Elements of Design: Color Theory

1. Seeing is NOT
Believing:
Visual and Color Magic
Foothill Technology High School

2. Properties of Color: Hue
• Hue refers to the
name of the color.
Red, orange, green,
and purple are hues.
• Hue can be varied to
create many colors.
Pink, rose, scarlet,
maroon, and crimson
are all colors, but the
hue in each case is
red.
Primary Colors: Red, yellow and
blue make up the three Primary
Colors.
The Three Secondary Colors are
mixtures of two primaries: Red
and yellow make orange; yellow
and blue make green; blue and
red make violet.
The six Tertiary colors are
mixtures of a primary and an
adjacent secondary. Blue and
green make blue-green, red and
violet make red-violet.

3. Color Wheel

4. Properties of Color: Value
• The second property of
color is Value. Value
refers to the lightness or
darkness of the hue.
Adding white lightens a
color and produces a tint,
or high-value color.
Adding black darkens the
color, resulting in a shade,
or low-value color.

5. Primary/Secondary/Tertiary
Primary Colors:
• Red
• Blue
• Yellow
Tertiary Colors: (Primary and Secondary Mixed)
• Red-Violet
• Red-Orange
• Blue –Violet
• Yellow-Green
• Yellow-Orange
• Blue-Green
Secondary Colors (Two Primaries Mixed)
• Green
• Orange
• Violet

6. Properties of Color: Intensity &
Complementary Colors
• The third property of
color is intensity, which
refers to the brightness of
a color.
• Intensity is also known as
saturation.
• There is a relationship
between value and
intensity. Mixing in black
or white changes the
color’s value and
intensity.
Two ways to lower
intensity are by mixing
gray with the color, or
by mixing a color with
its complement, the
color directly across
from it on the color
wheel.

7. Complementary Colors
Mixing complementary
colors neutralizes them,
but when complementary
colors are placed next to
each other, they intensify
each other’s brightness.
Please observe the
example.

8. Complementary Color:
Afterimage Effect
• A phenomenon of complementary color is
the afterimage effect. Stare at an area of
intense color for a minute or so and then
look at a neutral color. The complement
color will seem to appear. Please see the
example on the next slide for an example.
Stare at the dot on the top image for a
minute, then look at the dot on the bottom
image.

10. The next slide will have a square with
four different colors. Stare at the
black dot in the center without
moving your eyes for at least 30
seconds. The slide after that will be a
slide identical to the one you see here.

11. Stare at the black dot.

12. What Colors Do You See?

13. Why do I see an “After-image?”
Similar to someone
putting on sunglasses
in order to see in the
bright sun; eyes adjust
to color by reducing
the brightness, or
luminosity of the
color
The eyes reduce
luminosity by
counteracting, or balancing
the color by using the
opposite of the color you
are viewing. Opposite
color refers to opposite on
the Color Wheel

15. Reading becomes
difficult when the
colors you are viewing
are of the same
Luminosity.

16. What Causes Color to Look
Different?
• A color may look different because of the
surrounding colors.
• A color may look different depending on
the color of light used to view it; florescent
light, incandescent(light bulbs) and daylight
are all different colors.

17. Are The Center Squares the Same
Color?

18. Yes!

21. Surrounding colors cont.
• All the center colors
are the same, but
change because of the
surrounding colors.

22. How Many Different Colors?
• There are only two
different colors in the
picture. Green and
magenta.
• The surrounding color
cause the colors to
appear darker or
lighter.

23. Contrast
The saturation of a color can be visually altered by the
surrounding color. The yellow square is the same in all
three squares.

24. Color and Depth
• Color can cause visual tricks by creating a
sense of depth depending on the shade of
the background color.
• Light colors on dark backgrounds appear to
recede, dark colors appear to protrude from
their background.

25. Dark spots appear to project outward, light spots appear to
recede inward.

28. The Power of Color
• The Power of Color
Flash link