Color Vocabulary

This article covers basic concepts and vocabulary regarding color that I expect all students to know.

Hue

A precise definition can be quite difficult. So, for our purposes the following definition will suffice, the hue of a color refers to the color that it most resembles on the rainbow. However, a sharp student may realize that the color magenta never appears on the rainbow…

Saturation

Saturation refers to how vivid or “pure” a color is. A total lack of saturation in a color would give us gray. The gray is unsaturated. The red is saturated.

Value

Value refers to how dark or light a color is. Another word for value that artists use is key. High-key is bright. Low-key is dark.

Color Temperature (Warm/Cool)

This is just a shorthand way of saying if a color is more blue-ish (cool) or orange-ish (warm).

Additive Color Mixing and Subtractive Color Mixing

Mixing red and green paint does not give the same color as when mixing red and green light.

When you mix red and green paint, you will likely get black or brown. But if you mix red and green light, you will get a bright yellow.

Colors mix differently depending on if you are mixing paints or if you are mixing lights together. Mixing lights together is what we call additive color mixing. Mixing paints together is what we call subtractive color mixing.

Primary, Secondary, Tertiary Colors

Primary colors are the colors that can mix to make all the other colors. Secondary colors are colors halfway in between the primary colors. Tertiary colors are the colors in between the primaries and secondaries.

The primary colors for additive color mixing (using the modern RGBCMY color wheel) are red, green, and blue. This is why, if you look close enough into the display of your smartphone, desktop computer, or television, almost certainly, you should be able to see that the display is comprised of millions of tiny little red, green, and blue lights.

The primary colors for subtractive color mixing (still using the modern color wheel) are cyan, magenta, and yellow. This is why printer inks come in packages of cyan, magenta, and yellow.

However, for traditional painting, many artists and educators still insist on using red, yellow, and blue as the primaries for subtractive color mixing. This is fine. Planning color schemes along this arrangement may still give harmonious results.

Color Wheel

A color wheel is circular map used to organize hues. It’s the primary tool artists use to pick color schemes and predict what will happen when they mix two colors together. The modern RGBCMY color wheel derives from a physical understanding of how our eyes work. However, in classical times, early color theorists believed that red, yellow, and blue were the three primary colors, thus giving rise to the RYB color wheel.

Complementary Colors