Color Theory

Perceiving, understanding, and using color

Tara Verna from North Carolina created this study of how color is used to mimic light transitions in a Degas painting.

Color is probably the most relative medium in art. Each color has a specific property, whether it's the particular wavelength in optical perception, the molecular construction of pigments or an RGB value for a monitor. Though each of those properties may be fixed, the expression and perception of a color may change within different contexts.

Understanding color requires that you understand its systems, interaction—even a bit of physics! This course deals with the abstract language of color. We'll discuss basic color principles, terminology, and applications, with an emphasis on manipulating color.

Tuition:	$500 US
CEU Value:	1.5
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Course Instructor(s):

Piper Nilsson is a graphic designer and information architect.

Yeesan Loh is an interior designer, photographer, painter, and graphic designer.

Course content developed by Piper Nilsson and Ingrid Capozzoli Flinn.

Requirements:

To take this course you'll need:

Computer with Internet connection (56 Kbps modem or faster).
Adobe Photoshop or equivalent digital imaging program such Fireworks or Paint Shop Pro.
Basic experience in Photoshop or equivalent digital imaging program.

Prerequisites:

The following courses can help you meet the above requirements:

4218 - Photoshop Basics

Course Objectives:

Students learn how to:

Create color harmonies based on geometric connections of the color wheel.
Use color value and saturation to create moods relevant to specific products or design needs.
Create "mood boards" or color studies that illustrate specific types of color combinations.
Effectively apply the various illusions created by interactions of hue, contrast, value, and saturation.
Develop color compositions in which a color appears different based on its surroundings and two colors appear the same based on their surroundings.
Identify the primary colors of light and pigment and how these colors are formed on screen and in print.
Create a digital reproduction of a painting to analyze how color presents an illusion of light in artwork.
Create a digital representation of an actual object to analyze the color values formed by light.

Course Outline

LESSON 1 Thinking About Color

To begin to understand how to work with color, we'll explore different ways of looking at it using the color wheel. The concepts of hue, saturation, and harmony will be introduced. Values and intensities of colors are explored using illustrations and real-world examples. In the exercise, you'll apply these principles and experiment with different color relationships by creating six color schemes for a client.

LESSON 2 Color Interactivity

Colors can look very different depending on the other colors around them. Lesson Two explores how colors work with each other. You may be surprised by some of the effects and illusions that can be created by simple pairings of colors. We'll also look at light and how it affects the perception of color. In the exercise, you'll study and mimic how a great painter uses color to represent light and produce your own, original study of light and color.

LESSON 3 Color in Design

Designers use two very different "modes" of color in their work-color that is made of printing inks and color that is made from light in a monitor. The differences between the additive and subtractive color will be explored in Lesson Three. Other important topics include using color on-screen, combining color with typography, and color psychology. For the last exercise, you will create a travel poster, developing an effective color scheme for the overall design and typography.