Color Theory Penn Foster

How are we able to perceive color?

Our retinas are lined with cone-shaped receptor cells that communicate with the brain to perceive color. Each cone is sensitive to a specific wavelength of color.

What are wavelengths measured in?

Nanometers

Visible Light Spectrum

The range of colors visible to humans.

Color exists only in the __________.

Brain

Additive Color Theory

Explains color in light.

Subtractive Color Theory

Explains how color is seen when light is reflected.

What are the three primary colors of light?

Red, Green, and Blue. (RGB)

What are the secondary colors of light?

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow. (CMY)

When you overlap two beams of colored light, the result is always ______________.

Brighter.

What are the primary colors of the subtractive color theory?

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow. (CMY)

What are the secondary colors of the subtractive color theory?

Red, Green, Blue. (RGB)

Mixing pigment colors creates a result that is ____________________.

Darker.

Color Translation

A term used to describe the difference between a color on a computer screen and the same color printed on paper. They will never match.

What is RGB used for?

RGB is used for on-screen viewing (PDF, website).

What is CMYK used for?

Printings.

Who was Claude Monet?

A painter who showed the effects of changing light on an object by painting a series of paintings of the Rouen Cathedral in different degrees of sunlight.

Reduced Spectrum Lighting

Another term for artificial lighting because it lacks some frequencies found in natural light.

Do incandescent bulbs favor warm or cool colors?

Warm colors.

Do fluorescent bulbs favor warm or cool colors?

Cool colors.

Color Constancy

Seeing colors as we expect them to look, despite what they actually look like.

What are the three distinct attributes of color?

Hue, Value, and Saturation.

Hue

The spectrum name of a color. (Red, Orange, Green, etc.)

What is the correct primary triad? Why?

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow. They cannot be created through mixing other colors. Create the broadest range of tones.

Color mixing in printing is a _____________________.

Layering process.

Color temperature

The warmth or coolness of a color. Temperature is an aspect of a color's hue.

Value

The amount of light a color reflects apart from it's hue. Connected to luminosity.

Luminosity

The relative lightness or darkness of a color.

Out of the pure colors, which color is the most luminous and which is the least?

Yellow is the most and violet is the least.

Value Continuum

A graphic representation that suggests the infinite grays that exist between black and white.

Grayscale

A simplified version of the Value Continuum that condenses down the infinite variations to 10 or 11 equal steps.

Saturation

The relative purity of a color. The more a color represents the clear colors present in a prism or rainbow, the purer it is.

Saturation Continuum

A graphic representation of the infinite gradations of saturation that exist between any two complementary colors.

Prismatic Color

Pure hues that represent the spectrum colors at highest saturation.

Muted Colors

Colors that can be characterized as softer than prismatic colors, but they still display a clear sense of hue identity. These colors will often appear dull or as if they are in shade.

Chromatic Grays

Subtle colors that result from considerably lowering the saturation level of prismatic colors. Chromatic grays weakly exhibit the distinguishing quality of the hue family to which they belong.

Achromatic

Without color. (Black, white)

Lead whites

Whites that give off a warm tone.

Zinc whites

Whites that give off a cool tone.

Jet-black

A cool black with a blueish cast to it.

Ivory black

A warm, brownish, black.

What does the term broad mean when it is used to describe a group of colors?

Broad means that a group of colors has a variety of values that span from dark to light.

What does the term narrow mean when it is used to describe a group of colors?

Narrow means that all the colors in the group are within two value steps of each other. The values of all the colors are very close to each other.

How can you alter the hue, value, or/and saturation of a color?

By color mixing or changing the color context.

Color Wheel

A simplified graphic representation of the hue continuum that is used to show color relationships.

What are the two most common color wheels?

RGB (red, green, blue) and CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow)

What are the primary and secondary colors of the RYB color wheel?

Primary colors are red, yellow, blue. Secondary colors are green, orange, and violet.

Tertiary Colors

Colors between the primary and secondary colors.

What do complimentary colors do?

They energize and temper each other.

When two complimentary colors are mixed, ____________________________________________________________.

The result will gradually become darker and duller as the colors amounts become more equal.

Gamut

Any range of observable color.

