How important is colour?

From the moment we open our eyes as tiny babies

we are bombarded with colourful images which we
take for granted as part of everyday life. Only when
colour is removed or changed do we begin to
appreciate its significance, note the blue bananas.

As humans we rely heavily on colour in our

visual system for survival in early evolution.

Poisonous predator If food is ready to eat or not

It can draw your eye to an image. Sometimes it can trigger an emotional response.
It can even communicate something important without using words at all.
Who remembers this internet argument?
VSAUCE:
Is your red the same as my red?
Is this dress White & Gold or
Black & Blue?

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evQsOFQju08
 Primary Colours
Primary colours cannot be mixed from other colours.
Primary Colours are the source of every other colour.
Primary colours are red, blue and yellow.

< Tutankhamun & Ankhsenamun

Piet Mondrian >
c. 1327 BCE
Composition with Large Red Plane,
Yellow, Black, Grey and Blue
Roy Lichtenstein 1921
Whaam!
v 1963
Primary colours are the most vivid colours when
placed next to each other and are therefore the
most eye-catching.
This is why they are used in so many logos.
Their simplicity means they are also used a lot
when advertising for children.
Secondary Colours
The three secondary
colors (green, orange
and purple) are
created by mixing two
primary colors.
Tertiary Colours
Think of these as everything else.
• Tertiary colours are the result of mixing two
secondary colours together or by mixing one
primary and one secondary colour.

Depending on the ratio with

which these are mixed there
are endless potential
combinations, these are the
colours that fill in the colour
wheel to create the flowing,
rainbow look.
 Additive vs Subtractive colour methods.
Additive colours are colours which Subtractive colours are "impure". You
are "pure", i.e. colours add up to perceive RED pigment to be RED
form white light. A RED light looks because it reflects RED light
RED because it emits RED light. and absorbs everything except RED
light falling on it.
Now that you know about the colour wheel, let's take it one step
further with hue, saturation, and value. These are terms you might
not encounter in daily life, but they're the key to understanding more
nuanced colours—like all those little paint chips at Bunnings.

These are the words we use when discussing

how colour is used in an artwork.
 HUE
Hue is the easiest one; it's basically just another
word for colour.

Hue is the name of the colour

family to which a colour
belongs. A red-orange which
would have more red than
orange, would belong to the
family of reds, and so its hue
would be considered red.

In the example below, you

might describe the hue
as coral pink or light red,
depending on your
interpretation.
 Saturation Value
Saturation refers to intensity—in other words, Value has to do with how dark or light the
whether the colour appears more subtle or colour is, ranging from black to white.
more vibrant.

When a colour is fully

saturated, it is very vibrant. The value of any colour
When a colour is can be altered by
“desaturated,” a large
adding white, (creating
amount of the colour has
been removed. Desaturated
a tint) which raises the
colours tend to be close to value, or adding black
being neutral because there (creating a shade)
is so much grey in them. which lowers the value.

Highly saturated colours are As you can see below,

brighter or richer. this gives us many
Desaturated colours have
different shades, from a
less pigment and are
therefore less eye-catching. deep reddish brown to
a light pastel pink.
Colour temperature is strongly linked to
colour depth. Warm colours appear to have
a radiant heat and cool colours appear to
generate a coolness.

Colour has the ability to advance toward a

viewer or appear to recede away. The rule
of thumb has been that warm colours
advance and cool colours recede. Think of
it this way… warm colours as in those in
sunlight and the blues in your background
that create depth.
 Complementary
C o m p l e m e n t a ry not C o m p l i m e n t a r y

Opposites on the colour wheel.

When they are placed next to each
other, they make the other appear
more intense and brighter. This is a
phenomenon in Color Theory called
Simultaneous Contrast.

Being opposite, one color is always

cool and the other always warm.
Plus the 2 colors are always a
combination of all three Primary
Colors meaning one completes or
‘complements’.

The fact that the two opposites ‘complete’ each other means
that they will also neutralize each other when mixed together.
Animation

Film

Logos
 Colour schemes
Monochromatic
The simplest colour scheme
is monochromatic because it only uses one
colour or hue. To create a monochromatic
colour scheme, pick a spot on the colour
wheel, then use your
knowledge
of saturation and value
to create variations.
 Colour schemes
The word ‘analogous’ is defined as two things with a

Analogous
similar function or feature that are comparable to
one another. Thus, the three colours are analogous
because of their close relationship to one another.

• Analogous colours are colours that are next to each other on

the colour wheel. For example, yellow, green-yellow, and
green are categorized as analogous colours.
• Artists and Interior designers often use analogous colours to
because it gives it a sense of harmony.

Claude Monet
Water Lilies (Nymphéas)
c. 1916

Vincent Van Gogh

Wheat Field with
Cypresses
1889
 Colour schemes

Analogous colours are

pleasing to the human eye
and are found abundantly in
nature. If you look closely you
will start to notice this
natural-occurring trend.