Color is what our eyes see that is reflected or absorbed by light. There are three primary colors - red, yellow, and blue - that can be combined to create all other colors. Secondary colors like orange, green, and purple are created by mixing two primary colors. Color schemes use different types of colors arranged together, such as complementary, analogous, warm, cool, and monochromatic colors. Effective use of color considers both harmony, which creates a pleasing balance, and context, or how color relates to other elements and makes people feel.

1. COLOR

2. What is COLOR?
Definition: What our eyes see that is
being reflected or absorbed by the light
• Therefore, without light, you can not see color!
• One of the most dominant Elements of Art
• Color Scheme: An arrangement of colors

3. PRIMARY COLORS: Red, Yellow, Blue
• When combined, they create “all the other colors”
• No colors can be combined to create them

4. SECONDARY COLORS: Orange, Green,
Purple
• When mixing two primary colors, your result is a
secondary color
• Red + Yellow = Orange
• Red + Blue = Purple
• Blue + Yellow = Green

5. TERTIARY/ INTERMEDIATE COLORS:
Red Orange, Red Violet, Blue Violet, Blue Green
Yellow Green, Yellow Orange
• DEFINITION: The result of when you mix a primary
color with a secondary color

6. COMPLEMENTARY COLORS:
Colors directly across one another on the color
wheel
• Blue & Orange
• Red & Green
• Yellow & Purple
• Red Violet & Yellow Green
• Blue Violet & Yellow Orange
• Blue Green & Red Orange

7. ANALOGOUS COLORS:
Three colors directly next to each other on the
color wheel Ex. Yellow, yellow green, green

8. WARM COLORS:
Colors that evoke the feeling of warmth and heat.
Red, yellow, orange, pink.

9. COOL COLORS:
Colors that evoke the feeling of coolness. Blue,
green, purple.

10. NEUTRAL COLORS:
Achromatic, or have no color. Usually called “earth tones.”
Black, white, gray, ivory, beige, brown. These do not
appear on the color wheel.

11. MONOCHROMATIC COLORS:
Color scheme derived from a single hue, extended
from its tints and shades.
• Hue - color
• Tint- when you add white to a color, ex. Pink is a tint of red
• Shade- when you add black to a color, ex. Navy Blue is a
shade of blue
• Value- lightness or darkness of a hue

12. What’s the point??
Color Harmony and Color Context
• Color Harmony – Pleases the eye by engaging the viewer
and creating an inner sense of balance and order. When
something is not harmonious, it’s either boring or chaotic. The
human brain will reject under stimulating information. At the
other extreme is a visual experience that is so overdone and so
chaotic, a viewer can’t stand to look at it. The human brain
rejects what it can not organize and what it can not understand.
Color harmony delivers visual interest and a sense of order.

13. What’s the point??
Color Harmony and Color Context
• Color Context – How color behaves in relation to other
colors and shapes. How it makes a viewer feel.