Color Theory Midterm Reviewer PDF

COLOR HARMONIES 1 Rhyne (2016) - “color harmony is the process of choosing colors that work well together in the composition of an image.” - Instead of a hit or miss result, common guidelines or schemes are used to combine hues to create balance in an image. Holtzschue (2017) - Color ha...

COLOR HARMONIES 1 Rhyne (2016) - “color harmony is the process of choosing colors that work well together in the composition of an image.” - Instead of a hit or miss result, common guidelines or schemes are used to combine hues to create balance in an image. Holtzschue (2017) - Color harmony occurs when 2 or more colors are sensed together as a single, pleasing, collective impression. - hue, value, saturation, the spacing of intervals, and completeness are aspects of color composition that when considered can only contribute to a harmonious effect. Josef Albers - What counts here—first and last—is not so- called knowledge, but vision—seeing - emphasize that in color choices, natural inclination is the first factor more than learning or experience. Before anything else, color harmony is about intervals or the logical order and smooth sequences that feels right and comfortable for the brain and the eyes. Moreover, to be a successful colorist, one must think of a goal of what s/he is trying to achieve when combining colors instead of solely thinking about harmonious combinations. THE NEUTRALS - Color harmony is created and applied with the component of the neutrals. -The achromatic range or the neutrals are black, gray, and white. -The prefix “a” means “not” and “chroma” means color in Greek (Bleicher, 2012). -This definition explains that the neutrals are not hues or not colored; they are just about lightness or darkness and do not have a place in the color wheel. - In a hue scale, white is just the lightest value possible while black is the darkest or the absence of all colors. -These neutrals serve an important purpose in color harmony because they are either mixed with hues or paired to them to form different harmonious combinations. TINTS, TONES AND SHADES TINT – addition of white, often seen as pastels. TONE - addition of gray, can range from light to dark SHADE – addition of black, intensity varies depending on the type of black HUE, VALUE AND SATURATION - needed to be understood, to properly communicate color harmony. HUE -COLOR and HUE are generally the same but HUE is MORE SPECIFIC -BRIGHTEST FORM of a color and can be FOUND ON A COLOR WHEEL - outermost part of a color wheel -“historically, the search for color harmony has focused on the relationship between hues and, more specifically, on the link between harmony and complementary colors.” -She elaborated that there is a natural inclination towards complementary colors as this relationship is psychologically satisfying and restful which the eye is comfortable - Holtzschue also has a simple proposition for the menu of harmonious hue combinations: “Any hues used together can be harmonious. This does not mean that any hues used together are harmonious. It means only that there are no inherently bad hue combinations.” Thus, aside from complements, there are other harmonious color schemes such as monochromatic and analogous. VALUE - a hue can be added with black or white whenever needed, to change or adjust its value. According to Holtzschue (2017), traditional color theory has three (3) ideas between value and color harmony: Even intervals of value are harmonious; Middle values are harmonious; and Equal values in different hues are harmonious. - Holtzschue (2017) discusses that “even intervals of any color quality have a natural flow.” Thus, it gives smooth sequence of values for an instant harmony. - For the second idea, it talks about the middle values in a value scale. It is believed that the light and dark ends of a series in a value scale are less pleasing. However, it does not mean that the extreme darks and lights are less harmonious by nature. -Middle values are just preferred because “they are easier to discriminate” (Holtzschue, 2017). -For the third idea, equal or close values are harmonious in two (2) aspects: first, “different hues of close value can be pleasing when they are used together against a value-contrasting ground and second, “different hues of close value create elegant harmonies without a contrasting ground when no image is intended.” -The first aspect creates spatial effect where colors seem to float making warm colors to forward while the second can create surfaces without forming an image or pattern. SATURATION -“intensity and purity of the given hue” or “the brightness or dullness of a color” (Bleicher, 2012). -As added by Bleicher, brighter and intense color denote purer saturation of hues while desaturated hues appear more gray, drab, and dingy. - Brilliant colors are bright, intense, and stimulating while muted colors are restful and can get extremely dull. The combination of these two (2) can create depth due to its spatial effect.  - it is more pleasing to have a constant overall level of saturation because “when a general level of saturation is in place any atypical element is disruptive. A “pure color inserted into a muted palette will pop forward” while “a spot of muted color in a composition of clear colors is a blot in the clean brightness around it.” COLOR HARMONIES 2 COLOR WHEEL - useful in illustrating color relationships because of its concept, format, and the specific placement of each of its hue. - “color wheels must always have an even number of hues and that number must be divisible by three. Any other combination would not be a true and accurate color wheel.” (Bleicher, 2012) 4 STEPS IN CONSTUCTING COLOR WHEEL BY RHYNE 1. Define the color model and place the resulting primaries equidistantly on the wheel; 2. Determine the resulting secondary colors that are mixtures of the primary colors and place the secondary colors equidistantly between the primaries on the wheel; 3. Establish the tertiary colors that are mixtures of primary and secondary hues and place the tertiary colors equidistantly between the primary and secondary colors; and 4. Refine the color wheel with additional equidistant divisions and neutral colors if desired. RGB DISPLAY COLOR MODEL STEPS CMYK PRINTER COLOR MODEL RYB PAINTERS COLOR MODEL RGB/CMYK AND RYB COMPARISON - RYB differs in the hues from either the RGB or CMYK. COLOR TEMPERATURE - two (2) groups: warm and cool colors. - “warm colors tend to advance and expand in space. Cool colors tend to recede and contract in space.” (Rhyne, 2016) COLOR HARMONIES 3 DIFFERENT TYPES OF COLOR HARMONIES 1. MONOCHROMATIC HARMONY - mono means one 2. ANALOGOUS HARMONY - three (3) colors directly placed next to each other 3. COMPLEMENTARY HARMONY - two (2) hues directly opposite or are across from each other 4. SPLIT COMPLEMENTARY HARMONY - form a Y shape 5. ANALOGOUS COMPLEMENTARY HARMONY - a key color with its direct complement and the two (2) colors beside this direct complement. 6. DOUBLE COMPLEMENTARY HARMONY - two (2) hues next to each other and their two (2) respective complements. 7. TETRAD HARMONY - can be a rectangular tetrad or a square tetrad harmony. 8. DIAD HARMONY - two (2) hues that are two (2) steps apart. 9. TRIAD HARMONY - “includes three (3) colors that are equally spaced from each other on the color wheel. The equal spacing creates an equilateral triangle on the wheel” (Rhyne, 2016).