Primary colors: red, yellow and blue. Primary colors can be used to mix a wide range of colors. There are cool and warm primary colors. (i.e. warm cadmium red and cool vermilion red OR warm primary yellow and cool lemon yellow.
Secondary colors: orange, green and purple. Secondary colors are mixed by combining two primary colors.
Complementary colors: pairs of opposite colors on the color wheel: green-red, blue-orange and yellow purple.
Complementary colors are as contrasting as possible (i.e. there is no yellow at all in the color purple).
Painters like Andre Derain and van Gogh often made use of the contrasts of complementary colors in their paintings.
Tertiary colors: A wide range of natural or neutral colors. Tertiary colors are created by mixing two complementary colors. Tertiary colors are the colors of nature: skin, plants, wood, stone etc.
Tones: are created by adding black to any color. (i.e. maroon is a tone of red).
Tints: are created by adding white to any color. (i.e. pink is a tint of red).
Palette: the choice of colors an artist makes; i.e. ‘Van Gogh uses a vivid palette to paint his Arles landscapes’.
Limited palette: the selection of only a few colors within an artwork; i.e. ‘In this drawing, Matisse has used a limited palette of ultramarine blues and purples to create a moody, subdued atmosphere.’
Broad palette: the use of a wide range of different colors within an artwork; i.e. ‘Kandinsky’s paintings are instantly recognizable for their use of geometric shapes, but also for the broad palette of colors he employs.’
Tonal range: the range of tones in an artwork from light to dark. A wide tonal range would include all tones from white to black. A narrow tonal range would include only pale tones, only mid tones or only dark tones; i.e. ‘Kathe Kollowitz’s etchings make powerful use of a narrow tonal range to create oppressive, dark images.’
Opacity: the density or thickness of the color used; if the color is strong and nothing can be seen beneath it, the color is said to be opaque. Acrylic and oil colors are often opaque.
Transparency: thin, transparent color, with perhaps other colors, shapes and lines visible beneath it.
Watercolor paintings typically use transparent color.
Useful adjectives you might use when describing COLOR:
Saturated, bright, pure, vivid, strong, harsh, dramatic, vibrant, brilliant, intense, and powerful.
Muted, subtle, gentle, dull, soft, watery, subdued, delicate, gloomy, tertiary, faded, limited.