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'Color Symbolism' by Read Write Now on YouTube

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'Color Symbolism' by Read Write Now on YouTube

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'Color Symbolism' by Read Write Now on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4jc3KzqaOM

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'Color Symbolism' by Simple Art Tips on YouTube

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'Color Symbolism' by Simple Art Tips on YouTube

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'Color Symbolism' by Simple Art Tips on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-SNRBSgXds

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'Color Psychology - How Colors Influence Your Choices and Feelings' by BRAINY DOSE on YouTube

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'Color Psychology - How Colors Influence Your Choices and Feelings' by BRAINY DOSE on YouTube

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'Color Psychology - How Colors Influence Your Choices and Feelings' by BRAINY DOSE on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM4fXB23pCQ

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Color Psychology - How Colors Influence Your Choices and Feelings

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Blank Colour Wheel Chart:
https://www.wordlayouts.com/color-wheel-chart/

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Colour Theory Information + Diagram sheet:
https://scyapinc.org/basic-color-theory-printable/

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Colour Theory Practice Sheet from:
https://scyapinc.org/basic-color-theory-printable/

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Colour Theory Presentation 1 (PDF)

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Colour Theory Presentation 1 (Power-Point file)

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Colour Theory Presentation 1 (Power-Point file)

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Colour Theory Presentation 1 (Power-Point file)

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Creating Pigment Paints with Caroline Nicolay of Pario Gallico

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The rainbow used to have just 5 colours - until 1704 when Sir Isaac Newton added orange and indigo to the list simply because he had a fondness for the supposedly mystical properties of the number 7.

In fact, there are no pure colours in a rainbow - they all blend into one continuous spectrum - but ever since Newton we've settled on 7 and used little rhymes to remember them. Americans favour 'Roy G Biv' while British children might learn 'Richard York gave battle in vain' - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Attentive children might therefore be perplexed by the song, 'I can sing a rainbow', which begins, 'Red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and blue ...'

So it would seem that the colours of the rainbow can differ, and when we dip into the cultural histories of these colours, we see even wider differences. In short, how we interpret colours, even how we see them, is more a product of nurture than nature. A few colour-coded stories then:

Red

The first colour used in art was red - from ochre. And the first known example of cave art was a red ochre plaque, which contains symbolic engravings of triangles, diamond shapes and lines, dated to 75,000 years ago.

In the same cave - Blombos, in the Western Cape of South Africa - there are suggestions of even older art, including a workshop containing carefully blended paint made from red ochre and marrow fat, along with spatulas and shell mixing dishes.

This paint, thought to be used to adorn bodies and perhaps cave walls, has been dated at 100,000 years ago.

In almost every country red seems to have been the first colour (other than black and white) to be named with its symbolic appeal often drawn from blood, evoking strength, virility and fertility.

Blue

The world's favourite colour is blue even though it is relatively new to the party linguistically.

The ancient Greeks, Chinese, Japanese and Hebrews did not have a name for blue and thought of it as a version of green. Even today several languages have green-blue blurring, including Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Kurdish, Zulu and Himba.

Yet blue consistently comes first for both men and women in every country where colour preference has been surveyed.

In one international poll, covering ten countries from four continents, it came out well on top in all of them.

One reason is that it seems to have a calming effect. Students given IQ tests with blue covers had an edge of a few points over those given tests with red covers, perhaps because of the natural connotations of blue - seas, lakes, rivers, skies.

Yellow
Tony Orlando & Dawn - Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree ) TOTP ) 1973
This most contrary of colours has long been associated with cowardice (yellowish bile was thought to make you peevish) and ever since the 8th Century it was the colour of anti-Semitism. The Caliph in Medina ordered Jews and Christians to wear yellow badges because it was the colour of non-believers, and it spread, via Edward I (yellow patches for Jews) all to Nazi Germany's yellow stars.

But it is also the colour of defiance in the form of the yellow ribbon, which started with the women's suffrage movement in Kansas in 1867 (they chose yellow because the sunflower was the state flower).

The 1973 Tony Orlando and Dawn song, Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree gave the defiant version of the yellow ribbon an unexpected revival boost - it was later used in protests in the Philippines, Hong Kong and South Africa.

Green

The usual associations of green relate to the natural world but it has also picked up some more malign connotations, including envy, jealousy, inexperience, illness and poison (at least in comic book bottles).

This last meaning came from the pea-green pigment called Scheele's green, used in dyes and paints for carpets, fabrics, wallpaper, ballroom gowns and confectionary. Problem was that this dye, invented in 1775, contained high doses of arsenic.

It was particularly lethal in wallpaper, releasing tiny particles of arsenic into the air. When Napoleon died in St Helena in 1821 British were suspected of poisoning him. Later, however, it was discovered that the green wallpaper in his room contained arsenic. This may have hastened his death, but the real cause was bowel cancer and a perforated ulcer.

Despite knowledge of its toxicity it was only in the early 20th Century that manufacturers stopped producing Scheele's green.

Orange

The only colour in the English language that takes its name from a fruit is orange. It all goes back to China around 4,500 years ago when oranges were first cultivated and travelled west down the Silk Road. They went to Northwest India where the Sanskrit word for an orange tree - narrangah - served as the root for many languages as oranges were planted and sold - Narang in Farsi, naranj in Arabic and naranja in Spanish.

The English word orange is a corruption of the Sanskrit. People mistook 'a naranga' for 'an aranga', and so it evolved into 'an orange'.

Before the fruit arrived, the English word for the colour was geoluread (yellow-red) but in the 16th Century orange took over. In some languages, however, the two are separated.

In Afrikaans, for example, the colour is oranje but the fruit is lemoen and several languages, including Himba, Nafana and Piraha, have no word for the colour.

Purple

The first colour to come in synthetic form was purple. In 1856, William Henry Perkin, an 18-year-old chemistry student, was told to conduct an experiment using coal tar to find a cure for malaria. He failed but was intrigued with what happened when he dipped a piece of cloth into his mixture of coal analine and chromic acid: it came out purple and held its colour. He patented the dye he called mauveine and became a rich man after it was mass-produced.

Until then purple had been prohibitively expensive (the ancients needed to crush 12,000 murex sea snails to get on gram of Tyrian purple) but the result of Perkin's discovery was the 'Mauve Measles' as Punch magazine called the fashion craze.

It had a revival in the late 1960s as the colour of the counter-culture and is now seen as a feminine alternative to pink.

Pink

10 years ago evolutionary psychologists from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne designed an experiment to test whether pink was an innately feminine colour and blue a masculine colour. It turned out that blue was favoured by both sexes, but that pink had more female support. T

heir results were heralded as 'proving' that pink was inherently feminine, but this was thrown into doubt when critics protested that this was a recent development - earlier in the century women's magazines regularly advised readers to choose pink for boys' clothes.

For example, in 1918 the British Ladies Home Journal noted: 'The generally accepted rule is pink for the boy and blue for the girl. The reason is that pink being a more decided stronger colour is more suitable for the boy...'

It was only in the 1950s that pink became a decided feminine colour - through American advertising campaigns.

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The history of colour and the colourful science behind it

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The rainbow used to have just 5 colours - until 1704 when Sir Isaac Newton added orange and indigo to the list simply because he had a fondness for the supposedly mystical properties of the number 7.

