Three primary colors

The first thing you need to understand is that there are only three colors in painting that cannot be obtained by mixing others. These colors - yellow, red and blue - are known as primary (base) colors. They form the middle (basis) of the color wheel.

If you mix two primary colors, you get the so-called "additional" (or secondary) color. Red and blue, when mixed, make purple, red and yellow make orange, and finally blue and yellow make green. The specific shade of the complementary color depends on what kind of yellow, blue and red you use and in what proportions you mix them. If you mix a primary color with a secondary color, you get a tertiary color.

Black and white also cannot be obtained by mixing, but they belong to the group of monochrome colors and do not participate in mixing chromatic colors.

Cold and warm colors

Each color "leans" towards one or the other. This is not always evident, sometimes the warmth or coldness of the color is barely distinguishable. But cold must be distinguished from warm, because when mixed, these properties have a serious impact on the result.

Among the primary colors, yellow and red are warm, and blue is cool. In addition, if you make comparisons among species of the same color, you will find that among reds, yellows and blues there are warmer and colder shades. True, this is only relevant in terms of comparison: yellow will never be truly cold, but only colder than another yellow - otherwise it is no longer yellow, but some other color.

If you mentally move along the color circle, it becomes clear that each color has a relative "temperature". When moving from a cold "pole" to a warm one, the "temperature" of the color increases, and when moving in the opposite direction - from warm to cold - this "temperature" falls.

The difference between warm and cold shades is very important to understand and capture. Thanks to this knowledge, it will be possible to correctly convey the time of day - a sunny day or bluish twilight, the right mood and atmosphere - sad or joyful, etc. In addition, it will help the artist to correctly play on the contrast of warm and cold, which also has a very impressive effect when used correctly.
That's all for today, next time we will continue our conversation about color theory. Good luck painting!

Often I look at pictures without a single word-comment.
Neither about the author nor about his works

You have to "google" yourself

I want to understand color - composition - perspective - technique, etc.

This post is an attempt at educational program in the field of painting

When used correctly, colors can convey a mood and evoke an emotional attitude in the viewer. The correct use of colors is one of the most important conditions for a successful drawing. Knowledge about the use of color is not inherited, it is learned.

There are rules to be followed and others to be ignored, but every artist who wants to be successful in his craft must start from the ground up. -

from color theory.

There is a vast amount of scientific material available; however, most of them are far from artists.

1. Three properties of color

Before delving into color theory, it is necessary to understand its basic principles. Let's look at the so-called three color properties. These properties represent the common language of color theory and should always be in the artist's mind.

- Hue- the name of a particular color (for example, red, blue, yellow).


- Saturation- this is the pallor or darkening of a shade (color).
- Intensitydetermines the brightness or dullness of the hue (color). Pure shades are high intensity.

Dull shades - respectively, have a low intensity.
These three color properties will depend on many things, but mostly on the light in your painting.

Color circle
A color wheel based on red, yellow and blue is a traditional form of color scheme in art.

Basic colors
There are three basic colors:

red, yellow and blue.

These are three pigment colors that cannot be mixed or obtained by mixing other colors.

Colors of the second group

These colors include green, orange and purple.

These colors are obtained by mixing base colors.

The colors of the first and second groups together form the six brightest colors of the spectrum.

By mixing each color with its neighbor, we get six more colors - the colors of the third group.
Colors of the third group


This group includes yellow-orange, red-orange, red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green and yellow-green.

These colors are obtained by mixing one base and one secondary color.

Color balance

You cannot paint using just one or even all of the base colors. You need to achieve a balance in your color composition.

Add a few colors of the third group, or a little gray, so that the picture is not so unnaturally bright.

If you don't keep that in mind, no matter how good your composition and design is, you won't be able to grab the viewer's eye.

