Exploring Color Theory

Color Theory

This year, 2005, I am teaching high school art. On this page you will find some of the resources that I have made for the color portion of the art course. While it is true that the student could and probably should draw these shapes to paint sometimes there simply isn't enough time and that is where these printables come in.

Best wishes to you and have fun teaching color theory. :-)

Supplies

• quality mixable paint in these colors: white, black, red, blue, and yellow
• paint brushes in various sizes
• paint mixing trays, water, paper towels and a protected surface for working
• paper that is paint friendly
• artist apron for each child (optional)

Color Terms:

Hue: Pure color without the addition of black, white, or gray

Tint: Color with white added.

Tone: Color with gray or its complement added.

Value: The relative darkness or lightness of a color.

Intensity: The strength of a color, especially the degree to which it lacks its complementary color.

Saturation: Vividness of hue; degree of difference from a gray of the same lightness or brightness.

Achromatic: Designating color perceived to have zero saturation and therefore no hue, such as neutral grays, white, or black.

The printables and a brief explanation of each one

Color Wheel Terms 

Primary Colors: Colors at their basic essence; those colors that cannot be created by mixing others... red, blue, yellow

Secondary Colors: The colors achieved by a mixture of two primaries... purple, orange, green

Tertiary Colors: The colors achieved by a mixture of primary and secondary hues.. red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green, yellow-green, yellow-orange

Complementary Colors: The colors located opposite each other on a color wheel.

Analogous Colors: The colors located close together on a color wheel and have a color in common.

Color Group Terms

Artists can use color groups for their palette to make a visually pleasing color scheme.
Triadic Colors: These are the colors that are evenly spaced on the color wheel.

Primary Triad

SecondaryTriad

Tertiary Triad

Tertiary Triad

Split-complementary color schemes Split complementary is a variation of complementary. There are 12 possible variations. In the first example below, the 3 colors connected are red, yellow-green, and blue-green. Green is the complement of red, but in a split complementary color scheme, the colors adjacent to the complement are used instead of the true complement.	Warm Colors The colors between yellow and red-purple make up the warm colors.
	Cool Colors The colors from yellow-green to purple are usually called cool colors.

Analogous Colors are any three colors on the color wheel that have a color in common and are adjacent on the color wheel

Complementary Colors are colors that are across from each other on the color wheel

Monochromatic Scheme uses one color and all of the tints, tones, and shades of that color.