THE COLOR WHEEL
A hue is the most basic form of a color. There are only twelve hues (seen on the outer ring of this color wheel): Red, Red-Orange, Orange, Yellow-Orange, Yellow, Yellow-Green, Green, Blue-Green, Blue, Blue-Violet, Violet, and Red-Violet.
All other colors are variations of these 12 hues.
For example, pink’s hue is red (pink is red plus white). Likewise, lavender’s hue is violet, navy’s hue is blue, lime’s hue is green or yellow-green, and so on.
Intensity is how vivid or saturated a color is. Pure hues are the most intense. Once white, black, gray, or another color is added to a hue, it begins to lose intensity.
As colors get duller, we refer to them as muted or neutralized.
intense muted
Hues and colors also have value.
First, hues have inherent value. Looking at the color wheel, we can see that yellow is inherently lighter than blue-violet.
Each hue also has its own value scale. When we add white to a hue, the resulting color is called a tint. When we add black to a hue, the resulting color is called a shade.
Pink is a tint of red. Navy is a shade of blue.
shades tints
Color Schemes
A color scheme refers to the combination of colors present in an artwork.
Warm colors are reds, yellows, and oranges (fiery colors). In the illustration below, we see tints and shades of the warm colors red-orange, orange, and yellow-orange. It has a warm color scheme.
Ashley Seil Smith, Women Together, source
Cool colors are greens, blues, and violets (earthy and watery colors).
William S. Rice, Magnolia Bud, ca.1925-30
Complementary colors are directly opposite on the color wheel. For example, blue and orange are complementary colors as are red and green.
Next to each other, complementary colors look really bright and intense, sometimes so much so that they are jarring to the eye. When mixed together, they cancel each other out and create a muddy color (see below).
This painting by Jen Man contains complementary colors - tints of both green and red. Because it only uses complementary colors we can say this painting has a complementary color scheme.
Jen Mann, Bubblegum, 2012, oil on canvas, source
Analogous colors are directly next to each other on the color wheel. Generally an analogous color scheme will contain a 3-4 color slice of the color wheel. The painting below contains violet, red-violet, red, and orange, and therefore has an analogous color scheme.
Inès Longevial, source
Triadic colors are a set of three colors that are equally spaced on the color wheel. The most well-known triadic color scheme is probably the primary colors: red, blue, and yellow. These colors are called the primary colors because all of the colors are created by mixing some combination of these colors.
The photograph below contains this specific triadic color scheme - the primary colors - using predominantly tints of red, blue, and yellow.
Osma Harvilahti, photograph, source
Monochromatic and achromatic are terms that are often confused. The prefix “mono-” means one, the prefix “a-” means without, and the root “chroma” means color or hue. Therefore, monochromatic means containing only one hue and achromatic means without hue.
Monochromatic artworks contain variations of only one hue, and they may also contain black, white, or gray.
Milton Avery, Sea Grasses and Blue Sea, 1958, oil on canvas, source
Achromatic artworks contain no hues, only black, white, or gray. Black, white, and gray are not colors (they do not appear on the color wheel).
Vija Celmins, Web #2, 2001, mezzotint, source
Descriptive vs. Emotional Use of Color
Color can be used in a way that is descriptive or emotional.
Using color descriptively means that the color something is portrayed is the color it is (for example, painting a tree with green leaves and brown bark). The painting of Pope Innocent X on the left is painted using descriptive color. We assume the colors we see are the colors that were present.
Using color emotionally, however, means that the colors used are trying to achieve something other than describing the actual colors. The painting of the pope on the right uses color emotionally. The complementary colors of violet and yellow create a startling, otherworldly effect.
Diego Velazquez, Pope Innocent X, 1650, and Francis Bacon, Study After Velazquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X, 1953
This self portrait by Vincent Van Gogh also uses color emotionally. The entire painting, including the skin, has a yellow-green cast. We assume Van Gogh’s skin is not actually yellow-green, but rather the color is used to give a somewhat sickly appearance to the figure who is in fact injured.
Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, 1889, oil on canvas, source
