Natural landscapes often inspire colors, with elements like the sky giving their name to shades like sky blue. Landscapes also influence color combinations for paintings and gardens, as sunsets may inspire warm palettes while forests suggest cooler greens. Color has three main features - hue (warm or cool colors), value (dark or light colors), and intensity (glossy or matte colors). Warm colors like red, orange and yellow remind us of heat, while cool blues and greens are calming. Dark colors convey mystery while light ones depict harmony. Glossy colors appear vibrant while matte colors emphasize texture.

1. BASIC FEATURES 1: COLOUR

2. Natural landscapes and colours are very closely related. On one hand,
some landscape elements give name to specific colours, such as:
sky blue
grass green
forest green
Atlantic blue
fire red
…

3. On the other hand, natural landscapes also inspire different colour combinations for a
painting or a garden design. For example, a sunset can inspire a warm colour scheme
or a forest can inspire a cool scheme with different shades of green. Each colour
scheme evokes a different psychological response.

4. Colour is one of the most important aspects to the design
of any landscape or the description of any scenery.
Colour can create a mood, evoke memories, make you
smile, relieve your stress or help you sleep.
Designers and art teachers are always using terms like
warm, cool, glossy, matte, dark or light when they talk
about colour. But what do they really mean?
COLOUR

5. COLOUR has got THREE MAIN FEATURES:
1) HUE: depending on their hue (tono) colours can be warm or cool.
2) VALUE: depending on their value (valor) colours can be dark or light.
3) INTENSITY: depending on their intensity (saturación) colours can be
glossy or matte.

6. As we said, depending on their hue
(tono) colours can be
warm or cool

7. WARM
COLOURS
They are made with orange,
red, yellow and
combinations of them all.
These colours make you
think of sunlight and heat.
They provide a sense of
intimacy and make you feel
cheerful and even
passionate. From happiness
to violence.

8. COOL COLOURS
Cool or cold colours are
blue, green and light
purple.
Cool colours remind us of
water and sky.
They have the ability to calm
and soothe. They make you
feel relaxed but also sad.

10. The Grand Canyon, Colorado (USA)
Uluru Rock, Northern Territory (AUSTRALIA)
A forest in Autumn in Canada

11. A Galician forest
A lavender field in Guadalajara
Cies Islands, Galicia
An ice-canyon in Greenland

12. Value is the lightness or darkness of
each colour. Depending on their value
colours can be DARK or LIGHT.
Artists add white to make a colour lighter (a
tint), add black to make a colour darker
(shade) or add white and black –grey- to
make a colour a different tone.

13. Let's take red, for example. When white is added to
red, it turns pink, a tint of red. When black or grey is
added to red, it turns maroon, a shade of red.
RED RED + WHITE = PINK RED + BLACK = MAROON

14. Value is important in the
landscape because the human
eye is drawn to tints and shades,
especially when tints, shades and
tones are used close together.
This creates a rich visual
combination that is more complex
and interesting than simply one
color used repeatedly without any
variation.

15. Some colours are dark in themselves, like violet, and others are
light in themselves, like yellow.
Dark colours are stronger tan light colours.

16. Artists use colour value –darkness or lightness- to create different moods.
Dark colours: in a composition suggest a lack
of light, as in a night or interior scene. Dark
colours can often convey a sense of mystery or
premonition.

17. Light colours: often describe a light source or light reflected on a part of the composition. Light colours
can convey harmony. On the other hand, colours get lighter as they go into the background and that
creates distance in the landscape.
Under Vanilla Skies” by Lori McNee
This serene environment was created by using
light-yellows and varied greens

18. As we said at the beginning, depending on their intensity colours can be
or matte

19. When several glossy or intense colors are used
together, they increase the intensity of one
another.
In contrast, when matte or less intense colours
are used together, the overall effect is softened
and less intense.

20. MATTE OR GLOSSY
A glossy image is shiny and makes colour
brighter, richer, and more vibrant. When
there is a lot of light, however, glossy can
blind because of light reflection and texture
is difficult to see.
A matte image is less glaring and makes the
colour darker and duller. However, it usually
improves texture.

22. Glossy makes
colours brighter,
more intense.
Matte makes
colours duller,
but adds texture.

24. 1) Depending on their _____ (tono)
colours can be
_____ or _____.
1) Depending on their _____ (valor)
colours can be
_____ or _____.
1) Depending on their _____ (saturación)
colours can be
_____ or _____.
Can you remember the three main characteristics of colour?