As I have already mentioned, color is crucial powerful element which is able to create strong feelings and impressions, either good or bad. Good understanding and proper use of colors requires understanding of its basic terms and principals. Since I have already written about psychological aspects of colors and the way how they affects people’s mood, in this section I am going to focus on basic terms related to colors.
Color is perceptual characteristic of light and it is described by its name, how pure and desaturated is, and by its value or lightness.
There are three primary colors that can not be created by mixing others, and those are yellow, red, and blue. Mixing primary colors produces three secondary colors: green, orange, and violet. Mixing primaries with secondary colors creates six tertiary colors.
This group of twelve colors which includes three primaries, three secondary colors, and six tertiary colors are know as hues.
Complementary colors stands opposite each other in color wheel, like red and green, blue and orange, or yellow and purple. These colors placed next to each other creates maximum contrast and will make next one appear more intense.
Analogous colors are positioned next to each other in color wheel.
Before considering mixing these twelve basic color in color wheel, each of them could be altered in three ways by tinting, shading and toning.
Tint is created by lightening hue which is achieved adding white. It is sometimes called pastel and it is usually soft and soothing.
Shades are opposite to tints, created by adding black which means darkening the hue. Adding black has to be done carefully because it can quickly ruin the color.
Tones are created by adding both white and black which is actually means adding grey to hue. This is the way how color can appears more appealing because toning color is more pleasing for eyes.
Color such as blue has many variations and each variation has hue that is distinct and differentiated by its Chroma, saturation, intensity, luminance/value. These terms actually describes colors.
Chroma shows how pure is hue in relation to grey.
Saturation presents degree of purity of the hue.
Intensity presents brightness or dullness of the hue.
Luminance/Value is a measure of the amount of light reflected from the hue. Hues with higher content of white has higher luminance or value.
Dominant color – main color that is eye catching.
Accent color – Can be visually striking and should be used sparingly. Can be sympathetic either with dominant or with subordinate color.
Subordinate color – one that takes majority of space but falls into background. It should contrast or compliment the dominant color.
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