Mary Angeneth A.

Pena
Colors are very essential to your compositions. One may use a
combination or one or more colors. It may be our instinct to choose
color but there is a science behind it, called Color Theory.

Color Theory describes how different colors contribute to each

other and how they appear as they are mixed into other color
schemes.
 03 | SHADES, TINTS,
01 | COLOR THEORY 02 | COLOR WHEEL
AND TONES

04 | HUE, SATURATION, 05 | COLOR

AND VALUE 06 | NEUTRALS
TEMPERATURE

07 | COLOR SCHEME 08 | COLOR PROFILES 09 | HEX CODES

Color theory is defined as practical guidance for
visual artists and designers that helps them come
up with color schemes, mix colors, and define
colors as we see them.
And the main tool used to help artists
understand these relationships is the color wheel
1. Subtractive Theory
• The subtractive, or pigment theory
deals with how white light is
absorbed and reflected off of
colored surfaces.
2. Additive Theory
• The Additive, or light theory deals
with radiated and filtered light.
A color wheel is an illustrative tool used to help us define colors
and their relationships to one another, the first one was invented
in 1666 by Sir Issac Newton and several variations have been
used since then.

There are two main methods of producing color, subtractive or

additive. But why? It all comes back to light and the way our
eyes interpret it to see color.
Many color wheels are shown using 12 colors. Using this color wheel as an example, it can be
read as follows:

Three Primary Colors (Ps): Red,

Yellow, Blue

Three Secondary Colors (S’):

Orange, Green, Violet

Six Tertiary Colors (Ts): Red-

Orange,Yellow-Orange, Yellow-
Green, BlueGreen, Blue-Violet,
Red-Violet, which are formed by
mixing a primary with a secondary
 TONE SHADE
Tones are created by A shade is created by
adding black to a color hue
adding gray to a color.
to darken that color
TINT
The tint of a color is created by
adding white to make a color
variation of that color. For
example, pink is actually a tint
of the color red. Americana
Acrylics has a great variety of
all colors including pinks.
 HUE SATURATION
Refers to pure, vibrant Refers to the intensity of the
colors. color. It ranges from black
and white (or grayscale) to
vibrant color.
VALUE
Refers to the lightness or
darkness of a color. For
example, from light blue
to dark blue.
HUE
Hue or Spectral Color is
represented as an angle.
●Primary Colors:
•0˚ = Red
•120˚ = Green
•240˚ = Blue
●Secondary Colors:
•60˚ = Yellow
•180˚ = Cyan
•300˚ = Magenta
Saturation
● Saturation or Chroma is the
intensity of a color.
● A highly saturated color is
bright and appears closer to
the edge of the wheel.
● A more unsaturated color is
dull.
● A color with no saturation is
achromatic or in the grey
scale.
VALUE
"the quality by which we
distinguish a light color
from a dark one."
- Albert Henry Munsell
A color Notation 1905

Value represents the luminescent

contrast value between black and
white
The color Wheel: Value
The color Wheel: Value
The colors on the red side of the wheel are warm; the green side of the wheel
has the cooler colors. These color temperature designations are absolute. More
subtle color temperature relationships are relative, meaning that each color on
the warm side of the wheel can be known as cool, and colors on the cools side
of the wheel can be known as warm depending on the relationship to their
neighboring color. Colors from the same hue, for instance red, can also be
warmer or cooler than one another.

Color temperatures affect us both psychologically and perceptually by helping

us determine how objects appear positioned.
Psychology of
COLORS
Warm colors include red, orange, and yellow, and
variations of those three colors.
Red and yellow are both primary colors, with orange
falling in the middle.
Warm colors appear closer to the observer.
Cool colors include green, blue, and purple, and
variations of those three colors.
Blue is the only primary color within the cool
spectrum. Greens take on some of the attributes of
yellow, and purple takes on some of the attributes of
red. They are often more subdued than warm colors.
Cool colors appear farther from the observer.
Color Schemes: Warm

Artist: Jan Vermeer

Title: Girl Asleep at a Table
Year: 1657
Color Schemes: Cool

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Title: Femme Allongée Lisant
Year: 1939
Neutral colors include black, white, gray, tans, and
browns. They're commonly combined with brighter
accent colors but they can also be used on their own in
designs.

The meanings and impressions of neutral colors

depend more so upon the colors around them
 Monochromatic Color Scheme

This color scheme only focuses on one color, and

often using variations by incorporating saturations or
values. For example, if you chose the color blue,
then you may have other colors under the same
color family like sky blue, baby blue, navy blue, or
dark blue.
Color Schemes: Monochromatic

Artist: Marc Chagall

Title: Les Amants Sur Le Toit
Achromatic Color Scheme
This color scheme only
revolves on using
desaturated colors like
black, gray, and white.

Analogous Color Scheme

Analogous color scheme
selects a group of three
colors that are adjacent in
the color wheel.
Color Schemes: Analogous

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Title: The Iris
Year: 1889
Complementary Color
Scheme

These are colors that are

direct opposite to each
other in the color wheel.
Usually, a combination
of a primary and
secondary colors.
 Complementary
colors in art &
design

19th c. theories of “Simultaneous Contrast” and optical mixing Ex. Eugène Delacroix Women of Algiers
 Complementary
colors in
art & design

optical mixing
Ex. Pointillism (neo-expressionism)--
Seurat
Split-Complementary Color
Scheme

Split-complementary
color scheme uses
the colors on both
sides of the opposite
color.
 Triadic Color Scheme

This color scheme uses

colors that form an
equilateral triangle. It
may be a combination of
primary, secondary, or
tertiary colors.
Tetradic Color Scheme

Also known as double

complementary.

This color scheme

uses two pairs of
complementary
colors.
 RGB
his color profile consists of
Red, Green, and Blue. You
should use this profile for
design that are intended for
screen displays.
 CMYK
This color profile consists of Cyan,
Magenta, Yellow, and Key (Black).
If you have a printer in your house,
you probably see these colors as
inks.

This profile is intended for designs

that are to be printed.
To name colors in web design, teams use hexadecimal
code. All hexadecimal codes:

• Start with a hash mark (#) Consist of three pairs of

characters sequenced together (totaling of six
characters), with each pair controlling one of the
primary additive colors (red, green, blue)
• Those six characters following the hash mark consist of
ten numerals (0-9) and/ or six letters (a-f)

It is easy to identify patterns in the hex codes some colors;

Some things to know include:

• 00 is a lack of primary
• ff is the primary at full strength
To find additive colors, start with black and change each pair to
ff:
#000000 is black (no primaries)
#ff0000 is the brightest red
#00ff00 is the brightest green
#0000ff is the brightest blue

To find subtractive colors, start with white and change each pair
to 00:
#ffffff is white
#00ffff is the brightest cyan
#ff00ff is the brightest magenta
#ffff00 is the brightest yellow

It is also possible to abbreviate some hex numbers. For

instance, #fae expands to #ffaaee and #09b expands to
#0099bb.
Do you have any questions?