Colors appear more ___________________ on a computer screen than they do printed.

vivid

The best paints for color studies are?

Fast-drying, water-based paints that dry to a matte finish.

Gouache

A paint similar to watercolor that is extremely opaque and produces lucid, flat tones.

Acrylic Gouache

A paint that combines the best qualities of gouache and acrylic.

Why is acrylic not sufficient for color studies?

It is too translucent.

Co-primaries

Co-primaries expand the primary triad of red, yellow, and blue into three pairs that include warm and cool versions of each primary color. The use of co-primaries greatly extends the potential range of color achieved through their intermixture.

Overtone

A color's implied secondary hue.

Chromatic Darks

Dark chromatic grays that have discernible temperature and hue. Can be used alone or mixed with other colors for darkening or dulling.

What colors should be mixed with warm chromatic darks? What colors should be mixed with cool chromatic darks?

Warm chromatic darks should be mixed with warm colors and cool chromatic darks should be mixed with cool colors.

Achromatic Dark

A dark color with no discernible temperature.

Mass Tone

The color we see when a color is applied as an opaque film.

Undertone

The color you see when a color's consistency is diluted with the addition of white or scraped away.

The hues of very dark colors are more easily seen in their ______________?

Undertones

Tinting strength

Refers to the ability of one pigment to affect another when mixed together.

Do darker colors or lighter colors have a stronger tinting strength?

Darker colors.

A prismatic color's value and saturation can be adjusted by mixing it with .....?

white, a chromatic dark, or it's complimentary color.

Tint

Adding white to a color

Shade

Adding black to a color

You make chromatic grays and muted colors the same way. The only difference is the amount of ________________ you add to the mixture.

White or contrast color. More for chromatic grays, less for muted colors.

Color scheme

Any fixed set of hues to create a specific response.

What are the most common kind of color schemes?

Monochromatic, Analogous, Complementary, and Triadic.

Monochromatic

A color scheme limited to variations of one hue.

Analogous

A color scheme made up of colors that lay next to each other on the color wheel. Typically consists of three colors.

Complementary

A color scheme of colors that lay opposite each other on the color wheel.

Triadic

A color scheme involving three equally spaced colors on the color wheel.

Afterimage

An aspect of vision that causes a halo effect that appears to surround shapes. Present whenever two colors meet each other on a flat surface.

Successive Contrast

The name for the visual phenomenon that creates complementary afterimages of a color after gazing at it for a brief but sustained period of time.

Simultaneous Contrast

When a dark and light color meet each other on a flat surface and a dark line appears on the light side and a light line appears on the dark side.

The background color ___________________________________________________________.

draws out the color it shares with the super imposed smaller color.

Josef Albers

The most influential color educator of the second half of the twentieth century.

Afterimages can __________________________________________.

Animate a design.

Color shapes can be separated from each other by

surrounding them with achromatic white, black, or grey. Prevent them from interacting.

Black holds colors ____________________________________.

within themselves.

Luminosity

The amount of light absorbed or reflected from a colors surface.

Inherent light

The light that seems to glow from within a color

Harmony

A state of concordance. All parts are in sympathy with each other.

Color relationships work when they

match the purpose they are supposed to serve.

Unity suggests _________________________.

tranquility and agreement.

Disunity among colors can evoke?

tension.

Bridge Tones

Contain contributes of two colors that help bridge the contrast between the two.

What are the two methods of generating cohesion through color mixing?

Limited source colors and common admixture.

What is the overall quality of light emitted by each intermixed dot inventory?

Distinct.

How is temperature bias expressed in every tone derived through intermixing?

By favoring some hues over others.

How can cohesion be created among a group of diverse colors?

By altering each color with an 'outside' color.

What type of colors work well as unifying admixtures?

Earth tones, particularly umbers.

What is affected by the amount of admixture?

Value and saturation of the resulting color.

What do color schemes limit and allow?

Limit hue choice and allow any tones that belong to the scheme.

How do intermixing strategies create unity?

By adding the same color to two colors, the colors will become more alike in hue, value, and saturation.

What is tonal progression?

A series of tones shifting gradually in controlled steps.

What is tonal gradation?

Smoothly occurring tonal transition without seams or joints.