Lecture 2 - Color Wheels

color wheel

The _____ is our tool for understanding which colors go with what.

light

Wherever there is ____, there is color

color wheel

The _____ is our tool for understanding how colors relate to one another.

visible light

The color wheel is the range of _____ made into a circle.

White light

____ contains all visible colors, which form an infinite spectrum that always appears in the violet-to-red sequence you see in a rainbow

12

To make it practical, the color wheel represents this infinity with ____ basic hues pretty much like those in your first box of crayons

Primary colors, thirds

_____ are the wheel’s “parent” colors; they are the only colors not made from other colors. The primary colors are positioned around the wheel in _____.

Secondary colors

_____ are halfway between the primary colors. Each is made from equal amounts of the nearest primaries

Tertiary colors

_____ are halfway between the secondary colors. Each is made from equal amounts of the adjacent secondaries

Green, violet

Blue is common to all seven colors, which get less blue as they fan out. ____ and ____ are the secondaries that contain blue

Green, orange

Yellow is common to all seven colors, which get less yellow as they fan out. ____ and _____ are the secondaries that contain yellow

Orange, violet

Red is common to all seven colors, which get less red as they fan out. _____ and ____ are the secondaries that contain red.

value

Color also has darkness and lightness, or _____. To show _____, the color wheel has more rings; two big rings for the dark shades and two small rings for the light tints

black, white

A shade is the hue plus ____, and a tint is the hue plus ____.

Infinite gradient

Five steps represent what is actually a continuous gradient from white to black. A tint or shade can fall anywhere on the continuum

monochromatic

First are the dark, medium and light values of a single color. This is a _____ palette. It has no color depth, but it provides the contrast of dark, medium and light that’s so important to good design

Analogous

Adjacent colors are called _____. _____colors share strong undertones (here, yellow and red), which create pleasing, low-contrast harmony. _____ palettes are rich and always easy to work with

complements, contrast

Direct opposites on the color wheel are _____—in this case, blue and orange. What the complement brings is ____. A color and its complement convey energy, vigor and excite- ment. Typically, the complement is used in a smaller amount as an accent; a spot of orange on a blue field, for example

split complement

One step either way are the complement’s own analogous colors. This palette is called a _____. Its strength is in the low-contrast beauty of analogous colors, plus the added punctuation of an opposite color. In this case the red, because it’s most different, would likely be used as the accent.

primary, Red and yellow, Red and blue

The _____ colors are rarely seen as a trio except in children’s products. _____, however, are popular in American culture for everything from fast food to gasoline. _____ are common but attractive only if separated by open space

Secondary colors

______ have a lot in common—two share blue, two share yellow, and two share red—so harmonize easily. As a trio they are soft, inviting and rich, and have pleasing depth and dimension that are hard to get in other ways.