MMA 131: Color Theory and Relationships

Color Theory

• Color contrasts and interactions are essential in design, art, and visual communication.
• Understanding color relationships helps create effective designs and applications.

Color Contrasts

• Hue Contrasts:
  • Primary colors have the strongest contrasts.
  • Tertiary colors have the weakest contrasts.
  • Examples of hue contrasts can be seen in indigenous art, folk art, modern art, and design.
• Light-Dark Contrast:
  • Colors appear lighter on a dark background and darker on a lighter one.
  • Contrasts between color values are often observed in monochromatic works.
  • Example: Picasso's Blue Period paintings.
• Contrasts in Saturation:
  • Pure colors produce high visual contrast.
  • Adding gray to a hue decreases its saturation.
  • Color has intrinsic value, and different colors have different values when converted to grayscale.
• Warm and Cool Contrast:
  • Red to yellow colors are often labeled as warm, while green to blue are cool.
  • Colors that are next to each other have the weakest contrast.
  • Cooler colors are commonly used to paint shadows.
• Complementary Contrast:
  • Pairs of colors that are sitting opposite of each other in the color wheel.
  • When combined, they create neutral gray or brown.
  • Three primaries or a primary + a secondary produce a neutral gray.
• Simultaneous Contrast:
  • A color can look brighter or duller depending on the background or context it is in.
  • The viewer's eyes are fooled that the colors of the inner squares are not the same.
• Extension:
  • Deals with the relative proportion of areas of color in order to create balance.
  • Balancing of colors' visual weight by adjusting their amounts.

Color Perception and Interaction

• The Interaction of Colors:
  • Colors are in a continuous state of flux and can only be understood in relation to the other colors that surround them.
  • To Albers, color is "the most relative medium in art."
  • How people see color is highly subjective and varies dramatically between individuals.
• Principles of Color Interaction:
  • Simultaneous Contrast
  • Light-Dark
  • Color Complement Contrast
  • Subtraction
  • Color Constancy
• Important Terms:
  • Factual and Perceived Colors
  • Halation
  • Color Constancy

Color and Light

• Atmospheric/Aerial Perspective:
  • The effect the atmosphere has on the appearance of objects when looked at from a distance.
  • Objects further in the distance tend to decrease in contrast and saturation, and shift to cooler colors.
• Backlighting:
  • Positioning the main light source for a photograph behind the primary subject.
  • Used to create dramatic lighting, powerful, moody, simplified, or emotional.
• Film Noir:
  • A film genre that uses low-key lighting and chiaroscuro lighting techniques.
  • Emphasis on lights and shadows, stylized, emotional, and melancholic.
• Flat Lighting:
  • Created by using even lighting conditions, losing any casted shadows that may give depth to an image.
  • Flat lighting can make a scene feel melancholic, sad, or somber.
• Natural Lighting:
  • Uses the sun as a source of light.
  • Available light from the sun varies with the time of day.
• Golden Hour:
  • A period shortly after sunrise and shortly before sunset noted for its warm light.
  • Soft and warm lighting blurs imperfections in portraits and can help tap into emotions like nostalgia and happiness.
• Reveal Lighting:
  • Uses overcast lighting to create soft shadows and lights, giving it a dulled-out, somber feel.
• Spot Lighting:
  • Focuses all of the light in a scene in one area/spot or from a single light source.
  • Creates a dramatic effect since it employs chiaroscuro.
• Underlighting:
  • Lighting a subject below their face, grabbing the viewer's attention because strong lighting does not usually come from below.
  • Commonly used to suggest a magical, sinister, or dramatic feeling.
• Mood Lighting:
  • Creative use of color and light to set the mood or target emotion in a setting.

Basic Color Harmonies

• Achromatic:
  • A colorless scheme using black, gray, and white only (values).
• Monochromatic:
  • A color harmony that uses tint, tone, and/or shade of just one hue.
• Analogous:
  • A color harmony that uses two to four colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel.
• Complementary:
  • A color harmony that uses two colors that sit directly opposite each other on the color wheel.
• Split Complementary:
  • A color harmony that uses any color with the two colors either side of its complement.
• Triadic:
  • A color harmony that uses any three colors that are equally spaced from each other on the color wheel.
• Tetradic:
  • A color harmony that uses any four colors that intersect as corners of a quadrilateral on the color wheel.
• Square:
  • A color harmony that uses any four colors that are equally spaced from each other on the color wheel.

Other Color Harmonies

• Color Discordance:
  • Deliberately breaks from conventional color harmony schemes.
  • In visual media, it is often used to refocus viewer attention to a specific person, place, or thing.
• Vibrating Colors:
  • Bright colors can cause an afterimage effect where the afterimages interfere with one another, causing a "visual vibration" or motion.

This quiz covers the basics of color theory, including color contrasts and interactions, and their applications in design. It explores the concepts of hue, indigenous art, and modern art.