COLOR THEORY

Arts and visual education1º ESO

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The colors we use for painting are called “pigment colors”

The pigments are natural or synthetic powders that change the color of the light they reflect by wavelenght-selective absortion.Paint is made out of pigments.

When working with pigments, the primary

colors are:

MAGENTA REDCYAN BLUE

CADMIUM YELLOW

PRIMARY COLORS are the ones that can’t be generated by mixing other colors. They

can be mixed to make all colors.

SECONDARY COLORS are created by mixing the primaries in equal parts.

Yellow + cyan =

GREEN

Cyan + magenta=

PURPLE

Yellow + magenta =

ORANGE

TERTIARY COLORS are created by mixing a secondary color with a primary color.

Yellow + green =YELLOWISH GREEN

Green + cyan =BLUEISH GREEN

Yellow + orange =YELLOWISH ORANGE

Magenta + orange =REDDISH ORANGE

Magenta + purple =REDDISH PURPLE

Purple + cyan=BLUEISH PURPLE

The COLOR WHEEL is a figure that represents the relations between the colors.

CADMIUM YELLOW

CYAN BLUE

MAGENTA RED

GREEN

PURPLE

ORANGE

YELLOWISH GREEN

BLUEISH GREEN

BLUEISH PURPLE

REDDISH PURPLE

REDDISH ORANGE

YELLOWISH ORANGE

COMPLEMENTARY COLORS are pairs of colors that are opposite each other in the color wheel.

CADMIUM YELLOW

CYAN BLUE

MAGENTA RED

GREEN

PURPLE

ORANGE

YELLOWISH GREEN

BLUEISH GREEN

BLUEISH PURPLE

REDDISH PURPLE

REDDISH ORANGE

YELLOWISH ORANGE

Complementary colors look their most vibrant when placed next to each other.

Complementary colors cancel each other out and form greyish hues when mixed.

If we divide the color wheel in halves, we can see the WARM and COLD colors.

Cold and warm colors transmit different feelings.

The three main characteristics of color are:• HUE It’s the

family of primaries the color belongs to.

• SATURATION It’s the intensity of vividness of a color.

• VALUE It’s how light or dark a color is in terms of a black and white scale.

Value gradation

The application of this to landscapes…

The application of this to landscapes…