Primary Colors: Red, yellow and blue
In traditional color theory (used in paint and pigments), primary colors are the 3 pigment colors that can not be mixed or formed by any combination of other colors. All other colors are derived from these 3 hues.
Secondary Colors: Green, orange and purple
These are the colors formed by mixing the primary colors.
Tertiary Colors: Yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green & yellow-green
These are the colors formed by mixing a primary and a secondary color. That's why the hue is a two word name, such as blue-green, red-violet, and yellow-orange
There are a number of color combinations that are considered especially pleasing. These are called color harmonies or color chords and they consist of two or more colors with a fixed relation in the color wheel.
Yellow + Orange = YELLOW-ORANGE
Red + Orange = RED-ORANGE
Red + Violet = RED-VIOLET
Blue + Violet = BLUE-VIOLET
Blue + Green = BLUE-GREEN
Yellow + Green = YELLOW-GREEN
Warm and cool colors (check this site out lots of useful information)
The color circle can be divided into warm and cool colors. Warm colors are vivid and energetic, and tend to advance in space. Cool colors give an impression of calm, and create a soothing impression.
White, black and gray are considered to be neutral.
Tints, Shades, and Tones
These terms are often used incorrectly, although they describe fairly simple color concepts. If a color is made lighter by adding white, the result is called a tint. If black is added, the darker version is called a shade. And if gray is added, the result is a different tone.
Tints - adding white to a pure hue:
Shades - adding black to a pure hue:
Tones - adding gray to a pure hue:
Goethe's Color Theory
Opponent Processing Theory of Color Vision
Ewald Hering, the father of the opponent processes theory made some very interesting observations that could not be accounted for by the trichromatic theory. For example, he noted that there are certain pairs of colors one never sees together at the same place and at the same time.
To put it another way, one does not see reddish greens or yellowish blues. We do see yellowish greens, bluish reds, yellowish reds etc.
Hering also observed that there was a distinct pattern to the color of the after images we see. For example if one looks at a unique red patch for about a minute and then switches the gaze to a homogeneous white area they will see a greenish patch in the white area.
Hering hypothesized that trichromatic signals from the cones fed into subsequent neural stages and exhibited two major opponent classes of processing. 1. Spectrally opponent processes which were red vs. green and yellow vs. blue. 2. Spectrally non-opponent processes which was black vs. white. This opponent process model lay relatively dormant for many years until a pair of visual scientists working at Eastman Kodak at the time, conceived of a method for quantitatively measuring the opponent processes responses. Leo Hurvich and Dorothea Jameson invented the hue cancellation method to psychophysically evaluate the opponent processing nature of color vision.
Due in large measure to the efforts of Hurvich and Jameson the opponent processes theory attained a central position shared with the the trichromatic theory. One very fortuitous scientific event to that also took place in the 1950s was the discovery of electrophysiological responses that emulated opponent processing. Consequently, with the quantitative data provided by the psychophysics and direct neurophysiological responses provided by electrophysiology opponent processing is no longer questioned.
Trichromatic Theory of Color Vision
The trichromatic theory of color vision is based on the premise that there are three classes of cone receptors subserving color vision. This theory has a very long history dating back to the 18th century.
One of the more important empirical aspects of this theory is that it is possible to match all of the colors in the visible spectrum by appropriate mixing of three primary colors. Which primary colors are used is not critically important as long as mixing two of them does not produce the third.
Modern color scientists have put great effort into determining that there are indeed three classes of cones, that their outer segments contain spectrally selective photopigments and in determining the spectral absorbance of these photopigments.
During the last 15 or so years geneticists have and continue to investigate the genetic basis underlying trichromatic vision. They have indeed been able to identify the genes that are responsible for the receptor photopigments.
It was popular in the first half of the 20th century for authors to pit the trichromatic theory against the opponent processes theory. But in fact both theories help to explain how our color vision system works. The trichromatic theory operates at the receptor level and the opponent processes theory applies to the subsequent neural level of color vision processing.
Typical RGB input devices are color TV and video cameras, image scanners, and digital cameras. Typical RGB output devices are TV sets of various technologies CRT, LCD, plasma, computer and mobile phone displays, video projectors, multicolor LED displays, and large screens as JumboTron, etc. Color printers, on the other hand, are usually not RGB devices, but subtractive color devices.
In beauty school we spent many days discussing the color wheel. So many, that I seriously thought about getting a color wheel tattoo on my hand. Knowing the color wheel will help you create wonderful colors attracting attention to your work and making a statement. When coloring hair its a great idea to know the color wheel so you don't end up creating a mess. If you do create a mess, the color wheel is there to help you get out of it!
We are going to start our 2016-2017 home school year discussing the color wheel. I added the above information as our starting point. I like the idea of the kids learning the history, maybe it will help them have a better understanding about the color wheel. I found a few online printable color wheels we'll use this homeschool year. I'll link them below. There are also videos on YouTube about the color wheel, I will link one below.
Printable color wheel
http://color-wheel-artist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/download-wheel-hues.pdf
http://color-wheel-artist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/download-wheel-blanksingle.pdf
http://color-wheel-artist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/download-wheel-blankdouble.pdf
YouTube video about the color wheel
http://www.madcaplogic.com/curriculum.php
No comments:
Post a Comment