ART STUDIO COLOUR THEORY

Color wheel
A color circle, based on red, yellow and blue, is traditional in the field of art. Sir
Isaac Newton developed the first circular diagram of colors in 1666. Since then,
scientists and artists have studied and designed numerous variations of this
concept. Differences of opinion about the validity of one format over another
continue to provoke debate. In reality, any color circle or color wheel which
presents a logically arranged sequence of pure hues has merit.

There are also definitions (or categories) of colors based on the color wheel. We
begin with a 3-part color wheel.

Primary Colors: Red, yellow and blue

In traditional color theory (used in paint and pigments), primary colors are the 3
pigment colors that cannot be mixed or formed by any combination of other
colors. All other colors are derived from these 3 hues.

Secondary Colors: Green, orange and purple

these are the colors formed by mixing the primary colors.

Tertiary Colors: Yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green &

yellow-green
These are the colors formed by mixing a primary and a secondary color. That's
why the hue is a two word name, such as blue-green, red-violet, and yellow-
orange.
TINT, SHADE & TONE

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In colour theory, a tint is the mixture of a colour with white, which increases
lightness, and a shade is the mixture of a color with black, which reduces
lightness. Mixing a color with any neutral colour, including black and white,
reduces the chrome, or colorfulness, while the hue remains unchanged.

When mixing colored light (additive color models), the achromatic mixture of
spectrally balanced red, green and blue (RGB) is always white, not gray or black.
Watercolor painting
Water colour is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting
artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble
vehicle. The traditional and most common support for watercolor paintings is
paper; other supports include papyrus, bark papers, plastics, vellum or leather,
fabric, wood, and canvas. Watercolors are usually transparent, and appear
luminous because the pigments are laid down in a relatively pure form with few
fillers obscuring the pigment colours. Water colour can also be made opaque by
adding Chinese white. In East Asia, watercolor painting with inks is referred to as
brush painting or scroll painting. In Chinese, Korean, and Japanese painting it has
been the dominant medium, often in monochrome black or browns. India,
Ethiopia and other countries also have long traditions.
 Oil painting

Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci,

Raja Ravi Varma
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a
medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. These oils
confer various properties to the oil paint, such as less yellowing or different drying
times. Certain differences are also visible in the sheen of the paints depending on
the oil. Painters often use different oils in the same painting depending on specific
pigments and effects desired. The paints themselves also develop a particular
consistency depending on the medium.

Although oil paint was first used for the Buddhist Paintings by Indian and Chinese
painters in western Afghanistan sometime between the fifth and ninth centuries,
it did not gain popularity until the 15th century. Its practice may have migrated
westward during the middle Ages. Oil paint eventually became the principal
medium used for creating artworks as its advantages became widely known.
 Tempera
consisting of colored pigment mixed with a water-soluble binder medium (usually
a glutinous material such as egg yolk or some other size). Tempera also refers to
the paintings done in this medium. Tempera paintings are very long lasting, and
examples from the 1st centuries AD still exist. Egg tempera was a primary method
of painting until after 1500 when it was superseded by the invention of oil
painting.

Tempera Painting by Michelangelo - The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

 Acrylic paint
Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer
emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant
when dry. Depending on how much the paint is diluted (with water) or modified
with acrylic gels, media, or pastes, the finished acrylic painting can resemble a
watercolor or an oil painting, or have its own unique characteristics not attainable
with other media.

Water miscible oil paint

Water soluble oil paint is a modern variety of oil paint engineered to be thinned
and cleaned up with water, thus making it possible to avoid using chemicals such
as turpentine, whose fumes may be harmful if inhaled (making it necessary to
take precautions, such as using the solvent in a ventilated environment). Water
miscible oil paint can be mixed and applied using the same techniques as
traditional oil-based paint, but while still wet it can be effectively removed from
brushes, palettes, and rags with ordinary soap and water. Its water solubility
comes from the use of an oil medium in which one end of the molecule has been
altered to bind loosely to water molecules, as in a solution.
Differences between acrylic and oil paint

The main practical difference between most acrylics and oil paints is the inherent
drying time. Oils allow for more time to blend colors and apply even glazes over
under paintings. This slow drying aspect of oil can be seen as an advantage for
certain techniques, but in other regards it impedes the artist trying to work
quickly. The fast evaporation of water from regular acrylic paint films can be
slowed with the use of acrylic retarders. Retarders are generally gly color glycerin-
based additives. The addition of a retarder slows the evaporation rate of the
water.

Oil paint has a higher pigment load than acrylic paint. As linseed oil has a smaller
molecule than does acrylic, oil paint is able to absorb substantially more pigment.
Oil provides a different refractive index than acrylic dispersions, imparting a
unique "look and feel" to the resultant paint film. Not all pigments in oil are
available in acrylic. Prussian blue has been recently added to the acrylic colors.
Acrylic paints, unlike oil, may also be fluorescent.

Another difference between oil and acrylic paints is the versatility offered by
acrylic paints - acrylic is very useful in mixed media, allowing use of pastel (oil &
chalk), charcoal, pen, etc. on top of the dried acrylic painted surface. Mixing other
bodies into the acrylic is possible - sand, rice, even pasta may be incorporated in
the artwork. Mixing artist or student quality acrylic paint with household acrylic
emulsions is possible, allowing the use of pre-mixed tints straight from the tube
or tin, so presenting the painter with a vast color range at his or her disposal.
 Mixed media

Collaboration with Jean Tinguely, 1989

Mixed media, in visual art, refers to an artwork in the making of which more than
one medium has been employed. For example, a work on canvas that combines
paint, ink, and collage could properly be called a "mixed media" When creating a
painted or photographed work using mixed media it is important to choose the
layers carefully and allow enough drying time between the layers to ensure the
final work will have integrity. If many different media are used it is equally
important to choose a sturdy foundation upon which the different layers are
imposed.
 Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard
materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer
("plastic") materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and
softer metals. The term has been extended to works including sound, text and
light.

Materials may be worked by removal such as carving; or they may be assembled

such as by welding, hardened such as by firing, or molded or cast. Surface
decoration such as paint may be applied. Sculpture has been described as one of
the plastic arts because it can involve the use of materials that can be molded or
modulated. Found objects may be presented as sculptures.

Sculpture is an important form of public art. A collection of sculpture in a garden

setting may be referred to as a sculpture garden.

Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing
press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of
publishing and transaction printing.

The development of printing was preceded by the use of cylinder seals in Mesopotamia
developed in 3500 BC, and other related stamp seals. The earliest form of printing was
woodblock printing, with existing examples from China dating to before 220 AD and Egypt to
the 4th century. Later developments in printing include the movable type, first developed by Bi
Sheng in China, and the printing press, a more efficient printing process developed by Johannes
Gutenberg in the 15th century.
 Collage

Kurt Schwitters, Das Undbild, 1919, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

A is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of
different forms, thus creating a new whole.

A collage may include newspaper clippings, ribbons, bits of colored or hand-made

papers, portions of other artwork or texts, photographs and other found objects,
glued to a piece of paper or canvas. The origins of collage can be traced back
hundreds of years, but this technique made a dramatic reappearance in the early
20th century as an art form of novelty.

The term collage derives from the French "colle" meaning "glue”. This term was
coined by both Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso in the beginning of the 20th
century when collage became a distinctive part of modern art.