Class notes COLOR THEORY 9/19/24

Next Assignment: Using your exploratory design concepts, create 3 color-scheme variants: (majority) complementary, (majority) analogous, & (entirely) monochromatic.

Subtractive:
pigment + paper
base = white
R, Y, B
C, M, Y, K (K doesn't stand for blacK it stands for Key (which is black))

Additive:
Addition of light
Base = black
R, G, B

The Painter's Color Wheel (Pigment-based interactions): Red at the top, blue and yellow forming an equidistant triangle.
Primaries: Red Yellow Blue - the triad relationship.
Secondaries: Orange, Purple, Green (equal parts 2 Primary colors) This is also a triad, they are equidistant as well.
Tertiaries: A Secondary plus a Primary
Quaternary: A Tertiary plus a Primary (and so on)

Complementary colors: Direct opposites on the color wheel.

Analogous colors: Adjacent on the color wheel.

"Color" terminological breakdown:
Hue: the specific identity quality of a "color"
Chroma: how pure a hue is, in relation to gray (the side strip on the PS color picker)
Saturation: the degree of purity of a hue (leftward on the PS color picker circle)
Intensity: the brightness or dullness of a hue
Value: the amount of light reflected from a hue (Yellow has the highest value; in grayscale, the closest to white. Purple has the lowest value.)
Shade: hue + black
Tint: hue + white

Monochromatic: Use of a single hue varied only by tint and shade.

You don't want colors with opposing values next to each other in a piece(?)

Color "language" and "meanings" - what colors communicate on an emotional level (culturally based, obvi)

Some examples
Red: Angry, passion, fire, blood, warning, emergency, important, intense, energy, war, danger, strong
Yellow: Speed, energy/power, lightning, value, caution, intellect, joy
Blue: Intellect, soothing, sad, ally, interactive, friendly, sky, tranquil, coolness, expanse, transparency/glass

Orange: warm, action, lava, cheeto dust, history, "getting closer to red", festive, autumnal, harvest, abundance, hearth
Green: growth, flora, nature, money, health, disease/poison, safe, envy, freshness, fertility, renewal
Purple: darkness/magic, death, poison, alien, royal, expensive/exceptional value, sludge, bruising, arcane, hi-tech, mysterious

Ways we use color: Visual appeal "it looks good"
gray/white boxing: MVP - minimum viable product - simple colors to evoke details that aren't literally present
Coding, signifying - team affiliation, safety, danger, function/affordances
Space, world-building
Emotion-building (color grading)

Aside: There's a new Evil Dead movie!? 'Evil Dead Rises'(?)