COLOR THEORY

Organization of color and Color Schemes

COLOR THEORYWhat are color schemes?

Use of the phrase color scheme commonly refers to the choice and use of colors used outside typical aesthetic media and context, although may still be used for aesthetic effect as well as for purely practical

reasons.

The two most basic color schemes…

The two more basic color schemes…

• Cool colors…

• Warm colors…

Analogous colors are three to five colors next to each other on the color wheel.

Complimentary colors are opposites on the color wheel.

A split complimentary color scheme would be a color and the one (or two) colors

adjacent to its compliment.

The colors made from mixing primary and secondary colors.

Three colors that are equally spaced from one another on the color wheel.

A series of colors that are all within the same family for example…

red and all its shades, tints and tones and family values, pink, dark red, red-purple, red-orange,

Color Branding – corporate color schemesCertain companies have used colors for so long, that those colors are now associated with those brands.Colors are selected to create a particular feel or association in the mind of the public.

Why color schemes?• Color schemes are chosen for

both message and emotional impact.

• Lightness refers to the value of a color (also known as a tint or shade of a color).

• Red and yellow also make people feel uncomfortable, causing people to leave faster, resulting in higher traffic volume (which means more money).

Color Psychology• In art and anthropology, color symbolism refers

to the use of color as a symbol throughout culture.

• Color psychology refers to investigating the effect of color on human behavior and feeling.

• Color symbolism and color psychology are culturally constructed linkages that vary with time, place, and culture.

• In fact one color may perform very different symbolic or psychological functions at the same place and time for the same culture. – Because of this fact, color psychology in particular remains a

contentious area of study dependent upon a large body of anecdotal evidence but not supported by data from well designed scientific studies.

• All other spectrums (that contain gray), no matter how fancy, break down into this basic system.

The Munsell Color Wheel

By learning to manipulate all these factors, the artist can create a great deal of mood, illusion and atmosphere with nothing else.

This weeks challenge…

Creating depth with value

Creating depth with value

LeonardoDaVinci was one of the first artists…

(the first depending on what art historian you believe)…

to make use of the idea of value to create depth in a landscape.

Da Vinci called this “the perspective of disappearance” (and his explanation was complicated as all get out).

Atmospheric Perspective• As objects get further away, the

atmosphere between us and “them” create the illusion that they are grayer and lighter in value than close objects.

• The concept of “value depth” used in a piece of digital art…

You can also see the use of atmospheric perspective in DaVinci’s

Last Supper.

End lecture 2 (chroma)…