique colour.

The purest colours are the subtractive primary colours (yellow, magenta and cyan blue). Secondary colours (green, red and blue) are less saturated because they contain two colours in their mixture.

Colour temperature

• Colours are often associated with moods.

• Certain colours look cold, such as blue, green or violet. They are called Cool or Cold Colours.

• Other colours look warm, like red, orange and yellow. They are called Warm Colours.

Colour Temperature

Warm and intense colours appear to advance towards the viewer.

Cold and dull colours appear to reced.

Colour Harmony

It is the balanced relationship between two or more colours.

Colours which are close in the colour wheel create Colour Harmony.

Claude Monet, Water lillies

Colour Contrast

It is the optical effect produced by two complementary or opposite colours.

We can also create contrast using light and dark colours.

Van Gogh, Sunflowers

Itten’s Colour Wheel

Johannes Itten (1888-1967) was a Swiss painter and teacher who studied the Colour Theory.

He drew a colour wheel which included primary, secondary and tertiary colours, and also value and brightness scales

Hickethier’s Colour Cube

Alfred Hickethier (1903-1967) was a German painter who classified colour hues using a numeric system. It allowed the identification of any hue.

He also built a cube which contained 96 hues.

Activities

1. Hickethier’s cubeWe are going to build and colour a simple Hickethier’s cube using a template.