Color Theory MIDTERMS

Aron Sigrid Forsius

Developed a system with five median colors: red, yellow, green, blue, and grey.

Aron Sigrid Forsius

Graded colors from black to white.

Aron Sigrid Forsius

Created the first drawn color system.

Richard Waller

Published a color catalog with a matrix of 21 simple colors.

Richard Waller

Included mixed pigment examples based on combinations of these colors.

Isaac Newton

Used prisms to prove white light is composed of many colors.

Isaac Newton

Developed the first color wheel by connecting violet to red.

Isaac Newton

Introduced the concept of blending colors in a circular model.

Tobias Mayer

Organized color in a triangle using three pure colors: red, yellow, blue.

Tobias Mayer

Filled the triangle with gradients between these points.

Tobias Mayer

Originally proposed 12 steps; later theorists reduced it to 7 distinguishable steps.

Philip Otto Runge

Extended Newton’s ideas into a 3D model: the color sphere.

Philip Otto Runge

Primary colors on the equator, mixed colors between them, with black and white at the poles.

Philip Otto Runge

Aimed to show harmony between colors—revolutionary at the time.

Tint

Adding White

Tone

Adding Gray

Shade

Adding Black

Cochineal insect

The most popular red pigment, a creature that could only be found on prickly-pear cacti in Mexico.

Indian Yellow

A fluorescent paint derived from the urine of mango-fed cows.

Lapis Lazuli

A gemstone that for centuries could only be found in a single mountain range in Afghanistan.

Mangiferin

A natural polyphenol primarily found in mangoes.

Orange

The fruit was called “narang” in Sanskrit, which evolved through Arabic and Old French

Yves Klein

collaborated with a Parisian paint supplier to invent a synthetic version of ultramarine blue, and this color became the French artist's signature.

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Used the experimental watercolor Indian Yellow.

Vincent Van Gogh

Painted Starry Nights and Sunflowers with vivid and joyful hue,

Sgraffito

Scratching off the top layer to reveal the color underneath.

Stippling

Making images using dots or small dabs.

Scumbling

Light, scratchy scribbles to build texture or color depth.