Elements of Color

Every time you choose something to wear or decorate a room, you are instinctively working with a color scheme Because color awareness is an important port of your life, you should know that there is a theory of choosing co that complement each other. 

Color Wheel : the color wheel is a means of organizing colors in the spectrum. The only colors not included in the color wheel are black, white and gray. 

Colors are divided into groups

• Primary colors: red yellow and blue; cannot be produced by mixing other colors, and the mix to produce all the rest.

• Secondary Colors: purple, orange and green; produced by mixing the primaries.

• Tertiary Colors: produced by mixing a primary and secondary color; ex.: blue green, red purple

• Neutrals: white, black, gray and brown.

Color Schemes: may be selected by choosing colors from the wheel that will complement each other.

These are:

• Monochromatic: several values of one color; blue, light blue, dark blue.

• Analogous: colors that are next to each other on the color wheel; red, red orange, orange.

• Complementary: colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel; red and green, orange and blue.

• Split Complementary: three colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel, but to either side of one of I complements; red, yellow green and green blue.

• Double Split Complements: four color, two on each side of two complements, not using the complements them selves; red orange, red purple, yellow green and green blue.

• Triadic: three colors that are at equally spaced intervals on the wheel; red, yellow and blue.

• Accented Neutral Scheme: not based on the color wheel; uses neutral colors with one color as the accent, ex. black, white and red.

Properties of color

• Hue: the actual color, such as red.

• Intensity or Saturation: the brightest of dullness (grayness) of color.

• Value: the lightness or darkness of a color {tints and shades).

• Shade: color plus black.

• Tint: color plus white.