Color Theory 101
Color is one of the most expressive elements because
its quality affects our emotions directly and immediately.
- In representational art, color serves to identify objects
and to create the effect of illusionistic space
Janet Fish
Orange Bowl and Yellow Apples
1980, Oil on canvas
Red, Yellow & Blue
Roy LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997)
Untitled
1974
Silkscreen 82/100
113 cm x 90 cm
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
Primary color scheme
When you mix a primary color with a primary color next
to it on the color wheel you get a secondary color.
Yellow+Blue=Green
Red+Yellow=Orange
Blue+Red=Violet
To achieve Tertiary Colors you mix the primary & secondary colors
next to each other on the color wheel.
Warm and cool color schemes
Cool colors
Warm colors
Local color (objective color)
Henri Fantin-Latour
French, 1836 - 1904
Still Life, 1866
oil on canvas, 62 x 74.8 cm (24 3/8 x 29 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Marie Laurencin, 1925
Mother and child
Oil on canvas
Subjective color
Subjective colors are when the colors do not represent the actual local color.
Local or subjective?
Poplars on the Banks of the River Epte, Sunset
Claude Monet, 1891
The Athenaeum
Andy Warhol
Complementary Color scheme
Complementary colors: colors opposite each
Elvis I and II 1964
silkscreen on acrylic, on aluminum
208.3 x 208.3 cm
other on the color wheel
Red/Green
Orange/Blue
Yellow/Violet
Conditioned color & Neutralized Color
Conditioned color & atmospheric conditioning-
colors appear more intense in the foreground
and have a lesser value in background
Conditioned color & Neutralized Color
Neutralized color - color intensity is neutralized by adding
its complement or a neutral color, white, black or grey.
Local Color
Tonal Color
Reflected Color
Reflected color -any object you look at is influenced by the color of the environment.
Local color: the actual color of an object
Tonal
color:
the
color variations
that result
from the effects of light and shadow.
These
colors
are
reflections
of surrounding
objects.
Warm color scheme
Atmospheric
conditioning
Neutralized
colors
The Wolf River, Kansas
Albert Bierstadt
c.1859
Oil on canvas
48 1/8 x 38 1/8 inches
(122.5 x 97.1 cm)
The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit,
USA
Cool color scheme
Pablo Picasso,
The Tragedy, 1903, oil
on wood, 1.053 x .690
m (41 7/16 x 27 3/16
in.), National Gallery of
Art, Washington,
Color evokes mood
Michelangelo Merisi called Caravaggio
Madonna dei Palafrenieri (1605)
oil on canvas
cm. 2,92x2,11
Borghese Gallery
Light intensity
- a color appears
lighter when the color
around it is darker
Liubov Popova
Analogous
Colors
Analogous Colors – colors that have ‘neighboring’ hues,
contain one common color from the color wheel.
Sitzender weiblicher Akt, 1914,
Oil on canvas
106 x 87 cm
Museum Ludwig
Warm or cool color scheme?
Analogous or complementary
color schemes?
Paul Cezanne 1839-1906
Landscape, 1900
Oil on canvas
h62.2 cm , w 51.5 cm
Georges Seurat
French, 1859-1891
A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884
Oil on canvas
207.5 x 308 cm
Optical color mixtures are when the artist depends on the eye to mix the colors.
Optical color
mixture
Local color?
Complementary
color scheme?
Chuck Close
Lyle, 2002
Chuck Close (American, born 1940)
147-color silk screen
65 1/2 x 53 7/8 in.
Edition of 80
Henri Matisse:
Portrait of Madame Matisse.
The Green Line,1905.
40,50 x 32,5 cm
Oil on canvas
What are the color relationships in
Matisse’s painting of Madame Matisse?
Shepard Fairey
Fidel 22″x31″ 3 Color Screenprint
Red is an incredibly intense color, it stimulates the heart and breathing to increase pace
Red cars are popular targets of thieves
Red can cause you to feel hunger
Mark McDevitt
Shopping cart (orange) art print 12 x 12 inches
Orange can make you feel enthusiastic
It can increase your appetite
Orange increases the oxygen flow to the brain
Bernadette Sipkes
"Tree Trunk Owl”"
Yellow can cause people to lose their tempers
Yellow makes babies cry, and is hard for the eye to take in
Yellow also enhances concentration
It speeds metabolism
anika mari
Palm Print
Green can improve vision and is easy on the eye
Green also relaxes people, this is the reason actors wait in “green rooms” before appearing
on television
Though Green is relaxing it is said to bring bad luck
Humans see more shades of green than any other color.
Andy Pratt
Manhattan #2
Andy Warhol
Marilyn
Pink is a tranquilizing and romantic color
Sports teams often paint the opposing teams locker rooms pink to make them loose energy
Can cause you to abandon logic thinking and become sensitive
Owen Mundy
Work from “Give Me My Data”
White makes people feel a sense of innocence and purity
Paper Design
Brown is calming
Brown can convey sadness and isolation
It can also cause a sense of warmth, comfort, and security
Rachel Constantine
Eclipse 6" x 6"
Shows authority and power
Implies submission
Priests wear black to signify submission to god
Black also suggests aloofness or evil
Can cause one to feel rebelliousness
Not all of these colors are associated with the same emotions around the world. Some
cultures respond differently to different colors.
Most of the preceding information is true for most American people, though some people
will respond differently based upon events and memories in their background. Therefore
psychological effects of colors can vary on an individual basis.
Sub-conscious effects are usually the same for all people.
Christopher Williams
Sub-conscious effects such as :
"Subliminal Chloroform"
Appetite changes associated with red
The healing effects of green
Loss of energy associated with pink.
The increase of blood and oxygen flow to the brain associated with Orange