Color Theory
Color Theory
Color Theory
Color theory
In the visual arts, color theory is a body of practical guidance to color mixing and the visual
effects of a specific color combination. Color terminology based on the color wheel and its
geometry separates colors into primary color, secondary color, and tertiary color. Understanding
color theory dates to antiquity. Aristotle (d. 322 BCE) and Claudius Ptolemy (d. 168 CE) already
discussed which and how colors can be produced by mixing other colors. The influence of light on
color was investigated and revealed further by al-Kindi (d. 873) and Ibn al-Haytham (d.1039). Ibn
Sina (d. 1037), Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (d. 1274) and Robert Grosseteste (d. 1253) discovered that
contrary to the teachings of Aristotle, there are multiple color paths to get from black to white[1].
[2]
More modern approaches to color theory principles can be found in the writings of Leone
Battista Alberti (c. 1435) and the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (c. 1490). A formalization of
"color theory" began in the 18th century, initially within a partisan controversy over Isaac
Newton's theory of color (Opticks, 1704) and the nature of primary colors. From there it developed
as an independent artistic tradition with only superficial reference to colorimetry and vision
science.
The application of color theory ranges from ancient Egyptian uses to modern commercial
advertising. Colors affect our mood and perception. In ancient civilizations, color was explored for
its healing properties. Phototherapy (light therapy) was practiced in ancient Egypt, Greece, China
and India. The Egyptians utilized sunlight as well as color for healing.[3] Color has been
investigated for its healing potential since 2000 BC.[4]
Contents
Classifications
Color abstractions
Historical background
Traditional color theory
Complementary colors
Warm vs. cool colors
Achromatic colors
Tints and shades
Split primary colors
Color harmony
Monochromatic
Current status
See also
References
External links
Classifications
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Color abstractions
The foundations of pre-20th-century color theory
were built around "pure" or ideal colors,
characterized by different sensory experiences
rather than attributes of the physical world. This
has led to a number of inaccuracies in traditional
color theory principles that are not always
remedied in modern formulations.[5]
Another issue has been the tendency to describe Additive color mixing Subtractive color mixing
color effects holistically or categorically, for (such as in a computer) (such as in a printer)
example as a contrast between "yellow" and "blue"
conceived as generic colors, when most color
effects are due to contrasts on three relative attributes which define all colors:
The visual impact of "yellow" vs. "blue" hues in visual design depends on the relative lightness and
saturation of the hues.
These confusions are partly historical and arose in scientific uncertainty about the color perception
that was not resolved until the late 19th-century when the artistic notions were already
entrenched. They also arise from the attempt to describe the highly contextual and flexible
behavior of color perception in terms of abstract color sensations that can be generated
equivalently by any visual media.
Many historical "color theorists" have assumed that three "pure" primary colors can mix into all
possible colors, and any failure of specific paints or inks to match this ideal performance is due to
the impurity or imperfection of the colorants. In reality, only imaginary "primary colors" used in
colorimetry can "mix" or quantify all visible (perceptually possible) colors; but to do this, these
imaginary primaries are defined as lying outside the range of visible colors; i.e., they cannot be
seen. Any three real "primary" colors of light, paint or ink can mix only a limited range of colors,
called a gamut, which is always smaller (contains fewer colors) than the full range of colors
humans can perceive.[6]
Historical background
Color theory was originally formulated in terms of three "primary" or "primitive" colors—red,
yellow and blue (RYB)—because these colors were believed capable of mixing all other colors.[7]
The RYB primary colors became the foundation of 18th-century theories of color vision, as the
fundamental sensory qualities that are blended in the perception of all physical colors, and
conversely, in the physical mixture of pigments or dyes. These theories were enhanced by 18th-
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For much of the 19th-century artistic color theory either lagged behind scientific understanding or
was augmented by science books written for the lay public, in particular Modern Chromatics
(1879) by the American physicist Ogden Rood, and early color atlases developed by Albert Munsell
(Munsell Book of Color, 1915, see Munsell color system) and Wilhelm Ostwald (Color Atlas, 1919).
