COLOR THEORY
10/16/06 Art Docent Session with Beverly Gilbert
Visible Light (the Science!)
• Sunlight - full electromagnetic spectrum (10-6 nm gamma rays – 100km radio)
• Visible light - wavelengths 400nm (violet) to 700 nm (red) – 1 billionth of meter!
o White light is mixture of all colors of visible spectrum
o Black is total absence of light
• Color perceived when visible light hits an object and some wavelengths bounce through the pupils in our eyes causing chemical reactions in our retina.
• Retina filled with 2 kinds of special cells: Rods and Cones. Each creates a unique chemical reaction when light hits it and passes that info to our brain.
• Rods let you see black and white – night vision. Can be damaged if eyes unprotected in bright light.
• Cones let you see color (distinguish 10 million colors!). In some people the cones are not calibrated in the same way as the average person – these people can be color deficient.
More info:
www.eosweb
http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/EDDOCS/Wavelengths_for_Colors.html (Atmospheric Science Data Center)
www.hhmi.org (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) search under 'ask a scientist number of visible colors'
http://www.thetech.org/exhibits/online/color/overview/
Color Mixing
The kids mixed colors right on paper with pastels and water colors to make the basic color wheel
• Primary colors
o Red
o Yellow
o Blue
• Secondary colors – mixture of 2 primary colors
o Red + Yellow = Orange
o Yellow + Blue = Green
o Blue + Red = Violet (Purple)
• Tertiary colors – mixture of 1 primary color and 1 secondary color
o Red-Orange
o Yellow-Orange
o Yellow-Green
o Blue-Green
o Blue-Violet
o Red –Violet
• Hue – another name for color
• Tint – add white
• Tone – add gray
• Shade – add black
• Value – lightness or darkness of a color
Color Relationships
• Monochromatic – Using one color (including shades, tints or tones)
• Analogous – Using colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel
• Complementary – Using colors opposite each other on the color wheel
Next time we will make a color wheel with primary, secondary and tertiary colors in acrylics, discuss color relationships then work on some projects using these concepts!
|