Introduction To Color Studies

Primary Color

Three primary colors: red, blue, and yellow. They are called primary colors because they cannot be created by mixing other colors. Primary colors form the basis for color theory or color mixing, as using these three colors it's possible to mix most other colors.

Secondary Color

A secondary color is a color made by mixing two primary colors together: red and yellow to get orange, yellow and blue to get green, or red and blue to get purple. The secondary color depends on the proportion in which you mix the two primaries.

Tertiary Colors

They're created by mixing either all three primary colors or a primary and secondary color (secondary colors of course being made from two primaries).

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Color Wheel

A color wheel (also referred to as a color circle) is a visual representation of colors arranged according to their chromatic relationship. Begin a color wheel by positioning primary hues equidistant from one another, then create a bridge between primaries using secondary and tertiary colors.

Warm and Cool Color

Reds, oranges, and yellows are considered warm colors.
Blues, greens, and purples are considered cool colors.

Tint, Shade and Tone 

A tint is a mixing result of an original color to which has been added white. If you tinted a color, you've been adding white to the original color. 

A tint is lighter than the original color.

There is a broader and a narrower definition of tone.

The broader definition defines tone as a result of mixing a pure color with any neutral/grayscale color including the two extremes white and black. By this definition all tints and shades are also considered to be tones.

A shade is a mixing result of an original color to which has been added black.

A shade is darker than the original color.
















Achromatic

Black and white rendering is officially called Achromatic. Both are great for practicing rendering value, and contrast of the painting.

Original image

Final Outcame

Monochromatic

The monochromatic color scheme uses variations in lightness and saturation of a single color. This scheme looks clean and elegant. Monochromatic colors go well together, producing a soothing effect.

Original image

Final Outcame

Warm and Cool Color

Original image

Final Outcame

Color Harmony

Color harmony is used to describe which colors go well together to create a decorative space that is appealing to the eye. The color wheel is used to match shades together.

Analogous

Analogous color schemes use colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. They usually match well and create serene and comfortable designs.

Complementary

Colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel are considered to be complementary colors (example: orange and blue).

Split-Complementary 

The split-complementary color scheme is a variation of the complementary color scheme. In addition to the base color, it uses the two colors adjacent to its complement.

Triad

A triadic color scheme uses colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel.
They form a triangle on the color wheel and are colors that cannot be mixed from any other colors. These are the only colors that can be found in nature.

Rectangle (tetradic)

The rectangle or tetradic color scheme uses four colors arranged into two complementary pairs.

Packaging Extract

Pixelate

Pixelation is the display of a digitized image where the individual pixels are apparent to a viewer. This can happen unintentionally when a low-resolution image designed for an ordinary computer display is projected on a large screen and each pixel becomes separately viewable.