Major advances were made in the early 20th century by artists teaching or associated with the
German Bauhaus, in particular Wassily Kandinsky, Johannes Itten, Faber Birren and Josef Albers,
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Complementary colors
One reason the artist's primary colors work at all is due to the
imperfect pigments being used have sloped absorption curves,
and change color with concentration. A pigment that is pure
red at high concentrations can behave more like magenta at Primary, secondary, and tertiary
low concentrations. This allows it to make purples that would colors of the RYB color model
otherwise be impossible. Likewise, a blue that is ultramarine at
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high concentrations appears cyan at low concentrations, allowing it to be used to mix green.
Chromium red pigments can appear orange, and then yellow, as the concentration is reduced. It is
even possible to mix very low concentrations of the blue mentioned and the chromium red to get a
greenish color. This works much better with oil colors than it does with watercolors and dyes.
The old primaries depend on sloped absorption curves and pigment leakages to work, while newer
scientifically derived ones depend solely on controlling the amount of absorption in certain parts
of the spectrum.
Another reason the correct primary colors were not used by early artists is they were not available
as durable pigments. Modern methods in chemistry were needed to produce them.
The distinction between "warm" and "cool" colors has been important since at least the late 18th
century.[8] The difference (as traced by etymologies in the Oxford English Dictionary), seems
related to the observed contrast in landscape light, between the "warm" colors associated with
daylight or sunset, and the "cool" colors associated with a gray or overcast day. Warm colors are
often said to be hues from red through yellow, browns, and tans included; cool colors are often
said to be the hues from blue-green through blue violet, most grays included. There is a historical
disagreement about the colors that anchor the polarity, but 19th-century sources put the peak
contrast between red-orange and greenish-blue.
Color theory has described perceptual and psychological effects to this contrast. Warm colors are
said to advance or appear more active in a painting, while cool colors tend to recede; used in
interior design or fashion, warm colors are said to arouse or stimulate the viewer, while cool colors
calm and relax.[9] Most of these effects, to the extent they are real, can be attributed to the higher
saturation and lighter value of warm pigments in contrast to cool pigments; brown is a dark,
unsaturated warm color that few people think of as visually active or psychologically arousing.
The traditional warm/cool association of a color is reversed relative to the color temperature of a
theoretical radiating black body; the hottest stars radiate blue (cool) light, and the coolest radiate
red (warm) light.
The hottest radiating bodies (e.g. stars) have a "cool" color, while the less hot bodies radiate
with a "warm" color. (image is in Kelvin scale)
This contrast is further seen in the psychological associations of colors with the Doppler effect seen
in astronomical objects. Traditional psychological associations, where warm colors are associated
with advancing objects and cool colors with receding objects, are directly opposite those seen in
astrophysics, where stars or galaxies moving towards our viewpoint on Earth are blueshifted
(advancing) and stars or galaxies moving away from Earth are redshifted (receding).
Achromatic colors
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Black and white have long been known to combine "well" with almost any other colors; black
decreases the apparent saturation or brightness of colors paired with it and white shows off all
hues to equal effect.
When mixing colored light (additive color models), the achromatic mixture of spectrally balanced
red, green, and blue (RGB) is always white, not gray or black. When we mix colorants, such as the
pigments in paint mixtures, a color is produced which is always darker and lower in chroma, or
saturation, than the parent colors. This moves the mixed color toward a neutral color—a gray or
near-black. Lights are made brighter or dimmer by adjusting their brightness, or energy level; in
painting, lightness is adjusted through mixture with white, black, or a color's complement.
It is common among some painters to darken a paint color by adding black paint—producing
colors called shades—or lighten a color by adding white—producing colors called tints. However, it
is not always the best way for representational painting, as an unfortunate result is for colors to
also shift in hue. For instance, darkening a color by adding black can cause colors such as yellows,
reds, and oranges, to shift toward the greenish or bluish part of the spectrum. Lightening a color
by adding white can cause a shift towards blue when mixed with reds and oranges. Another
practice when darkening a color is to use its opposite, or complementary, color (e.g. purplish-red
added to yellowish-green) in order to neutralize it without a shift in hue, and darken it if the
additive color is darker than the parent color. When lightening a color this hue shift can be
corrected with the addition of a small amount of an adjacent color to bring the hue of the mixture
back in line with the parent color (e.g. adding a small amount of orange to a mixture of red and
white will correct the tendency of this mixture to shift slightly towards the blue end of the
spectrum).