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It often seems that we live in a polarized world: black and white, friend or foe, good and evil, positive and negative. This polarization bleeds into many aspects of society, such as our current view of arts and science as separate and opposite. Our universities place them in separate colleges, our government lauds the practicality of science and fails to give funds to the arts, and as children we are told that art "isn't practical" and science and tech jobs are the more pragmatic path. We see caricatures of artists as overly boisterous and eccentric and scientists as cloistered lab rats, staring at their feet.

Yet this dichromatic thinking fails to capture the full extent of the human experience, and the full potential of both scientists and artists. Time and time again, the greatest scientists and artists have borrowed from these supposedly opposing worlds to forge answers and meaning to the plethora of questions our sentience produces. A classic example is that of color and color vision. Color, and the production and perception of color, has been approached over the years by both scientists and artists alike. These combined efforts have provided a range of information not only about how color is produced both in nature and synthetically, but also how color perception in humans and other animals influences emotions, behavior, and evolution. Studies on color span numerous scientific fields, such as optics, anatomy and physiology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, behavioral ecology, chemistry, mathematics, and visual psychology, but is also explored by the various fine arts, color theory in painting and photography, and lighting design in theatre, to name a few.

Spectrum Analysis, Six Lectures Delivered in 1868 Before the Society of Apothecaries of London. Henry E. Roscoe and Sir Arthur Schuster, Smithsonian Libraries Collection

This article serves as a brief primer on color and color perception, as well as an overview of the relationship between color production and color perception, and the limitations of both. The purpose is to highlight a topic which has fascinated humans for centuries, and explore how knowledge obtained from both a scientific and artistic lens can work together to give rise to insight into our experience.
A Brief History of Color
When most people think of color, the first thing that comes to mind is the color wheel we were shown in elementary art class. This abstract representation is meant to show the relationships between certain colors in the wheel, and denotes the "primary", "secondary", and "tertiary" colors, which can be combined in various ways to create a broader spectrum.

What most people do not know is the vast history behind the color wheel and the discoveries which were integral to its invention and standardization.

The first color wheel was presented by Sir Isaac Newton in the 17th century when he first discovered the visible spectrum of light. Around this time, color was thought to be a product of the mixing of light and dark, with red being the "most light", and blue the "most dark". Newton saw that this theory was flawed, and while in isolation as the bubonic plague ravaged Europe, began testing the properties of white light and "to try therewith the celebrated Phenomena of Colour". In his classic prism experiment, he noted that white light is composed of a variety of colors. He then mapped these colors into an octave schema as the first color wheel and the original ROY G BIV. His experimentations also led to the discovery that all secondary colors can be made by mixing primary colors. The mixtures of colors in varying ratios resulted in different "hues" of novel colors from the classic ROY G BIV baseline, and resulted in the first hue wheel, which is likely the color wheel we are most used to seeing.

Right: Isaac Newton, from Opticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light (London, 1704). Left: Wolfgang von Goethe, from Theory of Colours. 1810

Well after Newton's publication of Opticks in 1704, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe began his own experiments with color. Like Newton, Goethe attempted to "conceive nature in her simplest, most conspicuous creations," although he proposed to do so "without the aid of mathematics". His experience as a painter and artist led to a fascination with the phenomena of color much like that of Newton's, though he fervently disagreed with Newton's idea that darkness was just an absence of light. Instead, he insisted that darkness was an active ingredient in the production of color. This questioning of the science behind Newton's discovery led many to believe him to be an opponent of the sciences in general. However, Goethe himself claimed that "nobody can appreciate [mathematics] more highly than I," but that "to understand the phenomena of color nothing is required but unbiased observation and a sound head". Strikingly, Goethe's investigation of color mirrored that of Newton's. The 1810 publication Theory of Colours, although not strictly scientific, was monumental in its breadth of data and investigation. Goethe conducted numerous experiments with color to address the gaps he perceived in Newton's theory, a holistically scientific approach similar to the rigor of Newton's prism experiments. Perhaps due to his background in poetry and the arts, Goethe also went into detail about the psychological aspects of colors and their relationship to human emotions and behavioral traits. He especially hoped that his investigation would aid painting, which he deemed "an art which has the power of producing on a flat surface, a much more perfect visible world than the actual one can be". His work was also in part a contemplation of the effects of light and dark on human color perception, such as the way in which ratios of light and dark produce differences in the color spectra. These observations led Goethe to develop his own color wheel, which is more akin to the one we use today. In his wheel, colors opposite each other have a visually antagonistic role. Surprisingly, this observation later became the foundation for our knowledge of how color is interpreted by the human brain.

Two more aspects of color were expanded upon by the research of American painter Alfred Munsell in the early 20th century. As a teacher, Munsell recognized the usefulness of a systematic method for communicating and teaching color. This required a system where color was easily measurable and definable, a system which was missing from arts education. To achieve this, Munsell added the dimensions of "chroma" and "color value" as additions to hue. Chroma is the purity or intensity of the color, and is now referred to as saturation. Color value refers to the lightness or darkness of the color, and is now referred to as value or brightness. These dimensions now defined the 3D "color space", represented by Munsell's tree with color value as the y-axis, chroma as the x-axis, and hue as the z-axis, He also defined a standardized method of notating specific colors within this space. Variations in these properties are set up within a 3-dimensional graph space, and a precise color can be relayed by naming its specific coordinates. For example, 5PB 5/1 refers to Purple-Blue 5 with a value of 5 and a saturation of 1. This "color space" is still used for not only arts education, as Munsell had intended, but also in the field of optics and color mathematics.

Jacob Rus, 2007

The work of these men, as well as many other men and women, led to the standardized color wheel and color space that are now used across arts, science, and mathematics in a multitude of color research. Their approaches, both scientific and artistic, set the foundation for studies of color for generations to come. Color production is still standardized by hue, value, and saturation, which have important implications for such things as production of paints and dyes and coding of pixels in televisions for specific colors. Color perception used the fundamentals of Goethe's Theory of Color to further investigate the role of color in psychology, ecology, and evolution, as well as the physiology of human sight and color discernment.

These artists and scientists both desired to explore the nature of color in their own mediums, and only through the synergy of their research can understanding the fundamental human experience of color vision move forward. As famous color theorist Josef Albers said, "Ah, the creative process is the same secret in science as it is in art. They are all the same absolutely."

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Alison Koontz is a Biology graduate student studying questions in developmental biology and stem cell biology, under the guidance of Dr. Marianne Bronner. When she isn't doing science, she can usually be found scribbling poetry, performing in choreopoems, or trying to convince people that existence is just performance art.

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It often seems that we live in a polarized world: black and white, friend or foe, good and evil, positive and negative. This polarization bleeds into many aspects of society, such as our current view of arts and science as separate and opposite.

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Blue moon. Blue Monday. Blue blood. Blue-collar worker.

Historically, the colour blue has had a wealth of connotations. Once believed to have mystical powers in the ancient world, centuries later the colour was associated with royalty, before blue dye was used for uniforms in the navy, hospitals and industrial factories.

Today, psychologists claim that blue is hardwired into the human psyche and contributed to our evolutionary development as hunter-gatherers, who once learnt to survive in the wild among the blue skies and waters. The power of blue is so accepted that designers often choose the colour to decorate offices, believing research that it boosts productivity and feelings of calm.

A popular pigment among painters, Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kadinsky, Yves Klein and others all chose to base many of their works on the colour.

