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Color, Movement and Rhythm lesson

Basic Color Theory

 

fruit organized by color
  • Color theory -has 3 basic categories :The color wheel, color harmony, and how colors are used.

 

  • Color theories create a logical structure for color. For example, if we have an assortment of fruits and vegetables, we can organize them by color and place them on a circle that shows the colors in relation to each other.

 

 

The Color Wheel

Three color wheels - Harris, Today, Goethe
  • The color wheel is based on a rainbow.
  • Sir Isaac Newton developed the first color wheel of colors in 1666. Since then, scientists and artists have studied and designed several different Types.

 

 

More about the color wheel


There are also definitions (or categories) of colors based on the color wheel. We begin with a 3-part color wheel.

 
Primary Secondary Tertiary Colors
  • Primary Colors: Red, yellow and blue
    In traditional color theory (used in paint and pigments), primary colors are the 3 pigment colors that cannot be mixed or formed by any combination of other colors. All other colors are created from these 3 colors. 
  • Secondary Colors: Green, orange and purple
    These are the colors formed by mixing 2 primary colors.
  • Tertiary Colors: Yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green & yellow-green
    These are the colors formed by mixing a primary and a secondary color. That's why the color is a two word name, such as blue-green, red-violet, and yellow-orange.

 Color Harmony

Harmony is a pleasing arrangement of things, whether it be music, poetry, color, or even an ice cream sundae.

In art, harmony is something that is pleasing to the eye. It makes the viewer feel a  sense of order or a balance to the artwork. When something is not harmonious, it's either boring or chaotic.. The human brain hates under-stimulation. But on the other side, if the art and color is overdone, then it becomes chaotic which the viewer can't stand to look at it. The human brain rejects what it cannot organize or what it cannot understand. The visual task of an artist requires us to create harmony. 

  • In summary, extreme unity leads to under-stimulation,
  • extreme complexity leads to over-stimulation.
  • Harmony is a balance of both.

How to make Color Harmony

There are many ways to create harmony in art. Here are a few ways to create visual interest and order (Harmony).

 

Example of an anaologous color harmony  

1. A color scheme based on analogous colors

A color scheme is a selection of colors that look good together.

Analogous colors is  one of the first color schemes we will talk about. You can create an Analogous color scheme by using any three colors which are side by side on a 12-part color wheel, such as yellow-green, yellow, and yellow-orange. Usually one of the three color stands out the most.

Example of a complementary color harmony

 

2. A color scheme based on complementary colors


Complementary colors are any two colors which are directly opposite each other,  on the color wheel- such as red and green and red-purple and yellow-green. In the illustration, there are several variations of yellow-green in the leaves and several variations of red-purple in the orchid. These opposing colors create maximum contrast and good harmony.

 

color harmony in nature

 

3. A color scheme based on nature

 

Nature provides a perfect place to look when you want color harmony. In the illustration, red yellow and green create a harmonious design, and this artist took what they found in nature and used it to inspire their abstract artwork.

 

Color Context

How color behaves in relation to other colors and shapes, this is a complex area of color theory. 

 

  • Red appears more brilliant against a black background and somewhat duller against the white background. In contrast with orange, the red appears lifeless; in contrast with blue-green, it exhibits brilliance.
  • Notice that the red square appears larger on black than on other background colors.

 


Different readings of the same color
  • You will see that the small purple rectangle on the left appears to have a red-purple tinge while the one on the right appears to have a blue-purple tinge..
  • But, they are both the same color as seen in the illustration below.


 

  • Observing the effects colors have on each other is something that will come with time and practice