In painting and other visual arts, two-dimensional color wheels or three-dimensional color solids
are used as tools to teach beginners the essential relationships between colors. The organization of
colors in a particular color model depends on the purpose of that model: some models show
relationships based on human color perception, whereas others are based on the color mixing
properties of a particular medium such as a computer display or set of paints.
This system is still popular among contemporary painters, as it is basically a simplified version of
Newton's geometrical rule that colors closer together on the hue circle will produce more vibrant
mixtures. However, with the range of contemporary paints available, many artists simply add
more paints to their palette as desired for a variety of practical reasons. For example, they may add
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a scarlet, purple and/or green paint to expand the mixable gamut; and they include one or more
dark colors (especially "earth" colors such as yellow ochre or burnt sienna) simply because they are
convenient to have premixed. Printers commonly augment a CMYK palette with spot (trademark
specific) ink colors.
Color harmony
It has been suggested that "Colors seen together to produce a pleasing affective response are said
to be in harmony".[10] However, color harmony is a complex notion because human responses to
color are both affective and cognitive, involving emotional response and judgment. Hence, our
responses to color and the notion of color harmony is open to the influence of a range of different
factors. These factors include individual differences (such as age, gender, personal preference,
affective state, etc.) as well as cultural, sub-cultural, and socially-based differences which gives rise
to conditioning and learned responses about color. In addition, context always has an influence on
responses about color and the notion of color harmony, and this concept is also influenced by
temporal factors (such as changing trends) and perceptual factors (such as simultaneous contrast)
which may impinge on human response to color. The following conceptual model illustrates this
21st-century approach to color harmony:
wherein color harmony is a function (f) of the interaction between color/s (Col 1, 2, 3, …, n) and
the factors that influence positive aesthetic response to color: individual differences (ID) such as
age, gender, personality and affective state; cultural experiences (CE), the prevailing context (CX)
which includes setting and ambient lighting; intervening perceptual effects (P) and the effects of
time (T) in terms of prevailing social trends.[11]
Color wheel models have often been used as a basis for color
combination principles or guidelines and for defining
relationships between colors. Some theorists and artists believe
juxtapositions of complementary color will produce strong
contrast, a sense of visual tension as well as "color harmony";
while others believe juxtapositions of analogous colors will Georg Christoph Lichtenberg.
elicit a positive aesthetic response. Color combination Göttingen, 1775, plate III.
guidelines (or formulas) suggest that colors next to each other
on the color wheel model (analogous colors) tend to produce a
single-hued or monochromatic color experience and some theorists also refer to these as "simple
harmonies".[14]
In addition, split complementary color schemes usually depict a modified complementary pair,
with instead of the "true" second color being chosen, a range of analogous hues around it are
chosen, i.e. the split complements of red are blue-green and yellow-green. A triadic color scheme
adopts any three colors approximately equidistant around a color wheel model. Feisner and
Mahnke are among a number of authors who provide color combination guidelines in greater
detail.[15][16]
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Monochromatic
The monochromatic formula chooses only one color (or hue). Variations of the color are created by
changing the value and saturation of the color. Since only one hue is used, the color and its
variations are guaranteed to work.
Current status
Color theory has not developed an explicit explanation of how specific media affect color
appearance: colors have always been defined in the abstract, and whether the colors were inks or
paints, oils or watercolors, transparencies or reflecting prints, computer displays or movie
theaters, was not considered especially relevant.[20] Josef Albers investigated the effects of relative
contrast and color saturation on the illusion of transparency, but this is an exception to the
rule.[21]
See also
Additive color
Charles Albert Keeley
Color analysis
Color Field
Color management
Color mixing
Color psychology
Color scheme
Color wheel
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Color charge
Complementary colors
HSV color space
On Vision and Colors
Paint sheen
Subtractive color
Tints and shades
References
1. Smithson, H.E.; Dinkova-Bruun, G.; Gasper, G.E.M.; Huxtable, M.; McLeish, T.C.B.; Panti, C.P.
(2012). "A three-dimensional color space from the 13th century" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pmc/articles/PMC3287286). J. Opt. Soc. Am. A. 29 (2): A346–A352.
