Colour Theory CONTRAST

During this exercise we visualised how colours appear slightly different when they're placed next to different colours, the reason for this is the way we perceive different contrasts. Our eyes are drawn to contrast. We can’t help it. In any design our eyes will immediately go to the area of highest contrast.

Contrast of tone.

This is the contrast between light and dark. This is most obvious in black and white compositions, but is equally applicable in color. This is the most powerful form of contrast. In any composition we are drawn to the place with the greatest tonal contrast.

Contrast of hue
This means colour, the farther apart two colours are on the colour wheel, the greater their contrast of hue, so blue and yellow have a greater contrast than blue and purple.

Contrast of Saturation

This contrasts bright, rich colours against faded, muddy or pastel colours. Placing them next to each other will make the rich colours seem richer and the faded colours seem more faded.

Contrast of extension

The contrast of extension refers to the quantity of colors used in a visual display. It depends on basically how much of one colour there is in comparison to another colour. A darker colour is generally heavier than a lighter colour

Contrast of temperature

The contrast of temperature refers to the way we associate certain colours with temperature e.g. Orange and Red are generally associated with warmness, in opposition if something is blue we tend to associate this with coldness. These temperatures also depend on what they're placed next too.

Complimentary Contrast

When some colours are placed next to each other they battle with one another, this often makes the image slightly fuzz as your eyes take in the difficult observation.

Examples of the practical Investigation...

Contrast of Hue- Juxtaposition of Colours

COLOUR...

(Secondary research)

Additive Colour

An additive colour model involves light emitted directly from a source or illuminant of some sort. The additive reproduction process usually uses red, green and blue light to produce the other colours. Combining one of these additive primary colors with another in equal amounts produces the additive secondary colors cyan, magenta, and yellow. Combining all three primary lights (colors) in equal intensities produces white.
Additive color systems start without light (black). Light sources of various wavelengths combine to make a colour. In either type of system, three primary colors are combined to stimulate humans’ trichromatic color vision, sensed by the three types of cone cells in the eye, giving an apparently full range.

Subtractive Colour
A subtractive color model explains the mixing of paints, dyes, inks, and natural colorants to create a full range of colors, each caused by subtracting (that is, absorbing) some wavelengths of light and reflecting the others. The color that a surface displays depends on which colors of the electromagnetic spectrum are reflected by it and therefore made visible.

Subtractive color systems start with light, presumably white light. Colored inks, paints, or filters between the viewer and the light source or reflective surface subtract wavelengths from the light, giving it color. If the incident light is other than white, our visual mechanisms are able to compensate well, but not perfectly, often giving a flawed impression of the "true" color of the surface.

Primary Colours
This definition really depends on what type of medium of color we are using. The colors that are seen when sunlight is split by a prism are sometimes called the spectral colors. These are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. These ROYGBIV colors are often reduced to three "red, green, and blue-violet" which are the primary colors for the additive color system (light). The primary colors for the subtractive color system (paint/pigment) are "cyan, magenta and yellow." Notice that "red, yellow and blue" should never be used as the combination for color primaries!

Secondary Colours
Secondary colours result from the mixing of two of the primary colours. Red (magenta) and yellow produce orange, yellow and blue (cyan) produce green while red and blue (cyan) produce violet. For example, if you add more red than yellow, you get a reddish orange, and if you add more yellow than red, you get a yellowish orange.

Tertiary Colours
Tertiary colours are browns and grays, containing all three primary colours. They're created by mixing either all three primary colours or a primary and secondary colour (secondary colours of course being made from two primaries). By varying the proportions of each primary colour, you create the different tertiary colours.

Complimentary Colours
Colours that are opposite one another in the chromatic circle are called complementary. For example, green (resulting from the mixing the primary colours yellow and blue [cyan]) is complementary to red. Orange (a mixture of yellow and red [magenta]) is complementary to blue, while violet (a mixture of blue [cyan] and red [magenta] is complementary to yellow.

Chromatic Value
When we describe a color as "light" or "dark", we are discussing its chromaticvalue or "brightness". This property of color tells us how light or dark a color is based on how close it is to white. For instance, canary yellow would be considered lighter than navy blue which in turn is lighter than black. Therefore, the value of canary yellow is higher than navy blue and black.

Hue
This is what we usually mean when we ask "what colour is that?" The property of colour that we are actually asking about is "hue". For example, when we talk about colours that are red, yellow, green, and blue, we are talking about hue. Different hues are caused by different wavelengths of light.

Chroma
Think about a colour's "purity" when describing its "chromaticity" or "CHROMA". This property of colour tells us how pure a hue is. That means there is no white, black, or gray present in a colour that has high chroma. These colours will appear very vivid and well, ... pure. This concept is related to and often confused with saturation.

Saturation
Related to chromatic value, saturation tells us how a colour looks under certain lighting conditions. For instance, a room painted a solid colour will appear different at night than in daylight. Over the course of the day, although the colour is the same, the saturation changes. This property of colour can also be called intensity. Be careful not to think about SATURATION in terms of light and dark but rather in terms of pale or weak and pure or strong.

Tints, Tones and Shades
These terms are often used inappropriately but they describe fairly simple color concepts. The important thing to remember is how the color varies from its original hue. If white is added to a color, the lighter version is called a "tint". If the color is made darker by adding black, the result is called a "shade". And if gray is added, each gradation gives you a different "tone."