Introduction
Color theory can basically be defined as an aid to studying color mixing and the effects of combining various colors together. It is an indispensable tool for budding artists or graphic designers or anyone working with art in general.
Color theory also informs the design of color schemes, aiming at aesthetic appeal and the effective communication of a design message on both the visual level and the psychological level.
Modern color theory is mostly based on the three primary colors(Red, Blue, Yellow), secondary colors which are made by mixing two primary colors and tertiary colors which are made by mixing primary and secondary colors together.
Hue, Saturation And Brightness
Hue, saturation, and brightness are three factors which can be suitably adjusted to acquire any desired color.
– Hue
It basically specifies the color that will be selected. It is more formally defined as the degree to which a stimulus can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow. It can be denoted by a number starting from 0 to 360 or as a form of an axis on a colorspace coordinate system.
– Saturation
Also referred to as intensity or chroma, Saturation denotes the amount of intensity or the amount of pigment present in the color. An image with high saturation will make the colors in the image appear much more vivid and intensified while an image with no saturation appears as a greyscale monochromatic image.
– Brightness
Brightness refers to the amount of ‘whiteness’ in the color. A color with above average brightness will appear whiter and of a lighter shade while a color with low brightness appears to be darker and blacker. Any hue color with maximum brightness will always appear white and one with no brightness will always appear black.
Warm And Cool Colors
Warm colors comprise of various shades of red, orange and yellow. They are called as such because they tend to invoke a feeling of warmth within us as they make us think of the sun or fire.
Cool colors, on the other hand, comprise of various shades of blue, green, purple and violet. Again, they are called as such as they evoke a cool feeling within us and make us think of grass, trees, and bodies of water. Warm colors advance while cool colors recede, affecting the perception of depth.