To kick off Art UK's colour series - and because the history of art is inseparable to the history of colour - let's dive into the history, chemistry and symbolism of blue.
Lapis lazuli
The earliest forms of blue pigment were extracted from the semi-precious limestone rock mixture 'lapis lazuli'. Originating from the Middle East, in particular, Afghanistan, the word's etymology comes from the Latin 'lapis', which translates into 'stone', and 'lazuli' meaning 'blue'.

This pigment was regularly imported from Asia, across the Silk Road, dating back 6,000 years up until the eighteenth century. Extracted from the remote Sar-e-Sang valley in the Badakhshan mountains in Afghanistan, it would eventually make its way to the bustling cosmopolitan towns of western Europe.

Scholars argue that for many millennia civilisations prized the rare stone, believing it to have mystical properties. Lapis lazuli was particularly popular in ancient Sumer and ancient Egypt when it was used for jewellery, headdresses and even the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamen, as well as (allegedly) the eyeshadow of Cleopatra.

Chemist Heinz Berke points out: 'early mankind had no access to blue because blue is not what you call an earth colour... you don't find it in the soil.'

The rarity and difficulty of accessing blue pigment encouraged civilisations to imbue the colour with mystical properties.
Egyptian blue
Unlike lapis lazuli, Egyptian blue is a synthetic pigment that was developed approximately 4,500 years ago. A bright crystalline substance, it is a lighter shade than lapis lazuli.

This synthetic shade was created to meet the expensive demands for lapis lazuli and blue in ancient Egypt, as they believed the colour was associated with the heavens, fertility and the power of creation.

The pigment spread throughout Egypt, Greece and eventually into the Roman Empire. When the Roman Empire declined, the colour temporarily vanished from cultural use.
Ultramarine
Jumping ahead in time, a blue pigment known as 'ultramarine' (meaning 'beyond the sea') became incredibly popular during the Italian Renaissance. Used widely in Europe from around the twelfth century, ultramarine is one of the most prevalent colours in western art history.

The deep blue pigment was made by grinding lapis lazuli into a powder. However, when ground too finely, the blue would turn into a dull grey.

Ultramarine was once so expensive it cost more than gold. However, it became widely available and was commonly used by Italian artists in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Artists like Cimabue, Duccio and Giotto were some of the first to regularly use the pigment, which they would often juxtapose with gold leaf.

In his Il Libro dell'Arte ('Book of Arts'), painter Cennino Cennini gave instructions on how to prepare ultramarine pigment, which involved a lengthy purification process.

Cennini wrote: 'Ultramarine blue is a colour illustrious, beautiful, and most perfect, beyond all other colours; one could not say anything about it or do anything with it, that its quality would not still surpass.'

In the following centuries, artists such as Raphael, Botticelli and Titian continued to use abundant amounts of ultramarine pigment in their large-scale works.

In Christian iconography, blue became one of the most sacred colours. The religious connotations of the pigment were also because it was so expensive. Artists preserved the most costly colours for important religious subject matters, like the Virgin Mary. A particular shade was even named after her, 'Marian blue'.
Indigo
This eighteenth-century work by an unknown artist shows two indigo dyers standing on either side of a dye vat. Indigo became an important colour and dye in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

In fact, it became so important that it ignited trade wars between European countries and colonised territories in the Americas, fuelled the African slave trade and became part of Sir Isaac Newton's 'colour spectrum', which he first published in 1672.

Derived from the indigo crop, known as Indigofera tinctoria, the colour was also imported along the Silk Road, from India and Egypt.

The natural dye extracted from plants was also used to dye clothing. A peasant movement called the 'Indigo revolt' took place in Bengal in 1859, when indigo farmers rose up against their plantation owners.

The first synthetic indigo dye was made by the German chemist Adolf von Baeyer in 1878, but this was replaced by the natural crop by 1913. It is this latter form of indigo that was used to dye jeans.
Prussian blue
Prussian blue is a hue of blue that emerged in Germany in the eighteenth century when the Swiss paint maker Johann Jacob Diesbach invented the synthesised pigment.

In March 1708, he had sent a letter to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the president of the Royal Academy of Sciences, explaining his discovery of a pigment he called 'Preussisch blau'.

The synthetic pigment was much cheaper than ultramarine and was easier to create.

Prussian blue pigment was used in this painting showing the Tudor bishop and statesman Richard Foxe. The painting had previously been believed to be from the sixteenth century until analysis of the pigment showed the use of Prussian blue, which was not widely used by artists until the eighteenth century.

Although the pigment developed in Germany, it became widely used by Japanese artists, particularly Katsushika Hokusai, and is associated with woodblock prints, such as his famous .

During Picasso's 'blue period' (1901 to 1904), the Spanish artist focused on using many shades of blue, particularly Prussian blue.

His sombre paintings reflected the artist's period of depression - it marked a time when he was living in relative poverty and experiencing emotional turmoil over the suicide of his close friend and fellow painter Carlos Casagemas, who had shot himself in 1901.

A reflection of his melancholy, his subject matters were usually of prostitutes, drunks and beggars. Picasso's blue period helped to strengthen the associations of the colour blue with feelings of despair and sadness.

Another artist who had a strong connection to the colour blue was Marc Chagall. Picasso had once said 'when Matisse dies... Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour is.'
International Klein Blue
Perhaps the artist with the most famous and enduring association with the colour blue was Yves Klein.

In the summer of 1947, the French conceptual artist decided he wanted to capture the sky's expansiveness through painting, naming himself a painter of space. In the same year, he began to spray paint his canvases in shades of blue, initially using ultramarine. He would create nearly 200 of these blue monochrome paintings.

By 1960, he had created his own version of blue pigment, known as International Klein Blue (IKB).

For Klein, the colour blue was intrinsic to his aesthetic philosophy: 'blue is the invisible becoming visible. Blue has no dimensions, it is beyond the dimensions of which other colours partake.'

If you're blue that this is the end of the article, look out for more explorations of colour in art soon...
Lydia Figes, Content Creator at Art UK

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Colour in art: a brief history of blue pigment

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Discover artworks, explore venues and meet artists. Art UK is the online home for every public collection in the UK. Featuring over 300,000 artworks by over 50,000 artists.

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The History of Color Theory: Must-Know Facts for Creatives - Pigment Pool

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What is color theory? Find out about the history of color theory, art color theorie, science color theorie, and the theorists through the ages.

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Abstract

Human beings have had an inherent urge to leave their mark in the form of works of art since prehistoric times. This has driven the quest for new and better pigments with which to make paints. This paper describes the origins and composition of earliest earth pigments used by primitive man to decorate the walls of caves through to the synthetic pigments developed in more recent times. Despite modern technology, the artist's palette remains a mixture of the pigments used by cave artists, natural pigments used in the middle ages, and modern organic compounds.

Introduction

From prehistoric times humans have left their mark on their environment in the form of painted images, whether in the form of simple handprints, works of fine art or spray-can graffiti. It seems that people have an underlying conscious or subconscious urge to mark their passing. It may be that primitive man made marks by scratching trees or rocks with stones as a way of marking a track, indicating a source of food or water or even marking territory. At some stage, however it was discovered that some materials worked more effectively when mixed with a medium such as water or saliva, and painting was born.

The prehistoric paintings that have survived tend to be located in caves, under overhanging rock ledges, or in places where the climate was such that they were not washed or weathered away. Archaeologists and historians like to offer mystical interpretations of the meaning and functions of these paintings, but it is likely that many were made simply to pass the time. It is easy to imagine people sheltering from heavy rain or hot sun under an overhanging ledge at the foot of a rock face and making the pictures as a way of occupying themselves while they waited for conditions to improve.

