What is Color?

Considering Color...

Color-Why?
http://www.wetcanvas.com/ArtSchool/Color/ColorTheory/Lesson1/index.html

2/20/09
Sketchbook
The artist Fernand Leger said that "Colour is a human need, like
water and fire. It is a raw material indispensable to life." Investigate the truth of this
statement in your sketchbook. Write a page responding to this statement. Some research may be necessary.

How does color fit in with your major? What will you use it for? Why do you have to know about it?

Do color schemes change depending on where you live? How about the era you live?

How about eyesight and its effects on color?

Is there too much color in the world today?

Part of being inundated with color is that most of our movies are in color unlike when movies began. How do you feel when you are watching a black and white movie?
Do you get impatient with it?

How about photos and films of war? Would the psychological impact on viewers be different?

What is the relation between color and reality? Does color make things more real or genuine or are their occurrences in our world that would seem more authentic in black and white?

Can you think of anything that should be viewed in black and white and not in color?

1/23/09
Sketchbook
Are their any paintings that you can think of that would benefit from being painted in a gray scale? Make copies of a painting printed in color and in black and white. Paste them into your color sketchbooks and state why you think the painting would benefit from being painted in a gray scale.

The Three Principles of Color
“No doubt there are a thousand different ways of working with color, but when one composes with it, like a musician with harmonies, it is simply a question of emphasizing the differences.” - Matisse

Hue
The quality that distinguishes one color family from another, as red from yellow or green from blue
• Hue and color are not synonyms.
Hue has only one dimension, color has three: hue, value and chroma.

Value
The quality by which a light color is distinguished from a dark one
• Lightness of a color depends on the percentage of light reflected from the colored surface (lightest is white- most light is reflected, darkest is pitch black- no light is reflected. Gray- some light is partially absorbed, and partly reflected).
• Often referred to as Tints or Shades
Tint- a light color
Paint- color mixed with white paint
Watercolor- color diluted with water
Print- color made from widely placed dots (halftone)
Science- color mixed with white light
Computer- in the monitor three electron beams simulate red, blue and green phosphors to glow, tinting happens when all three beams are set comparatively high
Shade- may indicate any dark color, or any color mixed with black
• Only a small amount of white paint needs to be added to make the black paint much lighter and takes a much larger amount of white paint to make a light gray appear much lighter.

Chroma
The strength or intensity of a color, the quality by which we distinguish a strong color from a weak or dull one, the amount of departure of a color from a gray of the same degree of lightness
Chroma involves the intensity and purity level in a hue that can range from fully saturated to infinite levels of neutrality.
• Neutralized or grayish colors show weak (LOW) chroma
• Intense colors show strong (HIGH) chroma
• Painters use the term saturation to indicate the relative proportion of pigment to filler, or medium, in paint.
• A saturated color is one with a strong chroma
• Easy to confuse chroma and value
With chroma it is possible to have a series of colors that gradually become grayer, without becoming darker

Primary Colors
Red Yellow Blue

Secondary Colors
Yellow + Red = Orange
Yellow + Blue = Green
Red + Blue = Violet

Tertiary Colors
Red + Orange = Red Orange
Orange + Yellow = Yellow Orange
Yellow + Green = Yellow Green
Green + Blue = Blue Green
Blue + Violet = Blue Violet
Violet + Red = Red Violet