[Nfb-krafters-korner] FW: Explaining Colors

[Sandra Gayer]

Hello Annette,
What a wonderful post! I can see colours if they are bright enough but
they have always been a mystery when it comes to matching anything.
When colours are put together, they look the same to me. Listening to
the clock face description was a breath of fresh air!

Very best wishes,
Sandra.

On 1/17/15, Annette Carr via Nfb-krafters-korner
<nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> Recently on A Monday Night Chat, we were talking about color.  As I was
> cleaning out old e-mail today, I came across this message from Lisa Maria
> with her explaination of the color wheel.  I hope you find it helpful.
>
> Annette
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nfb-krafters-korner [mailto:nfb-krafters-korner-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Lisamaria Martinez via Nfb-krafters-korner
> Sent: Friday, November 21, 2014 7:17 PM
> To: nfb-krafters-korner
> Subject: [Nfb-krafters-korner] Explaining Colors
>
> Hello again,
>
> I'm going to attempt to describe the color wheel using a clockface.
> I've attached 2 versions of the color wheel too for anyone who wants them. I
> chose the wheel that starts with red at the 12 o'clock position and goes in
> a counterclockwise manner. My brain just works that way.
>
> Color Wheel description
>
> There are 12 colors on the basic color wheel and I'm going to assign numbers
> to each color and then use those numbers to explain how to match colors.
> Some of this might be made clear to you now if you read my early post and
> Cathy F's earlier post. Or, you might be more confused after this email.
>
> 12: Red
> 1:   Red-orange
> 2:   Orange
> 3:   Yellow-orange
> 4.   Yellow
> 5:   Yellow-green
> 6:   Green
> 7:   Blue-green
> 8:   Blue
> 9:   Blue-purple
> 10: Purple
> 11: Red-purple
>
> Some Important Definitions and Basic Concepts
>
> Primary Colors: These colors are the three colors that can not be created by
> mixing other colors. The colors are red, blue and yellow.
> Primary colors can be combined to make secondary colors.
>
> Secondary colors: These colors consist of two primary colors mixed together.
> The three colors secondary colors are purple (also known as violet), green
> and orange.
>
> * red + blue = purple
> * red + yellow = orange
> * yellow + blue = green
>
> Tertiary Colors: These colors are made by mixing a primary color with an
> adjacent secondary color. When naming tertiary colors the primary and
> secondary color names are joined by a dash with the primary always being the
> first color.
>
> * red + orange = red-orange or vermilion * yellow + orange = yellow-orange
> or amber * yellow + green = yellow-green or chartreuse * blue + green =
> blue-green or teal * blue + purple = blue-purple or violet * red + purple =
> red-purple or magenta
>
> Getting A Little More Complicated
>
> Another group of tertiary colors can be created by mixing secondary colors.
> These are referred to as the quaternary colors. The names for the twelve
> quaternary colors are more variable, if they exist at all, though indigo and
> scarlet are standard for blue-violet and red-vermilion.
>
> I think this means that indigo is a mix of blue plus blue-purple
> (technically blue plus violet) and that scarlet is a mix of red plus
> red-orange (technically red plus vermilion).
>
> From the mix of the previous colors we get quinary colors, which are,
> roughly, varying shades of gray. There are no specific names beyond the
> tertiary colors. The more you mix the colors the harder it is for the human
> eye to detect those differences.
>
> Back to Basic Vocabulary
>
> Warm colors: These colors are vibrant and liven up a space. They are numbers
> 12 through 5 or red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, yellow and
> yellow-green.
>
> Cool colors: These colors tend to give a feeling of calm and they are
> numbers 6 through 11 or green, blue-green, blue, blue-purple, purple and
> red-purple.
>
> Neutral colors: White, black and gray are considered to be neutral colors.
>
> Tint: Adding white to a color makes it lighter. This is known as a tint. As
> Cathy F mentioned in an earlier post, tints can be referred to as pastels.
> You can take all 12 basic colors on the color wheel and make tints from them
> creating 12 new colors. These colors are usually associated with advertising
> geared toward women and babies.
>
> Shade: Adding black, darkens a color and this is known as a shade. You can
> take all 12 basic colors on the color wheel and make shades from them
> creating 12 new colors. These colors are associated with advertising geared
> toward men.
>
> Tone: Adding gray to a color changes the tone. A Tone is created by adding
> both White and Black which is grey. Any color that is "greyed down" is
> considered a Tone. Tones are somehow more pleasing to the eye. They are more
> complex, subtle and sophisticated. You can make 12 new colors by adding gray
> to the basic color wheel.
>
> The words tint, shade and tone are often used incorrectly. And, a hue is a
> color and the words may be used interchangeably.
>
> How to Match Colors
>
> Now for some basic techniques to combine colors. This is where it can get
> complicated. However, if you simply remember that the points of a straight
> line, square, a rectangle, an equilateral triangle or an isosceles triangle
> placed on the color wheel will touch matching colors, then you will be
> fine.
>
> Complementary: This simply means that opposite colors match. for instance
> red (12) and green (6) match or orange (2) and blue (8) match.
>
> Analogous: this matching is pretty simple. Take 3 colors in a row on the
> color wheel and they match. So, red-purple (11), red (12), and red-orange
> (1) all match.
>
> Triadic: Take an equilateral triangle and plop it down on a color wheel or
> take 3 points that are all equally the same distance from each other. These
> 3 colors match. example: red (12), yellow (4) and blue (8) all match. Note
> that these happen to be primary colors.
>
> Split-Complementary: This is where your geometry kicks in. Remember what an
> isosceles triangle is? It is a triangle with 2 sides the same length. an
> easier way to remember this as it pertains to the color wheel is that you
> take a color like green (6), find its complimentary color, red (12), and
> then pick the colors on either side of that complimentary color. In this
> case, red-purple (11) and red-orange (1).
> All of these colors, or any combo of these color will match.
>
> Rectangle (tetradic): This color combination uses four colors arranged into
> two complementary pairs that match. For example: red (12), orange (2), green
> (6) and blue (8) all match. red and green are complimentary of each other
> and orange and blue are complimentary of each other.
>
> Tetradic color schemes works best if you let one color be dominant.
> You should also pay attention to the balance between warm and cool colors in
> your design.
>
> I painted my son's bedroom blue, orange and green. blue and green are cool
> colors, but orange is a compliment of blue and a warm color. It makes for a
> very awesome contrast in my opinion. One might think that orange is the
> dominant color here especially since it is on one of the two longer walls. I
> chose blue as the dominant color because a lot of Erik's bedding is
> differing hues? of blue and the bed is against the blue wall.
>
> Square: finally, the last basic theory for matching colors that you ever
> wanted to know. The square color scheme is similar to the rectangle, but
> with all four colors spaced evenly around the color circle like the
> equilateral triangle or triadic theory of matching.
> Square color schemes works best if you let one color be dominant. You should
> also pay attention to the balance between warm and cool colors in your
> design.
>
> An example of four evenly spaced colors are 12, 3 6 and 9 or red,
> yellow-orange, green and blue-purple.
>


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