In nature, for example, you will never find pure primary or secondary colors in abundance.

on the contrary, all colors are balanced,

it creates our reality b
The task of the artist is to know when and how to change this reality or emphasize it in order to make it more beautiful, more dramatic or more frightening,
depending on the purpose of the author.

famous illustratorAndrew Loomis
(Andrew Loomis)

once said:

“Color is like a bank account. If you go deep, soon there will be nothing left.”

This means that some of the most beautiful creations ever created by artists use a limited color palette.

It is important to understand that a color in the spectrum is white light divided into elements.

Objects have color only because their surface receives light and reflects all other colors of the spectrum. If there were no color in the light, it would not be perceived by the human eye at all.

Without a good sketch, of course, color is of little value, but it's all about the close relationship between solid linear composition and color that makes a good painting a work of art!

color (English) color, French Souleur, German farbe) is the property of material objects to radiate and reflect light waves of a certain part of the spectrum. In a broad sense, color means a complex set of gradations, interactions, variability of tones and shades. The color visible to a person arises, on the one hand, under the influence of an objective physical phenomenon, on the other hand, as a result of electromagnetic radiation of various frequencies on the human visual apparatus. In addition to these factors, visual experience and memory, physiological and psychological characteristics influence the emergence of a person's color sensation.

Color is experienced not only visually, but also psychologically and symbolically, which is why it is studied as the most complex phenomenon by many specialists. Physicists study light waves, measure and classify colors; chemists create new pigments for paints; physiologists study the effect of color on the eyes and, and psychologists - the effect of color on the human psyche.

Color theory is the body of knowledge about color. Currently, the science of studying color includes two main sections: color science and coloristics. The personification of scientific knowledge about color is also colorimetry. Color science studies color from the point of view of systematizing the knowledge of physics, chemistry, psychology, and physiology. Coloristics studies the main characteristics of color, the harmonization of color sets, the mechanism of the effect of color on spatial shaping, the means and methods of color organization of the architectural environment.

Color specifications

Colors fall into two categories - chromatic and achromatic. Chromatic colors include red, yellow, orange, green, blue, violet, and all their mixtures. We see chromatic colors individually. Achromatic (having no color) include white, black and all shades of gray, they differ only in lightness. The human eye can distinguish up to 400 transitional shades from white to black.

There are four color groups: spectral, light, dark and pastel (or grayish) colors. Light - the colors of the spectrum, mixed with white; dark - spectrum colors mixed with black; grayish - the colors of the spectrum mixed with different shades of gray.

Getting the colors of the spectrum using a prism

// wikipedia.org

The main characteristics of color include: hue, saturation and lightness. Hue - a sign of chromatic color, in which one color differs from another: green, blue, purple. Saturation - the degree of difference between a chromatic color and an achromatic color similar to it in lightness. If you add a little gray to a pure red color, which is the same with it in lightness, then the new color will be less saturated. Lightness - the quality of a color by which it can be equated to one of the colors of the achromatic series, that is, the higher the brightness, the lighter the color.

color circles

All the variety of colors observed in nature, artists and scientists have long sought to bring into a system - to arrange them in a certain order, to highlight the primary and secondary colors. The primary colors are yellow, blue and red. By mixing them, you can get all the other shades.

In 1676, using a trihedral prism, he decomposed white sunlight into a color spectrum and noticed that it contained all colors except purple. The spectrum served as the basis for the systematization of colors in the form of a color wheel, in which Newton identified seven sectors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

Newton's color wheel

// wikipedia.org

The idea of ​​graphical expression of the color system in the form of a closed figure was suggested by the fact that the ends of the spectrum tend to close: blue passes through violet into purple, red on the other hand also approaches purple.

140 years after Newton, the color wheel was improved by Johann Goethe, who added purple, obtained by mixing purple and red. In addition, Goethe was the first to think about the fact that color has an effect on the human psyche, and in his scientific work “Teaching about Color” he was the first to discover the phenomenon of “sensual-moral action of color”.