Once it had been discovered that pigments could be used to colour a surface, the practice of body painting began and persists to this day. Painting the body could be used to indicate status or to lend a sense of mystery to a superstitious practice. The Europeans who first encountered the native peoples of North America called them Red Indians because of their practice of painting their bodies with red ochre. This has been described "as a shield against evil...a protection against the cold in winter and insects in summer" [1]. There can also be little doubt it made warriors appear more fearsome. It would almost certainly boost the confidence of the warrior in his own abilities in the same way as a military uniform in modern times. The same purpose was served by woad, the pigment applied by ancient British races. In this case it may well have been felt that applying this pigment to the body gave the warrior magical powers, since woad is an antiseptic and was known to have the power of preventing wounds received in battle from becoming septic. Interestingly, the woad plant Isatis tinctoria is currently under investigation for its anti-inflammatory properties [2].

Section snippets

The first paints

As might be expected, prehistoric painters used the pigments available in the vicinity of their homes. These were the so-called earth pigments, soot from burning animal fat and charcoal from the fire. The colours were yellow ochre, red ochre, and black. Water was the binding agent and enabled the pigment to be sprayed from the mouth or painted onto the surface using the fingers as brushes. Fig. 1 shows bison painted on a cave wall in Altamira, Spain and Fig. 2 the stencil of a hand from Avignon

The Egyptians

The Egyptians began serious colour manufacture from about 4000 BC. They introduced washing of pigments to increase their strength and purity. They also introduced new materials, the most famous of which was Egyptian blue-first produced around 3000 BC. This is a very stable pigment and still appears as if fresh on wall paintings produced at that time. The pigment is calcium copper silicate (CaCuSi ₄O ₁₀) made by mixing a calcium salt (carbonate, sulphate or hydroxide), a copper compound (oxide or

The Chinese, Greeks and Romans

Chinese science and technology was highly developed long before western civilisations appeared. The Chinese developed vermilion around 2000 years before the Romans used it. Vermilion, a red pigment, is made by crushing, washing and heating the mineral cinnabar, or mercuric sulphide (Fig. 4) to give a strong red pigment. Alternatively it was made by mixing mercury with molten sulphur and heating the mixture to produce the compound.

The Greeks' contribution to painting was the manufacture of white

Developments in the mediaeval and renaissance periods

The mediaeval palette and paintings were characterised by the use of clear, well-defined, bright colours. Browns seem to have held little interest for painters at this time and were regarded as dull. If required they were made by mixing black with red and yellow. The umbers first appeared in the late 15th century when Vasari described them as being new [7]. Umber comprises hydrated iron and manganese oxides. In its natural state it is known as raw umber and when heated it becomes a richer

Development of modern pigments

The first chemically synthesised pigment was made in Germany in 1704 by Diesbach who was manufacturing red lake pigments by using potash and alkali as substrate. When using a batch contaminated with animal oil, he accidentally made a purple and then a blue pigment instead of the red he was trying to make. The blue became known as Prussian blue (Fig. 8). It has the unusual property of fading in daylight, then regaining its colour in the darkness.

Ultramarine remained the most important blue

Manufacture of pigments

The earth pigments used by primitive humans were found as clays which could have been kneaded and shaped into "crayons" for use in painting and drawing. Such artefacts have been collected, for example, from Valle Caminica in Italy [1] and in the Lascaux caves [3]. It is clear, however, that there were early improvements to the simple mixture of coloured clay and water, to produce paints with improved properties. Analysis of the pigments from the caves at Niaux in the Pyranees showed that two

Pigments used today

Although the focus of this paper has tended to be UK-oriented, reflecting the input of material by Winsor & Newton, the development of pigments has been, as we have tried to indicate, an international activity. One of the most prolific areas of publishing in colour is aimed at artists and those who appreciate art, a market which is truly international. A typical selection of recent publications [10], [11], [12], [13] includes three published in North America. For example, Ames's "Color Theory

Acknowledgements

This paper is an expanded version of the presentation at the Colour and Design Conference by Sarah Miller of Winsor & Newton entitled "Colour and Art: a history of pigments". The authors thank Winsor & Newton for supplying historical information and Simon Jennings for kind permission to use material from " Collins Artists Colour Manual " [15].

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

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Colour and art: A brief history of pigments

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Human beings have had an inherent urge to leave their mark in the form of works of art since prehistoric times. This has driven the quest for new and better pigments with which to make paints.

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Artists invented the first pigments-a combination of soil, animal fat, burnt charcoal, and chalk-as early as 40,000 years ago, creating a basic palette of five colors: red, yellow, brown, black, and white. Since then, the history of color has been one of perpetual discovery, whether through exploration or scientific advancement. The invention of new pigments accompanied the developments of art history's greatest movements-from the Renaissance to Impressionism -as artists experimented with colors never before seen in the history of painting.

Red

First employed in prehistoric cave paintings, red ochre is one of the oldest pigments still in use.

Found in iron-rich soil and first employed as an artistic material (as far as we know) in prehistoric cave paintings, red ochre is one of the oldest pigments still in use. Centuries later, during the 16th and 17th centuries, the most popular red pigment came from a cochineal insect, a creature that could only be found on prickly-pear cacti in Mexico. These white bugs produced a potent red dye so sought-after by artists and patrons that it quickly became the third greatest import out of the "New World" (after gold and silver), as explains Victoria Finlay in A Brilliant History of Color in Art. Raphael, Rembrandt, and Rubens all used cochineal as a glaze, layering the pigment atop other reds (like red ochre) to increase their intensity. A non-toxic source for red pigment, the cochineal bug is still used to color lipsticks and blush today.

Blue

For hundreds of years, the cost of lapis lazuli rivaled even the price of gold.

Ever since the Medieval era, painters have depicted the Virgin Mary in a bright blue robe, choosing the color not for its religious symbolism, but rather for its hefty price tag. Mary's iconic hue-called ultramarine blue-comes from lapis lazuli, a gemstone that for centuries could only be found in a single mountain range in Afghanistan. This precious material achieved global popularity, adorning Egyptian funerary portraits, Iranian Qur'ans, and later the headdress in Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring (1665). For hundreds of years, the cost of lapis lazuli rivaled even the price of gold. In the 1950s, Yves Klein collaborated with a Parisian paint supplier to invent a synthetic version of ultramarine blue, and this color became the French artist's signature. Explaining the appeal of this historic hue, Klein said, "Blue has no dimensions. It is beyond dimensions."

Yellow

Turner used the experimental watercolor Indian Yellow-a fluorescent paint derived from the urine of mango-fed cows.

Few artists in history have been known for their use of yellow, though Joseph Mallord William Turner and Vincent van Gogh are the most notable exceptions. Turner so loved the color that contemporary critics mocked the British painter, writing that his images were "afflicted with jaundice," and that the artist may have a vision disorder. For his sublime and sun-lit seascapes, Turner used the experimental watercolor Indian Yellow-a fluorescent paint derived from the urine of mango-fed cows (a practice banned less than a century later for its cruelty to animals). For brighter touches, Turner employed the synthetic Chrome Yellow, a lead-based pigment known to cause delirium. Vincent van Gogh also painted his starry nights and sunflowers with this vivid and joyful hue. "Oh yes! He loved yellow, did good Vincent, the painter from Holland, gleams of sunlight warming his soul, which detested fog," wrote the painter Paul Gauguin of his friend and artistic companion.

