Part One: Introduction to Color Flashcards
additive color/mixture
Color seen as light: when their primary colors are combined the result is white light.
luminosity
the relative brightness of a color. (value)
subtractive color/mixture
the result of mixing color, such as paint or pigment. The result of mixing primary colors is a dull, dark tone.
spectrum
contains the full range of hues present in sunlight (rainbow).
hue continuum
a graphic representation of the full color spectrum from infrared to ultraviolet.
primary triad
indivisible colors that are red, yellow, and blue. All other colors can be mixed from it.
color wheel
circular depiction of the hue continuum.
complementary hues
any two hues that lie directly opposite each other on a color wheel. When intermixed, the result is a color darker and duller than both of the two parent colors.
saturation
relative purity of a color (richness, intensity, chroma).
value
relative quality of lightness of darkness in a color (luminosity).
overtone
color bias of a hue.
secondary triad
colors consisting of green, orange, and violet. Can be mixed by combining two primary colors.
co-primaries
the warm and cool versions of each primary color.
tones
a term that can refer to any color but a prismatic color.
tertiary colors
the resulting color formed when an equal amount of a primary and a secondary color are mixed. (yellow-orange, red-orange, blue-green, yellow-green, blue-violet, and red-violet.)
partitive mixture
which involves how light is affected by other colors, such as different objects reflecting light in a photograph.
T/F? Colors that seem similar, such as orange and yellow-orange, do so because their wavelengths are very different.
False
T/F? Variations in the color of light are most evident in lighter colors, such as tans, light
grays, and yellows.
True
T/F? Artificial light is typically relatively cool in temperature.
False
As waves of _______ are received in the lens of the eye, they are interpreted by
the brain as _______.
light; color
The secondary triad consists of the colors _______, _______, and _______.
orange; green; violet
Why is the idea that all possible colors can be mixed from the primary triad untrue?
The idea that all possible colors can be mixed from the
primary triad is based on the assumption that there are
pure pigments that represent the true primary colors but
none really exist; all red, yellow, and blue pigments are
visually biased, to a degree, toward one or another of
the colors that adjoin them.
Identify the perception of color, describing elementary
optics.
The perception of color takes place in the mind. As waves of light are received in the lens of the eye, they are interpreted by the brain as color.
Summarize the primary triad.
The primary triad is made up of (in theory) indivisible colors: red, yellow, and blue. They cannot be made by combining other colors. All other colors can be made by combining two or more colors of the primary triad (in an oversimplified theory).
Explain color overtone and its impact on color mixing.
Color overtone is a borrowed term from music that describes color bias (a color leaning towards a certain hue). As when colors are mixed, so do their overtones. This is important to understand in color mixing in order to create a specific color, because parent colors can be biased towards a color different than the target and knowing which color bias the parent colors lean towards can help predict the outcome of color mixing.