Goethe color wheel

// wikipedia.org

Philipp Otto Runge, a German painter of the Romantic school, published his theory of color in 1810. Among the primary colors, in addition to yellow, blue and red, the artist also included black and white. Runge built his conclusions on experiments with pigments, which made his teaching closer to painting. The three-dimensional model of Runge's color systematics served as the basis for all subsequent models.

Runge color ball

// wikipedia.org

Other color systems are Albert Munsell's color ball and Wilhelm Friedrich Ostwald's double cone. In Munsell's system, reliance is placed on hue, lightness and saturation, while Ostwald's reliance is on hue, white and black colors. New systems relied on the experience of predecessors. So, Munsell took Runge's color ball as a basis.

Today, in painting, design, architecture and applied arts, the color wheel of Johannes Itten, a Swiss artist, art theorist and teacher, is widely used. His 12-part color wheel shows the world's most common arrangement of colors, their interaction with each other. Itten distinguished primary colors, second-order colors (green, purple and orange), which are obtained by mixing a pair of primary colors, and third-order colors, which are obtained by mixing a primary color with a second-order color. For example, yellow mixed with green will be called light green by ordinary people, but in color science it is called yellow-green.

Itten color wheel

// wikipedia.org

Classification of color systems

The need for color systematization is dictated by practice. For example, it is important for the theory of painting. The spectrum served as the basis for the systematization of colors in the form of a color circle and a triangle. In addition to the color systems listed above, we also highlight the color atlas of the chemist Michel Chevreul, the chromometer of Eugene Delacroix and the Chromatoaccordion by Rudolf Adams.

Chevreul was the first to develop a color system adapted to the needs of production. He created a color atlas, including 72 pure colors, which were based on six primary colors in twelve modifications. The theoretical works of Chevreul enjoyed great prestige and popularity among artists.

Chevreul color system

// wikipedia.org

Eugene Delacroix went down in history as an outstanding colorist, carefully studied the mechanisms of harmonization, studied the work of oriental masters of color and the works of Chevreul. He compiled several "color manuals" that made it easy and quick to select the desired color combination.

In 1865, Rudolf Adams, in his book Chromatoaccordion, outlined his vision of color harmony as the consonant action of various parts as a whole, the so-called diversity in unity. Harmonizing colors should contain elements of all the primary colors of the circle: red, yellow and blue; black, white and gray are also unity, but without diversity. To facilitate the selection of combinations, Adams built a "color accordion" based on a 24-part color wheel, on which these colors were represented in six degrees of lightness.

Of the color systems of our time, it is worth highlighting: the practical color coordinate system (PCCS); color system Coloroid; natural color system - ECS (NCS).

Coloroid color system

// wikipedia.org

The practical color coordinate system - PCCS (PCCS) - the structure is based on a change in color according to three characteristics, and the color body of the Munsell system was taken as the basis of the color body, in which the colors that form the color circle were located on the inclined equator. Color system Coloroid has a color body in the form of a cylinder, chromatic colors are located inside this cylinder, and achromatic colors are located on its axis.

At the Swedish Color Center, under the leadership of Anders Hard, a natural color system, the ECS (NCS), was developed. The work was based on the axiom that the perception of color, characteristic of human psychophysiology, is different from the assessment of color as a physical quantity. The natural color system is a method of describing relationships between colors solely on the basis of their natural perception, that is, people are able to judge color without reference to physics. Man is the true instrument for measuring and evaluating color. The natural color system is convenient for practitioners who are engaged in the formation of a color environment: designers, architects, urban planners. It was created to study the polychromy of the architectural spatial environment.

Color models

A color model is an abstract model for describing how colors are represented as tuples of numbers. They are called color coordinates, usually three or four values ​​are used. The color model specifies the correspondence between the colors perceived by a person and stored in memory, and the colors formed on the output devices. Such models are a means for a quantitative conceptual description of color and are used in, for example photoshop.

