An Introduction to COLOR THEORY

Color is one of the most expressive elements because its quality affects our emotions directly and immediately. - In representational art, color serves to identify objects and to create the effect of illusionistic space Orange Bowl and Yellow Apples 1980, Oil on canvas Janet Fish

Red, Yellow & Blue

Roy LICHTENSTEIN ( ) Untitled 1974 Silkscreen 82/ cm x 90 cm Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art Primary color scheme

When you mix a primary color with a primary color next to it on the color wheel you get a secondary color. Red+Yellow=Orange Yellow+Blue=Green Blue+Red=Violet

To achieve Tertiary Colors you mix the primary & secondary colors next to each other on the color wheel. red-orange yellow- orange yellow-green blue-green blue-purple red-purple

Warm and cool color schemes Warm colors Cool colors

Color values are the lights and darks of a color you create by using black and white (‘neutrals”) with a color. This makes hundreds of more colors from the basic 12 colors of the wheel. white + color = tint color + black = shade

Tints Tints Tints Tints are lightened colors. Always begin with white and add a bit of color to the white until the desired tint is obtained. This is an example of a value scale for the tints of blue.

Shades Shades are darkened colors. Always begin with the color and add just a bit of black at a time to get the desired shade of a color. This is an example of a value scale for the shades of blue.

Analogous The analogous color scheme is 3-5 colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel. This combination of colors provides very little contrast.

Monochromatic “Mono” means “one”, “chroma” means “color”… monochromatic color schemes have only one color and its values. The following slide shows a painting done in a monochromatic color scheme.

Andy Warhol Elvis I and II 1964 silkscreen on acrylic, on aluminum x cm Complementary Color scheme Complementary colors: colors opposite each other on the color wheel Red/GreenOrange/BlueYellow/Violet

Color evokes mood Cool color scheme Pablo Picasso, The Tragedy, 1903, oil on wood, x.690 m (41 7/16 x 27 3/16 in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington,

Liubov Popova Sitzender weiblicher Akt, 1914, Oil on canvas 106 x 87 cm Museum Ludwig Analogous Colors Analogous Colors – colors that have ‘neighboring’ hues, contain one common color from the color wheel.

Georges Seurat French, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884 Oil on canvas x 308 cm Optical color mixtures are when the artist depends on the eye to mix the colors.