Bibcode:2012JOSAA..29A.346S (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012JOSAA..29A.346S).
doi:10.1364/josaa.29.00A346 (https://doi.org/10.1364%2Fjosaa.29.00A346). PMC 3287286 (ht
tps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3287286). PMID 22330399 (https://pubmed.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/22330399).
2. Kirchner, E. (2013). "Color theory and color order in medieval Islam: A review". Color Research
& Application. 40 (1): 5-16. doi:10.1002/col.21861 (https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fcol.21861).
3. "A comparative study on the treatment of migraine headache with combined distant and local
acupuncture points versus conventional drug therapy Shuyuan G, Donglan Z, Yanguang X. Am
J Acupunct 1999;27:27?30" (https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0161-4754(00)90237-9). Journal of
Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics. 23 (5): 376–377. June 2000. doi:10.1016/s0161-
4754(00)90237-9 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fs0161-4754%2800%2990237-9). ISSN 0161-
4754 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0161-4754).
4. Joann., Eckstut (22 October 2013). The secret language of color : science, nature, history,
culture, beauty of red, orange, yellow, green, blue & violet
(http://worldcat.org/oclc/828893320). ISBN 978-1-57912-949-1. OCLC 828893320 (https://ww
w.worldcat.org/oclc/828893320).
5. "handprint : colormaking attributes" (https://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/color6.html).
www.handprint.com. Retrieved 2021-07-31.
6. "Traditional and Modern Colour Theory Part 1: Modern Colour Theory" (http://www.huevaluech
roma.com/112.php). Retrieved 2021-10-15.
7. "The History of Color Theory: Must-Know Facts for Creatives - Pigment Pool" (https://pigment-
pool.com/the-history-of-color-theory-must-know-facts-for-creatives/). 30 July 2021. Retrieved
2021-07-31.
8. "color temperature" (http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/color12.html). handprint. 2009-04-19.
Retrieved 2011-06-09.
9. Singh, Satyendra (2006-01-01). "Impact of color on marketing" (https://doi.org/10.1108/002517
40610673332). Management Decision. 44 (6): 783–789. doi:10.1108/00251740610673332 (htt
ps://doi.org/10.1108%2F00251740610673332). ISSN 0025-1747 (https://www.worldcat.org/iss
n/0025-1747).
10. Burchett, K. E. (2002). "Color Harmony". Color Research and Application, 27 (1), pp. 28–31.
11. O'Connor, Z. (2010). "Color harmony revisited". Color Research and Application, 35 (4), pp.
267–273.
12. Pointer, M. R. & Attridge, G.G. (1998). "The number of discernible colors". Color Research and
Application, 23 (1), pp. 52–54.
13. Hard, A. & Sivik, L. (2001). "A theory of colors in combination – A descriptive model related to
the NCS color-order system". Color Research and Application, 26 (1), pp. 4–28.
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External links
Color Theory Tutorial by Worqx (http://www.worqx.com/color/)
Handprint.com : Color (http://handprint.com/HP/WCL/wcolor.html) – a comprehensive site
about color perception, color psychology, color theory, and color mixing
Color Differences (https://web.archive.org/web/20130510125645/http://www.byk.com/fileadmi
n/BYK/downloads/support-downloads/instruments/theory/color/en/Intro_Solid_Color.pdf)
Color Theory in Landscape Design (http://landscaping.about.com/od/flowersherbsgroundcover
1/a/flower_photos.htm)
The Dimensions of Colour (http://www.huevaluechroma.com/) – color theory for artists using
digital/ traditional media
Color Thesaurus (https://web.archive.org/web/20130701175235/http://www.hpl.hp.com/person
al/Nathan_Moroney/color-thesaurus.html) World's Largest Database of Color Names
Stanford University CS 178 interactive Flash demo (http://graphics.stanford.edu/courses/cs17
8/applets/locus.html) introducing trichromatic color theory.
App that generates harmonious color palettes from photos based on color theory (http://realcol
ors.makan-studios.com)
Color theory as it relates to interior decorating (https://www.wikihow.com/Pick-a-Color-for-an-A
ccent-Wall)
Applying Color Theory to Digital Media and Visualization (https://www.crcpress.com/Applying-
Color-Theory-to-Digital-Media-and-Visualization/Rhyne/p/book/9781498765497) – a book from
CRC Press
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