Art
105: Two-Dime nsional Design
Professor:
Kyle Stevenson
Project
5 vocabulary: Color
Reading:
Pipes- Intro to Design, Chapter 7,
pages 143-171
The Vocabulary of Color:
color: The perceptual
response to the wave lengths of visible light name d
red, green, blue and so on; having the attributes of hue, saturation, and
brightness.
color wheel: An arrangeme nt
of colors based on the sequence of hues in the visible spectrum, arranged as
the spokes of a wheel. The most common
is Itten’s 12-step wheel.
spectrum: The bands of identifiable hues that result
when a beam of white light is divided into its component wavelengths by a glass
prism.
compleme ntary
colors:
Two colors directly opposite each other on the color wheel. A primary color is compleme ntary to a secondary color, which is a mixture of
the two remaining primaries. Compleme ntary colors accentuate each other in
juxtaposition and neutralize each other in mixture.
primary colors: The brain accepts four colors- red, yellow,
green, and blue- as primaries, and this fact is reflected in the composition of
modern color wheels. The basic hues in
any color system may in theory be used to mix all other colors. In light, the three primaries are red, green
and blue; in pigme nts, the three
primary colors are red, yellow, and blue.
secondary colors: A color produced by a mixture of two primary
colors. In pigme nt
colors secondaries are orange, green, and purple (violet).
afterimage: The compleme ntary
color seen after staring at an area of intense color for a certain amount of time and then quickly glancing away toward a white
surface.
transmitted color: Light direct from an energy source, or shining through colored filters in a
theater or displayed on a computer screen via a cathode-ray tube. The primary colors of light are red, green,
and blue (RGB). Light color is inherently additive color.
pigme nt colors
(or subtractive colors): The materials in pigme nts
and dyes absorb different wavelengths of light, and reflect or retransmit
others. They are inherently subtractive:
a mixture of all pigme nt primaries-
red, yellow, and blue- will in theory produce black.
constancy effect: The proximity of other colors affects our
perception of colors; because we know grass to be green, we see it as green
even when it really appears blue-gray, as at twighlight.
additive color: Color created by superimposing light. Adding
together (or superimposing) the three primaries- red, blue, and green- will
produce white. The secondaries are cyan,
yellow, and magenta.
interme diate
color:
A color produced by a mixture of a primary color and a secondary color-
yellow-green, for example.
primary triad: On a 12 step color wheel, an equilateral
triangle with vertices (sharp corners) at the primaries. Similar triads join up the secondaries and
tertiaries.
saturation: The
strength or purity of a color, also known as intensity or chroma. A saturated color is bright and intense, a
pure hue, whereas a desaturated color has no hue and is called achromatic-
neutral gray, black, or white.
tone: A low-saturation
color produced by mixing a hue with a shade of gray or its compleme nt.
brightness: The relative lightness or darkness of a
color. Zero brightness is black and 100
percent is white; interme diate
values are light or dark colors, also called luminance or value.
value: a me asure of lightness or darkness of a color, also
known as brightness.
shade: A hue mixed with black.
tint: A hue mixed with
white.
high-key colors: A
color that has a value of middle gray or lighter.
low-key colors: Any color that has a value level of middle
gray or darker.
flat color: An even area of color with no shading or
variation in value. In graphic design,
also known as match or spot color. The
Pantone Matching System (PMS) is an industry-standard collection of flat colors
used by printers.
visual mixing: Instead of mixing colors on the palette, dabs
of pure hues are juxtaposed on the canvas.
Any color mixing occurs in the eye and brain of the viewer.
pointillism: A
system of visual color mixing based on the juxtaposition of small dabs of pure
color on a white ground.
chromatic gray: Cull “almost neutral” colors, some time s
with a hint of brightness.
monochromatic color: Colors of one hue; the complete range of
value from white to black.
analogous colors: Colors that are closely related in hue,
usually near or adjacent to each other on the color wheel.
local color: Color as perceived in the real world under
ordinary daylight, the color we know objects to be- such as the green of grass;
also called objective color.
optical color: Color that has changed under different
lighting conditions according to the time
of day.
arbitrary color: Unnatural
colors that are the product of the artist’s imagination, or the result of an
emotional response or visual defect.
heightened colors: The
bright unnatural colors of, for example, van Gogh and Gauguin.
warm colors: Colors have subjective temperatures: red and
yellow we associate with fire and sunlight.
On the Itten color wheel, they
are the yellow to red-violet segme nt.
cool colors: Colors have subjective temperatures: blue and
green we associate with ice, water, or,
say crisp salads. On the Itten color wheel, they are the
yellow-green to violet segment.