Green

Green pigments have been some of the most poisonous in history.

While the color green evokes nature and renewal, its pigments have been some of the most poisonous in history. In 1775, the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele invented a deadly hue, Scheele's Green, a bright green pigment laced with the toxic chemical arsenic. Cheap to produce, Scheele's Green became a sensation in the Victorian era, even though many suspected the color to be dangerous for artists and patrons alike. The French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's bedroom wallpaper even featured Scheele's Green, and historians believe the pigment caused the revolutionary's death in 1821. By the end of the 19th century, Paris Green-a similar mixture of copper and arsenic-replaced Scheele's Green as a more durable alternative, enabling Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir to create vivid, emerald landscapes. Used as a rodenticide and an insecticide, Paris Green was still highly toxic, and may have been responsible for Cézanne's diabetes and Monet 's blindness. Not surprisingly, it was eventually banned in the 1960s.

Purple

The Impressionists-especially Monet-so adored the new hue that critics accused the painters of having "violettomania."

"I have finally discovered the true color of the atmosphere," Claude Monet once declared. "It's violet. Fresh air is violet." The purple shadows and lavender specks of light that enliven Monet's haystacks and waterlilies owe much to a little-known American portrait painter named John Goffe Rand. In 1841, Rand grew frustrated with the messy practice of storing paint in a pig's bladder, which was the prevailing method for preserving pigments at the time, and invented a more practical and portable option: a collapsible paint tube made of tin. This enabled artists like Monet to paint plein air, easily transporting their color to outdoor locations to capture impressions of the environment, and in turn led to the production of nuanced, pre-mixed paint shades in tin tubes, such as Manganese Violet, the first affordable mauve-colored paint that meant artists no longer had to mix red and blue to make purple. The Impressionists -especially Monet-so adored the new hue that critics accused the painters of having "violettomania."

Black

The darkest pigment of the Old Masters, "bone black" is produced by burning animal bones in an air-free chamber.

The darkest pigment found in Old Masters paintings is aptly named "bone black," and is produced by burning animal bones in an air-free chamber. While the Impressionists avoided black paint-finding areas of darkness to be filled with color-American artists in the '50s and '60s returned to black with avengeance. Frank Stella, Richard Serra, and Ad Reinhardt all created monochromatic black paintings, stripping the canvas of any subject matter other than the paint itself. Taken together, these painters prove that black is as nuanced a color as any other, capable of many permutations, tones, and textures. Speaking about his practice in 1967, Reinhardt quoted the Japanese painter and printmaker Katsushika Hokusai, saying, "There is a black which is old and a black which is fresh. Lustrous black and dull black, black in sunlight and black in shadow."

White

Of all the pigments that have been banned over the centuries, the color most missed by painters is likely Lead White.

Of all the pigments-Chrome Yellow, Scheele's Green, Paris Green-that have been banned over the centuries, the color most missed by painters is likely Lead White. This hue could capture and reflect a gleam of light like no other, though its production was anything but glamorous. The 17th-century Dutch method for manufacturing the pigment involved layering cow and horse manure over lead and vinegar. After three months in a sealed room, these materials would combine to create flakes of pure white. While scientists in the late 19th century identified lead as poisonous, it wasn't until 1978 that the United States banned the production of lead white paint. In this era, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Ryman, and Agnes Martin turned to titanium and zinc whites to create monochromatic white paintings, while artists like Dan Flavin bypassed pigments altogether in sculptures that emitted white light directly.

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Download the PDF version of this lesson plan.

Introduction

Color and color theory form the foundation of art as well as design. Gifted children are often tuned in to the aesthetic nature of things at an early age and can appreciate the nuances of color, as well as the way colors are blended, tinted and shaded.

Guiding Questions

What is color? How do we represent and create color?

Learning Objectives
After completing this project, students will be able to:

Identify color terms using the academic vocabulary of the discipline

Evaluate the use of color in fine art painting

Create a reverse color scheme of a painting

Design an "eye spy" activity for a painting, focused on the use of color

Conduct independent research on color and analyze that research

Lesson 1: Introduction to color

Look at this picture. What colors do you see? List the three colors you think are most easily visible in this painting.

How about this one? What colors do you see here? List the three colors you think the artist used most in this painting.

Three things to know about COLOR:

Color is a way that we describe an object based on the way that it reflects or emits light.

Your eye can see different colors because a part of your eye called the retina is sensitive to different wavelengths of light.

Humans are what is called "trichromats," meaning our retinas have three different kinds of cells that can receive color. Those cells are called cones.

What is your favorite color? What do you think the most common favorite color in the world is? (Scroll down further to find the answer.)

To organize colors and show their relationship to each other, we use a color wheel. This shows the colors and how they are related to each other.

On a traditional color wheel, three colors are called primary colors. From these three colors, all of the colors on the color wheel can be made. The three primary colors on the traditional color wheel are red, yellow and blue. Can you find the primary colors on this color wheel? (Blue is the most popular color in the world.)

Lesson 2: The language of color

Like many disciplines, color has its own vocabulary. Watch the video below for an introduction to the language of color. Next, take the pre-assessment to see how much you already know about color's words.

Color Vocabulary Pre-Assessment

The chart that shows the relationship of different colors to each other is called the (1) _______________________. Instead of the word "color," one could also use the three-letter word (2) ________.

The three colors from which all other colors are made are called (3)________________ colors, and they are (4)__________, ____________, and ____________. Colors that are created by mixing equal parts of the colors above are called (5) _____________________ colors, and they are (6) _______________, _______________, and ____________________. Colors that are created from equal parts of each of the two kinds of colors above are called intermediate or (7)________________________ colors. When describing these colors, place the (8) ________________ color first.

Colors that are next to each other on the color wheel are called (9)___________________. Colors that are opposite to each other on the color wheel are called 10)_______________. When these colors are placed next to each other, they make each other seem (11) ____________________. When mixed equally, they create muddy tones like black, gray, and brown.

If you add white to a color, that is called a (12) ______________. If you add black to a color, that is called (13)_________________.

If something only uses one color, it is called (14)______________________________.
If something uses more than one color, it is called (15) _________________________.
If something is completely lacking in color, it is called (16)_______________________.

The colors on the green/blue/violet side of the color wheel are called (17) ___________. The colors on the red/orange/yellow side of the color wheel are called (18) __________.

When completed, check your answers. If you got at least 14 of the 18 correct, move on to Lesson 3 below. If you didn't, read more about basic color theory before you move on.

Lesson 3: Finding the colors

In the pictures below, you will find examples of many of the colors on the color wheel. Answer the questions that go with each picture.

This painting, called Landscape at Ceret, was painted by the Spanish artist Juan Gris.

In the painting, identify six places where you see the three primary colors. Then, identify two places where you see two primary colors next to each other. Place a checkmark on two places you see a primary color adjacent to a secondary color. Circle a place you see a shade of blue. Circle a place you see a tint of green.

This painting, Le Rifain assis, was painted by the French artist Henri Matisse.

This painting has a very narrow color palette. List the colors you see in the painting and identify them as primary (p) or secondary (s) or neither (n).

Below, you will find this same painting in black and white. Using colored pencils, crayons, or fine tip markers, color in the painting. Instead of reproducing the colors the way you see them in the painting on the previous page, select a complementary color (remember that those are opposite each other on the color wheel). For example, where you see green, color a corresponding shade or tint of red, and where you see blue, color in orange. Use Adobe's color wheel to find the complementary color - just spin the wheel until you see the color you are looking for, and its complement will be on the other side.

