Color Theory

Debra: Yesterday we have a very good lecture on color theory in Painting I, so I am just writing it here.

Here's the notes from the lecture, which is based on the Munsell Color Solid.

"Feel colors" do not "see".

Saturation is when you put one color into another color. Never saturate if you want a good color.

Value is a color's lightness or darkness.
Intensity is a color's brightness or dullness.
Black is the absence of color
White is all the colors at once

You have to know what value you are using of the color in order to match it.
Don't use white and black in colors. They deintensify color.
Use the matching value of grey to detensify.
The closer to the inside of the wheel, the less chroma (more grey) the color is. The resulting grey is it's value.

Use colors across a hue change to reach another color (in other words, don't restrict to just mixing one or two colors), "around the wheel". It gives a color character and keeps the intensity. Tint-Shade-Warmer/Cooler, use several colors which will "pull" color into other area.

Use grey if the color feels transparent, translucent. Grey is warm or cool depending on what is mixed.

Questions to ask:
1. What is color's value
2. What's the color's intensity
3. What's the color's temperature

Grey is brown. Both are "nuetrals".

How to handle shadows: Not just value change. Shadow has a lot of the complament color, it's own color, and a darker value. (Is a separate color itself)

Do not use straight white unless for tiny dot in highlight and even then, use sparingly.

Have patience, keep faith, much of art is about faith.