Colour pigment

Questions:
   • What is a pigment?
   • What do you know about colour? Name me some colours.
   • Which colour do you like best? Why?

Pigments

 Colour_______________________________________________________

      Colour is everywhere. In our clothes, the sky, trees, flowers, billboards designed to attract our attention, on the web and on television.

      Definition: (noun) - Colour is the element of art that is produced when light, striking an object, is reflected back to the eye.

 

“COLOUR IN A PICTURE IS LIKE ENTHUSIASM IN LIFE” Picasso

     Colours can also be symbolic, with meanings that change from culture to culture. A colour can symbolize an object or thing such as blue for water and green for grass and the leaves of trees or it may symbolize an emotion or idea, such as red for love, yellow for fear and blue for sadness. A trained artist is familiar with all of these options and can select and combine colours to create a desired impression or to evoke a certain mood.

1. Colour has 3 characteristics:

• Hue is actually the colour we see—such as red. 
• Intensity o saturation refers to the brightness or dullness of a colour (the degree to which grey has been added to a colour). The pure hue has the highest saturation 
• Value refers to the lightness and darkness of a particular colour. We can divide these value changes into shades and tints.

              a. Tints; where white is added to a colour. Tints are the lightness of a colour.
              b. Shades; where black is added to a colour. Shades are the darkness of a colour.

2. The colour wheel:

       It is a way of representing the chromatic scale in a circle using all the colours made with. It describes the relationships between colours.

• Primary colours are basic and cannot be mixed from other elements. They are: magenta, yellow and cyan.
• Secondary colours are mixed from two primaries next to each other on the colour wheel. They are green (yellow and blue combined), purple (magenta and blue combined) and red (magenta and yellow combined). You will notice that each secondary colour on the Colour Wheel is bounded by two primaries.

3. Colour Schemes:

The colour schemes are ways colours are put together in an “intelligent way”:

• Monochromatic: literally means one (mono) colour (chroma). So a monochromatic colour scheme is made up of one colour and it’s shades and tints
• Polychromatic: literally means several (poly) colour (chroma). So a polychromatic colour scheme is made up of 2 or more colours.
• Analogous: are colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel. 
• Complementary: are colours found directly across from each other on the colour wheel. Complementary colours provide strong contrast. They also help to make each other more active.

 

Complementary colours

 4. Colour Temperatures:
Have you ever noticed that colors seem to have different temperatures?

• Reds, Oranges and Yellows are Warm Colours. They remind us of the sun or fire and can add a feeling of excitement, boldness or happiness to a work of art. Warm colours make objects seem larger and appear to advance in an artwork.
• Greens, Blues, and Violets are Cool Colours. They remind us of lakes, distant mountains, sky and foliage. Cool colours tend to be calm and restful. They recede into the distance and make objects seem smaller.

Check your knowlege on colours playing this game: Colour