What did you notice in doing this exercise about how the feeling of the painting changed? Is the painting happier? More sad? Darker? Lighter?

In this painting by Johannes Vermeer called Girl with a Pearl Earring, the color palette is very limited, yet in an entirely different way from the Matisse painting shown before.

Originally, the dark background had a green glaze over it, but this is no longer visible. Imagine what the color green would have looked like next to the colors you can see now. Where do you think it would have made more difference, in the skin or the clothing?

Art historians have found that Vermeer used 11 pigment colors in this painting:

white lead

brown ochre (raw umber)

yellow ochre

charcoal black

bone black

vermilion (a red with an orange undertone)

ultramarine (lapis lazuli)

red madder

indigo (deep, clear blue)

red ochre

weld (yellow)

This painting shows how complex color can become. Painters do not simply load their brushes with a color and add it to the canvas; they mix the colors on a palette first. Additionally, some of the colors Vermeer used are no longer visible. This can make it hard to detect the colors in the painting, but you may be able to see some of them. Knowing these things, what colors from the pigments listed above do you think you can find? It may help to to take a closer look at the painting.

Although the painting looks simple, upon close examination, it is a complex blend of colors. Create an "eye spy" activity for the painting, using this rubric. You may look at the National Book Fesitival for an idea (look at the poem at the bottom for an example of a rhyming, poetic form).

Lesson 4: Color research

Conduct a small research study on people's favorite colors. With help from your teacher or parents, identify four people you can interview. You will ask the questions below, and one more that you create (add that to the last, blank line).

Good research etiquette is that you will not interrupt, not share your own opinion to agree or disagree with the responses, and thank the person sincerely for his/her time.

Analyze your data. Did any patterns emerge of favorite or least favorite colors? Were the favorite colors of the people you interviewed stable or had they changed?

Add up the total number of the estimated color names and divide by four to find the average number of colors your interviewees think they can name. How many of the favorite colors were primary colors?

How did your findings compare with what we know about the most popular color in the world? How many were secondary colors? What in your findings surprised you? What did you discover in the responses to the question you created? Let this rubric guide you.

Assessment
Lesson 1:

Sunflower picture: Reasonable responses include blue, yellow, green, brown, and beige.

Oceanscape: Reasonable responses include any combination of red, blue, white, or green.

Lesson 2: Color Vocabulary Pre-Assessment Key:

1. color wheel

2. hue

3. primary

4. red, yellow, blue (no order necessary)

5. secondary

6. green, orange, violet (no order necessary)

7. tertiary

8. primary

9. analogous

10. complementary

11. brighter

12. tint

13. shade

14. monochromatic

15. polychromatic

16. achromatic

17. cool

18. warm

Lesson 3: The initial activities in this lesson are subjective, to a great extent. If you desire to assess, look for full and reasonable responses. The rubric for the Eye Spy activity is included in the section.

Lesson 4: The rubric for the independent research is included in the section.

Extension

Read It!

Young Readers:

The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown

Celebrity Cat: With Paintings from Art Galleries Around the World by Meredith Hooper

Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh

Museum Trip by Barbara Lehman

Color Dance by Ann Jonas

White Rabbit's Color Book by Alan Baker

Older Readers:

Color Theory: An Essential Guide to Colorby Patti Mollica

Pantone: The Twentieth Century in Color by Leatrice Eiseman

Surf It!

This series of lessons was designed to meet the needs of gifted children for extension beyond the standard curriculum with the greatest ease of use for the educator. The lessons may be given to the students for individual self-guided work, or they may be taught in a classroom or a home-school setting. Assessment strategies and rubrics are included at the end of each section. The rubrics often include a column for "scholar points," which are invitations for students to extend their efforts beyond that which is required, incorporating creativity or higher level technical skills.

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Color and color theory form the foundation of art as well as design. Gifted children are often tuned in to the aesthetic nature of things at an early age and can appreciate the nuances of color, as well as the way colors are blended, tinted and shaded.

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About Acrylic Paint

Acrylic paint is a relatively new medium in the world of art. It has been around for just over a half a century. Despite it's "newness", acrylic paint has quickly become a popular art making medium.

Acrylic paint is less dangerous than oil paint because it uses water instead of toxic solvents. When dry, acrylic paint can have some of the same visual characteristics as oil paints.

Application methods vary for acrylics just as they do for other painting mediums. Every artist will find an approach that best suits the effects that they are after in their own painting. It is a good idea to experiment to find the process that best suits you.

In this lesson, we'll look at creating a small still life painting of an apple by layering colors on the surface. We'll begin with an underpainting to develop the values before moving on to layering the local colors of the apple.

Recommended Materials

(Some of the following links are affiliate links which means we earn a small commission if you purchase at no additional cost to you.)

A Look at The Palette

When painting with acrylics, I prefer to use a disposable palette, in this case - palette paper. Acrylics dry incredibly fast and have the potential of creating quite a mess on a plastic palette. A disposable palette can be thrown away after the painting process and makes for easy clean up.

Colors chosen are determined before painting begins by analyzing the subject or the photo reference. In most circumstances, additional pigments will be added to the palette during the painting process.

For this demonstration, I am using several pigments. I like to arrange the paints on the palette with enough space for mixing in between them.

While the subject that you paint will dictate the actual pigments that are used, it's a good idea to try and limit them as much as possible. Limiting your palette will encourage harmony and unity in the work.

Step By Step Process

A blank white canvas might seem like a great place to start, but in many cases it's a good idea to start with a bit of color. Adding a bit of color to the surface creates a nice starting point for judging values due to contrast. This practice is often referred to "as creating a ground".

The "ground" can be any color that you like, but it is advisable to choose a color that may accentuate the finished painting. In many cases, the ground will still be visible through the subsequent brush strokes that are applied.

In this example, a neutral ground is created and evenly applied to the canvas. A mixture of Raw Umber and Titanium White is used to mix the neutral ground.

After the ground has dried, a pencil sketch is applied. A softer graphite pencil is used to draw the contour lines of the shape of the apple and to "map out" the areas of value and color changes.

Some artists prefer to start painting the local colors (observed colors) at this point. This approach is perfectly acceptable as long as the values of the colors are addressed at a later stage. However in this example, we'll start by addressing the values by painting an underpainting. The underpainting allows us to begin to establish the values of the painting early in the process.

A mixture of Payne's Gray and Burnt Umber are used to apply the darker values. The color is thinned a bit with water to address mid tones. White is mixed with the ground mixture to address the lighter values. In this case, the underpainting is "loose" and does not address all of the observed values.

At this point, we're ready to start addressing the local colors that are observed. You may start with any section of the painting that seems natural to you because acrylics layer easily and dry very quickly. In this example, the areas of yellow-green are addressed first. A mixture of Cadmium Yellow Light, Prussian Blue, Indian Yellow Hue, and White is used.

As colors are added with the brush, the form of the object is considered. Strokes are pulled along the cross contours of the apple. These subtle, directional lines help to inform the viewer of the form.

The layering of color continues with the sections of red on the apple. A mixture of Alizarin Crimson and Cadmium Red Light is used. For areas of darker value, Burnt Umber and Payne's Gray are added. For lighter values, Titanium White is mixed.

With each layer that is added, the colors become more complex. Adjustments to the value and concentration of the mixtures are made with each application. As larger areas of color are added, details can be developed.