RGB color model represented as a cube

// wikipedia.org

According to the principle of operation, the models can be divided into several classes: additive, subtractive and perceptual. Additive ones are based on the addition of colors, such as the RGB model - Red, Green, Blue(red, green, blue). Subtractive models are based on the operation of subtracting colors (subtractive synthesis), for example CMYK - cyan, Magenta, Yellow, key color(cyan, magenta, yellow, key color (black)). Perceptual models - HSB, HLS, LAB, YCC - are based on perception. Color models can be device-dependent (they are still the majority, RGB and CMYK are among them) and device-independent (model Lab).

Real CMY ink overlay

// wikipedia.org

The psychological impact of color

The impact and perception of color is a complex process that is caused by various psychological factors and is based on the physiology of the nervous system. Wassily Kandinsky in his training course for the Bauhaus focuses on the physical foundations of the color order, exploring primarily the color triad yellow - red - blue, with which, respectively, the three basic shapes are consistent: square, triangle, circle. Emphasizes the spatial and psychological effect of individual colors. Yellow - dynamics, outward movement, acute angle. Blue is the opposite of yellow, enhances its quality, the feeling of cold, movement inward, corresponds to a circle, an obtuse angle. Red - hot, movement within itself, corresponds to the balance and heaviness of the square, the right angle on the plane. White and black are silent colors: white symbolizes the possibility of the birth of a new color, black means absorption.

"Yellow-Red-Blue", Wassily Kandinsky

// wikipedia.org

Here we should touch on the issue of color harmony, which depends, in particular, on the characteristics of color perception. Color harmony is the result of harmonization - the balance of two or more colors, as well as color groups. An analysis of the evolution of theories of color harmony has led to the need for a comprehensive consideration of the problem, including the characteristics of color perception, physiological and age characteristics of a person, his social status, environmental conditions and, of course, the level of general culture.

Colors affect a person in different ways. For example, warm colors - red, orange, yellow - encourage action, act as annoying. Cool colors - purple, blue, cyan, blue-green - muffle irritation. Pastel colors have a softening and restraining effect. There are colors that affect the perception of space: warm ones are perceived closer to us, cold ones, on the contrary, emphasize the distance.

"Four Dark Marks on Red" by Mark Rothko

// wikipedia.org

Color perception is subjective. From an aesthetic point of view, the color is determined according to color preferences. In order to determine color preferences in different years, numerous experiments were carried out, color preferences were especially actively studied by English psychologists, in particular W. Winch. All sorts of experiments in this area are still being carried out. Various effects of color depending on gender are being studied. But do not forget that a lot depends on individual characteristics: character, upbringing, territorial location. Faced with any color in his life repeatedly in different objective situations, a person develops his own attitude towards it, which undoubtedly has an impact on the perception of a particular color.

People who live in cold climates in the north try to make up for the lack of sun and use warm colors more often in their homes. People living in the south, where there is a lot of sun, try to use cold or neutral colors both in clothes and in the interior. Red-haired people prefer to wear clothes of cool shades - blue-violet, blue-green, that is, colors that are complementary to orange, red-orange.

Color associations

Color associations evoke an emotion or sensation in a person associated with memories of what he saw or experienced. The phenomenon of color associations lies in the fact that a given color excites certain emotions, ideas, sensations of a different nature, that is, the influence of color excites other senses, as well as the memory of what has been seen or experienced.

Colors can “send” memory to a certain time of the year: warm shades speak of summer, cold ones speak of winter. Everyone knows the temperature association: red - hot, blue - cold. Age Associations: Children are associated with brighter colors, while older people are associated with soft, muted hues. There may be associations associated with weight: light, airy, weightless - light shades; heavy - dark shades.

Color theory in painting

The theory of color in painting is quite a broad concept. The patterns of the color system in painting are the patterns of objective reality reworked by the artist. Color harmony, coloring, contrasts are color categories that exist in color theory and which the artist interprets in his own way. However, artistic creativity cannot be reduced only to a scheme and science, the artist does not create according to recipes and mostly works intuitively, and this phenomenon is inexplicable. Therefore, today we do not have a theory of painting as a scientific discipline, there is no theory that fully sets out the basic principles of painting.

