COLOUR THEORY 1 - 2

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SYSTEMATIC COLOUR

Colour is all about perception - the way we see.

The eye contains two kinds of receptors called rods and cones.

• Rods : Convey shades of grey
• Cones: Perceive colour
• Eye Diagram

Of the three types of cones the first is sensitive to red-orange light , the second to green light and the third to blue-violet. When a single cone is stimulated the brain perceives the corresponding colour.

• If our green cones are stimulated we see "green".
• If our red-orange cones are stimulated we see "red"
• If both our red-orange and green cones are identified we see the colour "yellow".

The eye cannot differentiate between yellow and some combinations of red and green. The same effect accounts for our perception of cyan magenta and the other in between spectral colours. 

THE COLOUR WHEEL

• Primary: Colours that can't be made by other colours
• Secondary: is a colour made by mixing two primary colours in a given colour space.
• Teriary: is a colour made by mixing either one primary colour with one secondary colour, or two secondary colours, in a given colour space.

SUBTRACTIVE  + ADDITIVE COLOUR

• Subtractive: set of dyes, inks, paint pigments or natural colourants to create a wider range of colours.
• Additive: colour created by mixing together light of two or more different colours  Red, green, and blue are the primary colours normally used in additive colour system.

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COLOUR MODES

• RGB: Red, green and blue are web / screen based colours.
• CMYK: Cyan, magenta, yellow, key are ink and dye based colours used in printing.
• K also know as black introduces tone through the eye rods and CMY are the mixes of colour.
• Complimentary Colours: Cancel each other out in pigment and perception. They have an opposition optically.
• Chromatic Value: Hue, tone and saturation. These 3 elements allow us to judge colour.
• Luminance: Shade, tone and tint. Lower chromatic value in regards to hue.

Further Reading

• Basic Colour Theory
• Digital Colour Wheel

PRACTICAL COLOUR SESSION

Over the Christmas period we individually had to collect 15 objects that all were a specific colour. As a class we lined up all our objects in order from darkest to lightest to see the different hue's, saturations and brightness of our colour.

My group had the colour yellow to collect for over the christmas period and these were our items in colour order.

Myself, Sean and Jake had to choose 5 items from our collection and match them using the Pantone system to see which colours they represented. 

• Brightest- Hight lighter
• Dulest- Sponge
• Palest- Body Scrubber
• Darkest- Tshirt
• Yellowist- Selfridge's Bag
• Greenest - Lighter

1205 M

Basic Colours: Yellow M

3995 M

386 M

116 M

115 M

Using the Pantone colour system is very useful and effective, the swatches allow you to see the different colours blended by the percentage of how to recreate that colour again exactly.