The area of cast shadow behind the apple is strengthened with a mixture of Payne's Gray and Burnt Umber before being layered over with a mixture of White and Raw Umber.

With a few final touches, the painting is completed.

A Bit More On Acrylic Painting

Like all paints, acrylic paint is made up of three general ingredients (more exist but generally fall into one of these categories) -pigment, solvent, and binder. The pigment is the color and is generally universal in all different types of paints.

Solvent is what thins the paint. Water is typically used as the solvent for acrylic painting.

Binder is the material that holds the pigment together and allows the paint to be spread over a surface. Acrylic paint has a binder of acrylic polymer emulsion and dries quickly to create a waterproof surface. It can also can be used as a glue or as an image transfer medium. Acrylics can be matte finish or gloss. Matte acrylics dry to a dull sheen while gloss acrylics are shiny.

Acrylics can be applied with brushes, palette knives, or really anything at all. In my experience, nylon brushes work best with acrylic paint-although any type of brush will work. It is especially important to keep your brushes clean, as acrylic paints will dry quickly and ruin a brush.

Surfaces For Acrylic Painting

Acrylics can be applied to almost any surface. Artists mostly use canvas, watercolor paper, illustration board, gessoed masonite, or other papers to paint on-although any surface is fair game.

Acrylic paints are resistant to UV light making them a suitable choice for outdoor applications. Acrylic paint also dries to create a waterproof surface that is impervious to many types of liquids.

Acrylic paints can be used with a variety of different acrylic mediums that can change the characteristics of the paint. Some mediums make the paint thicker for impasto effects, while some make the paint more transparent for glazing techniques. Others change the texture of the paint. Experiment with different mediums to find out which ones suit you best.

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Basic Acrylic Painting Techniques- How to Paint an Apple

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Learn basic acrylic painting techniques in this free video art lesson of a painting of an apple.

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Finding the right color wheel chart can be a daunting task. There are literally hundreds of thousands of color wheel charts out there. Most of which are never quite what you need for the art lesson.

Part of the issue with the ever growing number of color wheels out there is that there are varied ideas when it comes to color theory in general.

Most of us agree that there are 3 Primary colors: blue, red and yellow - and 3 secondary colors: orange, green, and purple.

Most of us can also agree that the complementary colors exist as opposites on the color wheel. This means that orange is the complement of blue; purple is the complement of yellow; and green is the complement of red.

There are Different Color Wheel Charts!

I came across a site the other day that took color theory to another level. Honestly, it made me wonder if I really knew anything about color at all. You can visit this page and read for yourself.

The argument here is that the color wheels that we have been using for years are wrong. The author of the site argues that red, blue, and yellow are not the true primaries. He states that the true primaries consist of cyan, magenta, and yellow. (I have seen color theory taught this way.)

The arguments presented are fairly convincing. However, using this color wheel would force the complement of blue (ultramarine) to be yellow.

I have a hard time swallowing that one.

It does however show cobalt blue to complement orange. I guess that helps. It's worth mentioning this theory because the color wheels charts that I'm sharing today are in the traditional vein.

(You are free to download any of the color wheel charts below...click on the image-then right click and "save as")

Anyhow, I decided that I would create a series of color wheel charts that teachers, students, artists - can use that may fulfill a specific need, either to teach basic color mixing, complements, and so on.

The first color wheel chart I created is intended for teaching basic color mixing. It includes a gradation of hue around the color wheel with labeled primary and secondary colors.

The second color wheel chart that I created is intended to help students recognize complementary colors on the color wheel

I plan on adding new color wheel charts in future posts according to specific usage. Hopefully, some of you will find them useful and helpful to you.

I also want to share with you some color theory worksheets that I use to teach color theory to my beginner classes. Students mix paints and paint directly on the sheets. To download these sheets, click on the thumbnail-right click on the image and click "save as"

If you are looking for an interactive experience when it comes to the color wheel, try The Interactive Color Wheel.

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Color Wheel Chart for Teachers and Students

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Finding the right color wheel chart can be a daunting task. There are literally hundreds of thousands of color wheel charts out there. Most of which are never quite what you need for the art lesson. Part of the issue with the ever growing number of color wheels out there is that there are varied ideas when it comes to color theory in general.

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Color theory can be confusing if you're "new to the game". All of those colors and how they relate to each other can be quite overwhelming. But just the other day, I came across a site that makes color theory a bit fun and has actually turned it into a game. More on that in a moment.

Why is Color Theory Confusing?

I think the majority of the confusion stems from all of the names of pigments and all of the "made-up" names that some manufacturers assign to colors that they produce. What really is "Sky Blue" anyway?

The fact is color theory is based on generic forms of colors - Red, Blue, Yellow, etc. Color mixing utilizes color theory but the results of the mixed color are dependent on the actual pigments used.

For example, you may mix "Alizarin Crimson" (red) with "Cadmium Yellow" (yellow) to produce an "orange". Or you may mix "Cadmium Red" (red) with "Lemon Yellow" (yellow) to produce an "orange".

In both cases, you are mixing "red" with "yellow" producing an "orange". However, the orange that results from both mixtures is different because the pigments of the paints are different. (We discuss this in a bit more detail in Module 4 of "The Watercolor Workshop".)

But I'm getting off topic here. So enough about theory vs. mixing for now.

The reason I'm writing this post is to share with you a resource that I've found that makes a game out of color theory. But before I share it with you and in order to make the most of the game, let's review a few basics on color theory...

Hue

The word "hue" is used to refer to the pure color without any variation in value or intensity. Theoretically, all hues should exist on the color wheel.

Value

The value of the color is altered when the neutral colors of black or white are added to it. It is essentially the darkness or lightness of a color. Tints are the result of adding white to the pure hue. Shades are the result of adding black to the pure hue.

Tone

Tone is very similar to value, but it can refer to various intensities of the color as well as the value of the color. Value is altered with black or white, while intensity is altered by mixing gray with the color.

Saturation/Intensity

Saturation refers to the intensity or strength of the color. A color in its purest form, without any neutral colors added, is considered fully saturated. Any additions of neutral colors change the intensity of the color, desaturating it. Think "vivid" vs. "dull".

Color Schemes

Color schemes are created by the relationships of colors based on their locations on the color wheel. While any combination of colors could be considered a "color scheme", certain relationships exist that typically lead to aesthetically successful art.

*There are more color schemes that exist, but for the purposes of preparing you for the game, I'll only touch on the schemes that are included with it.

Complementary

Complementary color schemes are made up of two colors that are directly across from each other on the color wheel. Complementary schemes provide high contrast and are often used for sports teams and logos.

Analogous

Analogous color schemes are made of 3-5 colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. Analogous schemes provide harmonious color relationships with little contrast.

Triadic

Triadic color schemes are made of 3 colors that are equidistant from each other on the color wheel. This relationship creates a triangle with the color locations on the color wheel. Triadic schemes provide high contrast.

Tetradic

Tetradic color schemes are made of 4 colors that are equidistant from each other on the color wheel. This relationship forms a square with the color locations on the color wheel.

See Also: The Interactive Color Wheel

The Color Game

Ok, now to the game that I have come across. The game deals with how you perceive each element of color that we reviewed above. I'll give you a bit of warning - it's not as easy as it seems that it may be.

You are evaluated on how closely you are able to match the color, the saturation of the color, and the color schemes that are presented. There is a time limit and your goal is get an evaluation of "perfect" for each color match.

