Elements of Color

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Chroma and Value

  • every color can be defined in terms of hue and chroma
  • third dimension of color is the value of lightness (color space/color solid)
  • Munsell System
    • example: YR 7/2
      • letters "Y" and "R" stand for yellow-red
      • first number stands for value ranging from black (0) to white (10)
      • second number refers to chroma, counting upwards to the strongest intensity possible
  • Peak value/home value: a given hue reaches its greatest chroma at one particular value
  • Painting neon:
    • example: paint the neon bulb in a pure tint of red-orange and to surround it with a flood of red-orange at mid-value
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Local Color
  • color of the surface of an object as it appears close up in white light
  • generally, the colors you mix in a painting will involve modulation of the local color
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Grays and Neutrals
  • opposites of intense colors
    • more paintings fail because of too much intense color rather than too much gray
  • provide a setting for bright color accents
  • create a quiet, reflective mood
  • there is no single gray color
    • gray can be mixed from various combinations of colors
    • good idea to mix them with complementary pairs
  • "Better gray than garish," - Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
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The Green Problem
  • human eye is more sensitive to yellow-green than any other color
  • clients are not attracted to paintings with a strong, greenish cast, unless it was handled carefully
  • professional painters cut back on the green in a landscape
  • Tips:
    • banish green pigments by mixing them from various blues and yellows. The resulting mixtures will be weaker and more varied
    • avoid monotony, vary your mixtures
    • mix up pink or reddish gray and weave it in and out of the greens (smuggling reds)
    • prime the canvas with pinks or reds
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Gradation
  • usually you will need to mix the colors carefully before applying it to the canvas
  • gradation is found everywhere in nature from large to small scale
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Tints
  • adding white to a color raises it to a tint or a pastel color
    • typical of distant hues on a hazy day
  • you can also apply the color as a thin, transparent layer over white (leads to a more chromatic tint)

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