COLOR THEORY
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 students received dollops of red, yellow and blue acrylics and mixed them to make the basic color wheel. We also discussed color terminology:
? 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
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