"Liberty Leading the People" Eugene Delacroix

// wikipedia/org

The color scheme of the picture is determined visually. Usually a person, contemplating a picture, gives it verbal characteristics, very general and, as a rule, far from fully reflecting the studied features of the work. As a rule, the color system of a painting is described by stereotyped and, in fact, little saying phrases, for example: “The artist uses the scale ...” or “Harmony is built on contrast or nuance ...” Such characteristics, of course, contain known information about the artistic features of the work, but far from sufficient and hardly used for broader generalizations.

Munsell Color Atlas

// Mark Fairchild, wikipedia.org

This raises the question: is it possible to measure the color structure of the picture? Maybe. The purpose of measuring color in painting is to solve a very narrow issue - to find ways to more specifically and accurately characterize the features of the color system and, on this basis, create a classification of various types of color harmony and color. But the results of color measurements in a painting by no means provide the researcher with a tool to determine the aesthetic qualities of a work of art. The color system is measured using the designation of each color, as, for example, in the Munsell atlas using a letter and two numbers: the letter is the color tone, the numbers are the lightness and saturation, that is, to measure the color system of the picture, you must have an atlas of colors.

Methodological guide "Color - the basis of painting" for children 6-7 years old.

The methodical manual "Color is the basis of painting" is intended for children 6-7 years old. Developed on the basis of educational materials by G. P. Shalaeva "Learning to draw." It will be useful for educators, teachers of additional education in teaching children the basics of color science and the techniques of watercolor and gouache in painting. It can also be used by parents who are self-employed with their children.
Target: Acquaintance with the basic characteristics of color as a means of artistic expression.
Tasks:
lay theoretical knowledge about color;
develop a sense of color, artistic taste;
to form a system of knowledge and skills for working with color;
develop confidence and initiative.
The methodological manual "Color is the basis of painting" will significantly enrich the artistic and practical base of the younger student. This manual is aimed at mastering children's theoretical and practical knowledge and skills of working with color.
Knowledge about color, methods of working with paints is also necessary for mastering the technology of painting. Children are invited to master the principles and methods of working with primary and secondary colors, delicate and saturated, sonorous and deaf, cold and warm shades. An important part is the work on mastering color relations, where children get acquainted with the theory and visual-demonstration base and perform a number of creative tasks. Color is of great importance in the life of a modern person. Knowledge about color is necessary for everyone. The ability to see, feel color harmony helps the child to develop creative activity.

Note:
a) It is desirable to study the methodological manual in blocks (divided into the proposed sections). For each topic, conduct reinforcing exercises with students.
b) Use the material of the manual at your own discretion - based on the age characteristics of the child.

Methodological guide "Color is the basis of painting"

Subject. Primary and secondary colors.

Color spectrum.

Primary and secondary colors.

Exercise. Color the rooster with compound colors.

Subject. Shades and midtones.

If you dilute paints with water, then their tone will be paler, that is, from red you get pale red, that is, pink, from blue, pale blue, that is, blue, and from yellow, pale yellow. The more water you add to the paint, the lighter the tone will be. These light tones of colors are called shades, or halftones.

Subject. Contrasting colors.

There are other colors called contrasting. Contrasting colors are opposite each other.

Theme.Warm and cold color.

Exercise. Color the leaves with warm and cool shades of green.

Subject. Voiced and deaf colors.

Bright colors in the paintings of famous artists.

BASIC AND COMPONENT COLORS

Goals: give an idea of ​​​​primary and secondary colors; introduce the color wheel; learn to make composite colors by mixing two primary; develop visual perception of color, mindfulness; to promote discipline.

Equipment: table "Color wheel", a sample of pedagogical drawing, paintings depicting a rainbow.

