Understanding Color

Chapter 4: The Vocabulary of Color

The three qualities of color are:

•Hue

•Value

•Saturation

YellowGreen

Hue meansthe name of the color.

Red

Blue

In science, the colors of light are calledspectral colors.

Spectral colors can be measured precisely by their different

wavelengths (or frequencies.)

The words “hue” and “color” are oftenused interchangeably.

In everday speech (including our text book), the word “color” is used in two different ways.It can mean:

•the HUE of something, or

•the complete visual experience of the color’s hue, value and saturation together.

The word “hue” should never, however, be used to mean anything other than the

name of a color.

Chroma is a synonym for hue.

Chromatic: having hue

Achromatic: without hue

Polychromatic: having many hues

Monochromatic: having one hue only

It has been theorized that the average person can distinguish about 150 colors of light and every one can be described using

one of two of only six words:

Red

Orange

Yellow

Green

Blue

Violet

A color is called by the name of its most obvious, or dominant,

hue.

YellowYellowYellow

Yellow

Nearly all color samples include more than one hue, but one hue is most apparent and others are present in smaller proportion.

A sample may seem to be pure yellow

until it is placed next to

a different yellow sample.

Suddenly, one yellow is seen

to contain a bit of green, the

other a fraction of orange.

Both are called yellow because

yellow predominates

in each.

Using the word “contains” helps to evaluate colors.

“This yellow contains some orange.”

“This yellow contains some green.”

The artists’ spectrum is a circle

that illustrates

hues in their natural

(spectral) order.

The spectrum of visible light (additive color) is linear and is displayed

according to wavelength.

The artists’ spectrum is also fixed in its order of colors, but it has six hues instead of seven and they are presented as a continuous circle.

The artists’ spectrum is also called the color wheel or color circle.

There are too many hues in the range of human vision to include all of them in one circle...

...so the artists’ spectrum is a sort of visual outline, or synopsis, of all visible hues.

The basic spectrum is made up of six hues: red, yellow, blue, orange, green, and violet

The expanded spectrum includes yellow-orange, red-orange, red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green, and yellow-green.

The artists; spectrum is limited to six or twelve hues only because this is a concise,

easily illustrated figure.

It can be expanded to any number of hues as long as the added colors are inserted at

regular intervals in all hue ranges.

Color wheels come in all types...

But they all recognize the same sequence of colors.

All color circles include the primary hues in some way, and all follow the same color

order.

A chromatic scale is any linear series of hues in spectrum order.

Each step in the progression is a change in hue.

The words “cool” and “warm” are used to describe two opposing qualities of hue.

Warm colors are reds, oranges, yellows, and the steps between them.

Cool colors are blues, greens, violets, and the steps between them.

The primary colors are weighted toward the warm.

Only blue is cool, while both red and yellow are considered warm.

As a result, the entire spectrum is more heavily “warm” than it is “cool.”

Blue is the polar extreme of cool, and orange, made of red and yellow, is the

polar extreme of warm.

Warmth and coolness in colors are not absolute qualities. Any color, even a primary, can appear warmer or cooler

relative to another color.

Warmth and coolness in colors are not absolute qualities. Any color, even a primary, can appear warmer or cooler

relative to another color.

Analogous colors are hues that are adjacent on the artists’ spectrum

They are described in various ways.

For the purposes of this class, analogous colors are simply colors that are next to

each other on the color wheel.

And while it is true that the most harmonious analogous groupings are made up of even intervals of hue...

...all analogous color schemes achieve a sense of harmony.

The text book claims that they never contain all three primary colors.

But when you expand your analogous color schemes to include hues that contain the third primary–as long as the colors are next to each

other–you still achieve a harmonious color scheme.

Remember that analogy is not confined to

pure colors. Colors that have been

diluted in any way can also

be analogous–no matter what their

value or saturation.

Complementary colors are hues that are opposite one another on the artists’

spectrum.

Together, the two are called complements, or a complementary

pair.

The basic complementary pairs of the artists’ spectrum are:

Yellow and violet

Blue and orange

Red and green

In each of these pairs, one half is a primary color and the other half is the secondary that is a mixture of the remaining two primaries.

It is important to note that the three basic complementary pairs are different from each other in how much they contrast with

each other.

Because the complements vary in value, their contrast is more or

less accordingly.

Red and green

Orange and blue

Yellow and violet

Other complemen

tay pairs are less

contrasting because

each color contains

one primary in common

with its opposite.

For instance, red-violet and yellow-green each contain blue.

No matter what the value or saturation of a color, it maintains at all times a complementary relationship with its opposite.

Ignore your book on the subject of tertiary color!

For the purposes of

this class, tertiaries are

colors that are mixed with

their complement.

There are an infinite

amount of colors that

can be produced by

mixing colors with their

complement.

