Elizabeth Estervig
 
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Color Theory


Additive Color systems are composed of light.

The Primary Colors are Green, Red, and Blue.  

When you mix two of the primaries together you get Secondary Colors: Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta.  

If you cross all of the Primary Colored lights in the middle you will get White light. 


The next color variable is hue.  Hue is what is usually associated with color, and is usually referred to by the colloquial name of the color such as "blue" or "cyan."

A value scale of cyan is shown to the right.  

All hues, however, do not start out on the same level of value.  Yellow for instance starts off with a very light value, but purple starts with a very dark value.

Determining the base color off of the chart below depends on the color's intensity.  Using magenta as an example, the middle color in the column looks the most bright, or least touched with a mixture of black, white, or grey.

Every color is effected by its surroundings.  The steps look darker on top because the value of the orange is lighter than the blue, and the next step below looks darker in contrast. 


Note the contrast of Value.

Note in this image high and low contrast with value and intensity.

 

Gesalt Grouping Principles

There are two main systems of color theory: subtractive color systems and additive color systems.  


Subtractive color systems include ink, paint, or other solid media. 

This color wheel is based off of ink. Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta are the three Primary Colors.

Primary Colors are the colors in a color system which when mixed are used to create all of the other colors.

The Secondary Colors, colors made up of two Primary Colors, in this color system are Green, Red, and Blue.

When you mix all of the Primary Colors together in this system, theoretically you get Black.


Colors can be accurately described through three variables: value, hue, and intensity.  

Value, shown in the seven step scale to the left, indicates the scale from white to black.

The strip on the left of the scale is a median grey. Note the optical illusion of the grey looking darker against the white at the top and lighter against the dark at the bottom.  This demonstrates the principles of a color being dependent on it's 


All steps of the value scale are on equal visual steps, not based on equal parts of media.

Complementary Hues are colors from the opposite side of any color wheel.  Theoretically colors at the opposite ends of a color scale and theoretically when combined at at equal values they will appear grey.  

On the scale to the bellow the middle colors appear grey because they are two complementary colors integrated with each other. 

Looking closely at each of the steps bellow, covering surrounding steps with fingers or paper, the evenness of the color is apparent, but note how the steps look darker at the top and lighter at the bottom.  This is called simultaneous contrast.