Lesson 7: Colours

Today we learnt about the colours inside a colour-wheel. There were a few terms that was introduced.

Colour is one of the elements of arts including value, lines, texture and forms. In art, colour is essential to give a certain object a certain mood to give an impression and message to the audience. There is an infinite amount of colours on Earth. Colours can be group into 3 different categories:

1. Primary Colours – colours that can’t be produced by mixing other colours together. These colours are red, blue and yellow.

   

   Primary colours are red, blue and yellow.

2. Secondary Colours – colours that are made by mixing 2 primary colours together. Primary colours are orange, green and purple.

   

   Secondary colours are orange, green and purple.

3. Tertiary Colours – colours that are made by mixing 2 secondary colours together. Tertiary colours are red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green, red-orange, yellow-orange and yellow-green.

Tertiary colours are red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green, red-orange, yellow-orange and yellow-green.

A common natural example of using colours is the rainbow:

A rainbow has 7 main colours: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

The colours can also be represented in a colour wheel:

In a colour wheel, a complementary colour is a colour that is opposite to one another. Supposedly, the complimentary colour of orange is blue. The complimentary colour of yellow-orange is blue-violet. Complimentary colours make each other appear brighter when placed next to each other.

Analogous colours are colours that are side by side on the colour wheel. An example of analogous colours are blue-green, green and yellow green.

When you mix all the colours in the colour wheel, you’ll get white. The concept is similar to how a light is refracted into a rainbow through a prism, but reversely.

White light is refracted into rainbows through a prism.

Colours in the colour wheel can be divided into 2 groups of cool and warm colours. Cool colours are usually dull or has a lower contrast compared to warm colours. Warm colours are very bright.

In the usage of art, these 2 groups represent different emotions. For example, red and green-yellow represent anger or jealousy; orange and yellow represent happiness and excitement. Whilst, indigo and blue represent sadness and loneliness.