As you can see, many tertiary colors resemble the color we call “brown,” and others approach

the color we call “gray.”

But remember that brown and gray are not hues.

Black, gray and white are achromatic - meaning “without

color.”

Absolute blacks and whites exist only in the medium of light.

In subtractive media, blacks and whites always have some colorant

that gives them a suggestion of hue.

True grays, or mixtures of black and white, are also achromatic.

Subtractive grays are characterized as either warm or cool.

Value refers to the relative light and dark in a color.

Hue is circular and continuous, but value is linear and progressive.

Value exists whether or not hue is present.

The colors of the artists’ spectrum (or color wheel) have different

values.

White is the lightest possible value, and black is the darkest possible value. All other colors

fall somewhere in between.

Only value contrast makes objects distinguishable

from their background.

The degree of contrast between

light and dark areas determines

the strength, or graphic quality, of

an image.

Differences between form and their background may be further emphasized

by contrasts of hue or saturation, but difference in value is the only factor in the

ability to see a distinct edge between colors.

The closer in value an image is to its background, the harder it is to see.

However, high contrast images are not always desirable. Strong contrasts of dark and light induce lateral inhibition, and can

fatigue the eyes.

(The other is that it is longer than it is wide.)

One of the defining characteristics of a line is that it contrasts with the background.

When blocks of color are similar in value, they are difficult to make out...

...but the thinnest of contrasting line between them creates an immediate

separation.

The placement of different values relative to one another within an image give it

individual identity.

In order to transpose an image from one color to another, the number and placement of values within the image must be identical.

Value is also associated with the idea of luminosity. A hue that is luminous reflects

a great deal of light, appears light, and is high in value.

The artists’ spectrum illustrates colors at evenly spaced intervals of hue, but not of evenly

spaced intervals of value.

A tint is a hue that has white added to it.

A shade is a hue that has black added to it.

A tone is a hue that has gray added to it.

This is different than in your text

book.Take notice!!!

A monochromatic value scale is a single hue illustrated as a full range of values in even steps, including

both tints and shades.

Any hue can be illustrated as a full range of tints and shades, from near-white to

near-black.

A chart of seven steps of equal value in different hues illustrates how a single step of value may contain both tints and shades. On a limited chart such as this one, some saturated hues may not appear at all.

It is easy to determine value differences in gray scale but much harder when comparing value in a hue.

It is especially hard when comparing values in two different hues.

Even complements with the highest hue contrast can be made unreadable by manipulating the value.

Saturation (or chroma) refers to the

hue intensity.

A saturated color is a color at its fullest expression of hue. It is a color at

maximum chroma.

Saturation is a comparative term. It describes the contrast between dull and vivid.

Saturation, like value, is linear and progressive.

The beginning of a saturation scale is a color that is hue-intensive. The end step is a color so dull that its hue can not be

identified.

Although they are sometimes mixed up, saturation is a color quality that is distinct

from value.

Shades are already reduced in saturation because they contain black, so it is

instinctive to think of muted colors as dark. But any hue or tint can be reduced in saturation without changing its value.

One way to do this is to mix a hue with a gray of the same value. This is what we

call a “tone.”

When white is mixed with a

hue, it changes saturation.

It also changes value.

When black is mixed with a

hue, it changes saturation.

It also changes value.

When gray is mixed with a

hue, it changes saturation.

But it does NOT change value.

Another way to reduce the saturation of a hue is to add its complement.

+ =

Another way to reduce the saturation of a hue is to add its complement.

There are an infinite number of variations within this type of mixture.

And for the purposes of this class, ALL of these different colors are called tertiary

colors.

Within the tertiary

spectrum, we can recognize

other distinctions.

To help those in color studies indicate the degrees of saturation within a mixture

like this, we use other descriptive terms.

The hues at maximum chroma are called

Prismatic

The next step in saturation are called

Muted

The next step in saturation are called

Chromatic Grays

The least saturated tertiaries are called

Achromatic Grays

Theoretically, they are called achromatic because

there is no discernible hue.

In practice, though, the achromatic gray or the mixture

of any two complements is the middle point where

neither hue dominates.

Keep in mind that this point is subjective and can be different for different individuals.

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The term “theoretical gray” is used in the text book to indicate a concept used by color theorists to

characterize a perfect tertiary color: one of no discernible hue.

In theory, there should be a middle point between all complements that is the same.

But in practice, it does not exist.

For the purposes of this class, theoretical gray is the same thing as achromatic

gray.

Some of the most interesting colors result from mixed complements that have been tinted to raise their value. These are the light neutrals you see in many consumer

goods.

The exuberance of saturated color is easily found in nature, but muted colors are by far

the greatest part of our visual world.

And remember, that it is the CONTRAST between these different qualities of color

that draw our attention to them.

And remember, that it is the CONTRAST between these different qualities of color

that draw our attention to them.