The Elements of Color by Johannes Itten

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The Elements of Color
by Johannes Itten

Color Theory Terms and Definitions
Color - Element of art derived from reflected light.  We see color because light waves are reflected from objects to your eyes.
Color wheel - color spectrum bent into a circle.
Primary colors - The most basic colors on the color wheel, red, yellow and blue. These colors cannot be made by mixing.
Secondary colors - colors that are made by mixing two primary colors together. Orange, green and violet (purple).
Tertiary colors - colors that are made by mixing a primary color with a secondary color.
Hue - the name of the color.
Intensity - the brightness or dullness of a color. DO NOT CONFUSE WITH VALUE.
Color value - the darkness or lightness of a color. Ex pink is a tint of red.
Tints - are created by adding white to color.
Shades - are created by adding black to a color.
Optical color - color that people actually perceive- also called local color.
Arbitrary color - colors were chosen by the artist to express feelings or mood.

The element of Design: Color Of all the Elements of Design, color is probably the most challenging to understand. We have to learn a little science to fully understand the nature of color. Color has three main properties: hue, value, and intensity. What is color? Color originates from a light source, that is either view directly or as reflected light. Daylight or white light contains light waves for all colors. There is no color without light! The absence of light in complete darkness or black. The mixture of all visible light is white light. White light is made up of all the colors in the rainbow. Water droplets in the air act like a prism do when light passes through. It organizes random color light waves into the order of their wavelength. We see that organized pattern as a rainbow. These colors are always in the same order and are called the Color Spectrum. When organized in order around a circle; the color spectrum is called a Color Wheel. How do we see color? to see color, there must be light and there must also be color receptors, such as eyes. We see colored light or light reflected off objects. So why do we see some things like red and other things like blue? The answer is that when light waves strike an object they are either absorbed or reflected by the object. The reflected light waves mixed in varying proportions are what we see as different colors. Primary Colors The primary colors are Red, Yellow and Blue in the art world. They are considered primary colors because they cannot be made from mixing other colors but they may be mixed to make most other colors. Black and white can also be added to create additional colors.
	Secondary Colors Secondary colors are; Green, Orange, and Violet (or Purple). they are the colors that result in mixing two of the Primary colors together in equal amounts
	Intermediate Colors Intermediate colors are made by mixing a primary color with one of its two adjacent secondary colors. An adjacent color is one the is next to the color in the color spectrum. Another way to remember this is to mix a primary with only one of the secondary colors that it has in it. For example, yellow is used to make secondary colors green and orange, so only green and orange can be mixed with yellow to get an intermediate color. Each primary color had two secondary color choices that may be mixed to produce an intermediate color.
	Properties of Color 1. Hue: Hue is the name of pure color, such as red, blue, or yellow. 2. Value: Value is the lightness or darkness of a hue (color). The value of a hue can be changed by adding black or white. Light values of colors are called tints. Darker values of colors are called shades. 3. Intensity: Intensity is the brightness or dullness of a hue (color). Pure hues are high-intensity colors. Dull hues are low-intensity colors. The intensity of the color is changed by adding varying amounts of its complementary color. For example, to make a bright green duller a little bit of red could be added to it. Warm colors: Warm colors are colors that remind us of warm things: they are red, yellow and orange. Cool colors: Cool colors remind us of things we associate with cold or coolness. they are blue, violet and green.