In order to be able to understand color wheels, color theory and color harmony strategies, you need to understand the three key characteristics of color. These three characteristics are value, saturation, and hue. Hue is what most people think of when using the term ‘color.’ Examples of hues are: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet. Value is the relative lightness or darkness of a color. This is what you see when you take a black and white photograph. The saturation of a color is its degree of richness, intensity, purity, or grayness. Other commonly used terms for saturation are intensity or chroma.

In this course unit

This introductory course on color theory covers all the basics characteristics of color that you need to know about in order to understand the principles of color harmony. This course will give you the foundation for the more advanced courses on color. You will learn:

• the three key characteristics of color that are critical to undertanding color harmony: hue, value, and saturation
• the concept of a color wheel
• the five major types of color wheel and when they are used
• what are complements and why they are critically important for creating interest in a painting
• the difference between the Triadic and Munsell color wheels and the advantages of using the Munsell color wheel
• the difference between the major tube colors in terms of hue, value and saturation
• how different pigments behave in terms of saturation changes when tinted and shaded
• three techniques for checking that two values are the same – an important skill for advanced color work
• how to use software to convert images to black and white and how to posterize images – useful techniques for helping you learn values

Total number of assignments: 6

Total number of pages: 19