You are presented with a color or a group of colors in the center of the tool that you must match. The color winds down indicating the amount of time that you have left to make your match. Match the colors correctly by scrolling your mouse around the color wheel and get a perfect score.

The game becomes progressively more difficult starting with hue, before progressing to saturation, and then on to color schemes.

After you have completed each of the tasks, you are given a score. Here's a look at my score the first time I went through.

You can see that I really struggled with "Analogous", but I think it was because I was getting accustomed to how the tool worked. (That's my excuse anyway.)

The game is quite fun to play and fairly challenging as well. So, are you ready to test your skills? Can you beat my score? Feel free to post your score in the comments below.
Play the Color Theory Game Now

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Color theory can be incredibly complex, but a new game has made it much more fun to play around with. Can you match the hue, saturation, and color scheme in the given amount of time? It's time to test your skills.

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Color is the element of art that refers to reflected light. Color theory is defined as a theory because it cannot be proved. Theories are generally accepted, despite the fact that they cannot be proven. Laws are accepted because they can be proven.

There are volumes and volumes of information available about color. This page, while thorough, will present color theory in an "easy to understand" fashion. It is an exciting, ever-changing science. Color has an affect over how we feel about objects, how we behave, and how our bodies react to circumstances.

What is color theory?

If color theory is simplified, it can be broken down into 3 parts- The color wheel, color value, and color schemes. Each part of color theory builds on the previous. Understanding each section of color theory fully, will help you better understand its importance in the creation of art.

Color Theory Part 1 - The Color Wheel

The color wheel was developed by Sir Isaac Newton by taking the color spectrum and bending it into a circle. If you follow around the color wheel, you will find the same order of the color spectrum- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo(blue-violet), and violet. Some remember it by the acronym ROY G. BIV.

The color wheel is made up of three different types of colors - Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary.

The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. They are called primary for a couple of reasons. First, no two colors can be mixed to create a primary color. In other words, primary colors can only be created through the use of natural pigments. Secondly, all other colors found on the color wheel can be created by mixing primary colors together.

The secondary colors are orange, green, and purple. Secondary colors are created by mixing equal parts of any two primary colors. Yellow and blue will give you green. Red and blue will create purple(violet). Red and yellow will give you orange.

Tertiary colors are created by mixing equal parts of a secondary color and a primary color together. There are six tertiary colors- red-purple, red-orange, blue-green, yellow-green, blue-purple, and yellow-orange. Notice that the proper way to refer to tertiary colors is by listing the primary color first and the secondary color, second.

Click on the image below to check out The Interactive Color Wheel...

Color Theory Part 2 - Color Values

The second part of color theory deals with color values. Value is the darkness or lightness of a color. When dealing with pure color (hue), value can be affected by adding white or black to a color. Adding white to a color produces a tint...

Adding black to a color produces a shade...

When grays are added to the color, the intensity of the color is affected. Intensity is related to value.

Color Theory Part 3 - Color Schemes

Color schemes are ways colors are put together in an intelligent way

Monochromatic - literally means one (mono) color (chroma). So a monochromatic
color scheme is made up of one color and it's shades and tints.

Analogous colors - are colors that are next to each other on the color wheel.
When used as a color scheme, analogous colors can be dramatic. Ex. Blue, blue-green, green, and yellow-green; red, red-purple, purple, blue-purple

Complementary colors - are colors found directly across from each other on the color wheel. Complementary color scheme provide strong contrast. Ex. Blue and orange, red and green, yellow-green and red-purple.

Color triads - consist of three colors found on the color wheel that are equally spaced apart from each other. Ex. Red, blue and yellow or orange, green and purple.

Split complementary - color schemes are made up of a color and it's complements closest analogous colors. Ex Blue, yellow-orange and red-orange. Red-orange, red-purple, green.

Warm colors - colors that are usually associated with warm things. Ex. Red, yellow, orange.

Cool colors - colors that are usually associated with cool things. Ex. Blue, purple, green

Color Theory Terms and Definitions

Color - Element of art derived from reflected light. We see color because light waves are reflected from objects to your eyes.

Color wheel - color spectrum bent into a circle.

Primary colors - The most basic colors on the color wheel, red, yellow and blue. These colors cannot be made by mixing.

Secondary colors - colors that are made by mixing two primary colors together. Orange, green and violet (purple).

Tertiary colors - colors that are made by mixing a primary color with a secondary color.

Hue - the name of the color.

Intensity - the brightness or dullness of a color. DO NOT CONFUSE WITH VALUE.

Color value - the darkness or lightness of a color. Ex pink is a tint of red.

Tints - are created by adding white to a color.

Shades - are created by adding black to a color.

Optical color - color that people actually perceive- also called local color.

Arbitrary color - colors chosen by the artist to express feelings or mood.

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Color is the element of art that refers to reflected light. Color theory is defined as a theory because it cannot be proved. Theories are generally accepted, despite the fact that they cannot be proven. Laws are accepted because they can be proven. There are volumes and volumes of information available about color.

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Learn the fundamentals of color theory with The Interactive Color Wheel. The basics aspects of each color is displayed as you scroll over each color on the wheel. Color relationships (schemes) and basic color concepts are also revealed.

How to Use The Color Wheel

Scroll your mouse over each element on the color wheel. Allow your mouse to sit over the color for additional information about each color. The information will continue to cycle until you pull your mouse away to another color or element.

Want to Learn More About Color Theory?

Here are a few more resources on color theory...

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Interactive Color Wheel - TheVirtualInstructor.com Members

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Learn the fundamentals of color theory with The Interactive Color Wheel. The basics aspects of each color is displayed as you scroll over each color on the wheel. Color relationships (schemes) and basic color concepts are also revealed. Scroll your mouse over each element on the color wheel.

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Name of Lesson: "Color Theory Object Painting"

Color is one of the fundamental elements of art. It is important for art students to not only be exposed to color theory, but to understand it. This lesson is designed to help beginning artists grasp the concepts of color theory and color schemes. This lesson is appropriate for level one high school students or middle school students.

Class Level: Art 1

Overview and Purpose: To expose students to the element of art, color. To teach students the principles of color theory and practice..

Materials: Tempera paint, gray drawing paper, graphite pencils, objects of students choosing

Objectives: The student will learn the concept of color. The student will learn the concept of color theory. The student will learn the concept of color schemes. The student will learn how to effectively use the color wheel.

Delivery of info: The teacher will present the concepts of color theory including the color wheel, color values, and color schemes. Students will paint a color wheel, and complete color theory worksheets. The teacher will then introduce the assignment.

Guided Practice: Students will bring in objects that they would like to use in their artwork. If the student fails to bring in objects, the teacher may choose to assign objects to students. The student will draw the object from observation. The teacher should encourage the student to draw the object from many different angles and try to create the illusion of space on the surface. The student will then divide the paper into three sections. The student will then paint the different sections with a different color scheme of their choosing. The teacher should encourage the students to use a full range of value in their artwork. When finished, the student should write the specific name of the color scheme (monochromatic, analogous, etc.) used on the back of the paper.

Estimated Duration: 10 Days

Important Resources
The Interactive Color Wheel
Color Theory
Color Wheel Chart for Teachers- Includes Worksheets
Video Resources
Acrylic Painting Techniques-Apple
Back to Art Lesson Plans

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Color is one of the fundamental elements of art. It is important for art students to not only be exposed to color theory, but to understand it. This lesson is designed to help beginning artists grasp the concepts of color theory and color schemes.