COLOUR

COLOUR is one of the most important and appealing picture elements: it is seen everywhere, and can give pleasure and

liveliness, atmosphere and expression!

There would be no COLOUR if we were to live in a world without LIGHT. Look at what will happen when purewhite light comes in through a prism:

When (white) light falls through a prism, the light will break up and ‘fall apart’: we can see every colour of the rainbow.

This process can also be reversed: this is one of the reasons why we think of WHITE (or BLACK) as being no colour at all!

COLOURS often have MEANING:

The colour BLUE has a cool atmosphere: an experiment pointed this out, using a person entering a blue room first, and

then a room that had been painted red. The temperature in both rooms was exactly the same. After some time, people got

more chilly in the blue room, but felt a bit hot and sweaty in the room that was completely red!

This shows that COLOUR can do something to you (or to your mind)!

The German painter and artist, Johannes Itten, came up with a system in which every colour has it’s own place and function:

the COLOUR WHEEL.

In this COLOUR WHEEL there are twelve different (colour) segments, but they are all made up out of three basic colours: RED, YELLOW and BLUE. Itten named these colours ‘PRIMARY

COLOURS’.

(With these three colours, you can make almost any colour you like).

Mixing two PRIMARY COLOURS will give you another colour: a second- or SECONDARY COLOUR

SECONDARY

COLOUR

SECO

NDAR

Y CO

LOUR

SECONDARY COLOUR

It is very rare for colours to be ‘on their own’: they usually come in pairs, and mostly you will see a lot of them together, at the

same time. That is why it is important to know that colours can influence one another (they react to one another):

In order for you to experience how a colour ‘works’, you will need to see it next to another colour!

It is time to talk about: COLOURCONTRASTS

There are at least 7 different colour contrasts, but for now, we will only be looking at the three most important ones.

They are:

1) HOT and COLD contrast2) COLOUR –TO- COLOUR contrast

3) COMPLEMENTARY contrast

Each and every one of us experiences COLOUR in a different way…one of the most famous ‘colour

experiences’ is the colour TURQUOISE:

Some people think of this colour as being related to BLUE (whereas others think of it to

be a shade of GREEN)!

…but most of the time we all agree on the atmosphere of very clear and contrary colours.

In this picture by Dutch artist Piet Mondriaan, you can clearly see him having made good use of the HOT and COLD

CONTRAST

‘The red tree’ -1908 (Piet Mondriaan)

Another contrast is the COLOUR –TO- COLOUR CONTRAST: this contrast gives a picture a very lively and cheerful

atmosphere!

“One Thousand and One Nights” (Henri Matisse)

One of the most powerful colour contrasts however, is the COMPLEMENTARY CONTRAST. This is when we look at two colours on

opposite sides of the colour wheel

COMPLEMENTARY means ‘reinforcing’ or ‘helping’:.There are three pairs of complementary colours:

1) YELLOW-PURPLE2) RED-GREEN3) BLUE-ORANGE

In nature you can very often experience this specific contrast:

This is how the COMPLEMENTARY CONTRAST works: RED becomes even more RED when placed opposite to GREEN (the

colour becoming ‘less red’ when placed opposite to blue, or any other colour)

In shops and supermarkets we can sometimes experience the same effect. Just look at the meat (left) or look at the way the

photographer uses colour in this citrus fruit advert!

…and why do you think there is a blue fish next to a Clown fish in ‘Finding Nemo’ ?

COMPLEMENTARY CONTRAST is used to great effect in more ‘serious’ works of art:

‘The red room’ – (Henri Matisse)

Can you name some COLOUR CONTRASTS in this painting?

‘Swimming pool’ – David Hockney

There are only SATURATED COLOURS in the Colour wheel. SATURATED COLOURS are colours in their most pure and

bright form. If you were to mix these colours with either WHITE or BLACK,

then their colour-brightness would diminish… the ‘pureness’ of the colour has gone and the colours are now UNSATURATED.

SATURATED COLOURS UNSATURATED COLOURS(you could almost say

‘Pastel shades’)

GLOSSARY

-COLOUR WHEEL (kleurencirkel)-PRIMARY COLOURS (primaire kleuren)-SECONDARY COLOURS (secundaire kleuren)-COLOUR CONTRAST (kleurcontrast)-CONTRARY COLOURS (tegengestelde kleuren)-HOT-AND-COLD CONTRAST (warm/koud contrast)-COLOUR-TO-COLOUR CONTRAST (kleur tegen kleur contrast)-COMPLEMENTARY CONTRAST (complementair kleurcontrast)-SATURATED COLOUR (verzadigde kleur)-UNSATURATED COLOUR (onverzadigde kleur)-PASTEL (SHADE) (pastelkleur)