An Introduction to COLOR THEORY

by Lawrence

Montgomery

artist in residence SOTA, school of the arts

All graphics by Lawrence Montgomery

Color is one of the most expressive elements because its quality affects our emotions directly and immediately. - In representational art, color serves to identify objects and to create the effect of illusionistic space

Janet Fish

Orange Bowl and Yellow Apples 1980, Oil on canvas

Red, Yellow & Blue

Roy LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997) Untitled 1974 Silkscreen 82/100 113 cm x 90 cm Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art

Primary color scheme

When you mix a primary color with a primary color next to it on the color wheel you get a secondary color.

Yellow+Blue=Green Red+Yellow=Orange Blue+Red=Violet

To achieve Tertiary Colors you mix the primary & secondary colors next to each other on the color wheel.

Warm and cool color schemes

Cool colors

Warm colors

Local color (objective color)

Henri Fantin-Latour French, 1836 - 1904 Still Life, 1866 oil on canvas, 62 x 74.8 cm (24 3/8 x 29 1/2 in.) National Gallery of Art, Washington

Marie Laurencin, 1925

Mother and child Oil on canvas

Subjective color

Subjective colors are when the colors do not represent the actual local color.

Local or subjective?

Poplars on the Banks of the River Epte, Sunset Claude Monet, 1891 The Athenaeum

Complementary Color scheme

Andy Warhol
Elvis I and II 1964 silkscreen on acrylic, on aluminum 208.3 x 208.3 cm

Complementary colors: colors opposite each

other on the color wheel

Red/Green Orange/Blue Yellow/Violet

Conditioned color & Neutralized Color

Conditioned color & atmospheric conditioningcolors appear more intense in the foreground and have a lesser value in background

Conditioned color & Neutralized Color

Neutralized color - color intensity is neutralized by adding its complement or a neutral color, white, black or grey.

Local Color

Tonal Color

Reflected Color

Reflected color -any object you look at is influenced by the color of the environment. Local color: the actual color of an object Tonal color: the color variations that result from the effects of light and shadow. These colors are reflections of surrounding objects.

Warm color scheme

Atmospheric conditioning Neutralized colors

The Wolf River, Kansas Albert Bierstadt c.1859 Oil on canvas 48 1/8 x 38 1/8 inches (122.5 x 97.1 cm) The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, USA

Cool color scheme

Pablo Picasso, The Tragedy, 1903, oil on wood, 1.053 x .690 m (41 7/16 x 27 3/16 in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington,

Color evokes mood

Michelangelo Merisi called Caravaggio Madonna dei Palafrenieri (1605) oil on canvas cm. 2,92x2,11 Borghese Gallery

Light intensity
- a color appears lighter when the color around it is darker

Liubov Popova
Sitzender weiblicher Akt, 1914, Oil on canvas 106 x 87 cm Museum Ludwig

Analogous Colors Analogous Colors colors that have neighboring hues, contain one common color from the color wheel.

Warm or cool color scheme?

Analogous or complementary color schemes?

Paul Cezanne 1839-1906 Landscape, 1900 Oil on canvas h62.2 cm , w 51.5 cm

Georges Seurat French, 1859-1891 A Sunday on La Grande Jatte1884 Oil on canvas 207.5 x 308 cm

Optical color mixtures are when the artist depends on the eye to mix the colors.

Optical color mixture Local color? Complementary color scheme?

Chuck Close Lyle, 2002 Chuck Close (American, born 1940) 147-color silk screen 65 1/2 x 53 7/8 in. Edition of 80

Henri Matisse: Portrait of Madame Matisse. The Green Line,1905. 40,50 x 32,5 cm Oil on canvas

What are the color relationships in Matisses painting of Madame Matisse?