Dictionary: primary and secondary colors.

During the classes

I. Organizational moment.

1. Welcome.

2. Checking the readiness of students for the lesson.

3. Fulfillment of the task.

Teacher. I had scattered letters and syllables, from which I wanted to add the name of the drawing supplies needed for the lesson. Help me put these two words together.

4. Wetting of paints.

II. The topic of the lesson.

Teacher. Each item has its own inherent color. For example, ripe lemons are yellow, oranges are orange, and cucumbers are green. It would seem that everything is clear here. But take your time, the color has a lot of secrets. No wonder there is a special science - color science, dealing with the problems of studying color. So we will gradually begin to comprehend these secrets, so that our drawings are not only colorful, but also convey the real color of the object plausibly.

III. Communication of theoretical information.

Teacher. The great English scientist Isaac Newton once had the idea to pass a narrow sunbeam through a trihedral glass prism. When he did, he saw that a succession of beautiful colors appeared on the screen behind her. You've seen it at home too. For example, when a ray of the sun hits the edge of a beautiful crystal vase, we then see red, yellow and other colors. And there is one more natural phenomenon, when many people see the same beauty at the same time.

– What is it called?(Student answers.)

– That's right, it's a rainbow. The rays of the sun, passing through the raindrops, in the same way as in the prism, are divided into seven colors. Remember which ones?(Student answers.)

– Can you arrange them in the same order as in the rainbow?(Student answers.)

There is one magic phrase: "Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant is sitting." The first letter of each word denotes a color, and the place of the word in the phrase indicates its place in the sequence of colors.

Knowing the patterns in the arrangement of colors is very important, you will see this later. To make it convenient to work with this scale, all colors were depicted as a color circle, adding to the already known purple color, which is absent in the rainbow, but exists in nature.

But there are three colors that are called pure, or basic. It is red, yellow, blue.

Mixing three primary colors gives white, and mixing two of them gives mixtures of colors. This does not mean at all that if you take red, yellow and blue watercolors, mix them, then you will get white. No, such a transformation is possible only by mixing the rays of light colored in the primary colors. Try experimenting at home by directing rays to one point, which can be passed through colored glasses first.

If we mix two primary colors, we get the so-calledcomposite colors . For example, by mixing yellow and red we get orange, by mixing blue and red we get purple.

IV. Didactic games.

1. Find out the composition of the composite and main colors.

The teacher shows a card painted in any color, and the students either clap their hands if the color is primary or sit silently if the color is secondary.

2. Let's check how much you notice.

On the board are laid out in order the cards, painted in the colors of the rainbow. When the students close their eyes, the teacher either rearranges the cards or swaps them. Students must re-order.

3. Who would you like to see?

The teacher shows two cards with different primary colors, such as blue and red. Students should hold up a card that is colored in a compound color, in this case purple. The pace of the game gradually accelerates.

V. Practical work.

Task 1. Perform exercises on mixing primary colors to obtain composite ones.

The inner circle is the primary colors.

The outer circle is the secondary colors.

Task 3. Draw how you imagine a seven-color flower from the fairy tale of the same name.

P h i s c u l t m i n t k a

We sat and drew

And a little tired.

Stand up, spread your hands

Lifted up, stretched

Dropped and bent down.

One two three four five,

You can draw again.

VI. Summary of the lesson.

1. Collect words and s and s and n n n y s s

What happens in orange?

(Orange.)

3. Concluding remarks of the teacher.

Some of you might find it strange that we devoted an entire lesson to color. But this is only the beginning. We will have many more questions.

For example:

– What colors go well together?

– Why do some colors seem to stick out of the picture, while others seem to merge with neighboring colors?

So we still have a lot of discoveries ahead of us. The main thing now is to train your vision so that you can distinguish shades of the same color or different tones obtained by mixing primary and secondary colors. Only then will you be able to correctly convey color relationships in your drawings.

4. R evaluating.