Hue
the color or shade, how the color appears on the color wheel
Value
(amount of light) The natural lightness or darkness of a hue or the amount of white or black in a color
Saturation
The intensity or the purity of a hue. A hue with no other colors mixed in.
Tint
Hue plus white, the light side of value
Shade
Hue plus black, the dark side of value
Primary Colors
Red, yellow, and blue. With these three colors (and black and white) all other colors can be made. The primary colors themselves can not be made by mixing other colors.
Secondary Colors
Those colors which are created by the mixture of two primary colors in approximately equal proportions. The secondary colors are orange, violet and green.
Tertiary Colors (intermediate)
Those colors created by the mixture of an adjacent primary and secondary color. The tertiary colors are named by combining the names of the two parent colors, with the primary element listed first: orange + red = red-orange.
Complementary Colors
Hues which are opposite each other on the colors wheel. The complement of red is green, the complement of yellow-orange is blue-violent, etc. When two complements are placed next to each other each color appears at its highest visual strength.
Analogous Colors
Colors next to each other on the color wheel. An analogous color scheme consists of any three or four adjacent colors on the color wheel. Their proximity to one another assures that analogous colors will contribute to a harmonious scheme, and where colors meet, they will blend beautifully.
Monochromatic Colors
all the hues (tints and shades) of a single color.
Split Complements
The split-complementary color scheme is a variation of the complementary color scheme. In addition to the base color, it uses the two colors adjacent to its complement. Ex. violet with yellow-orange and yellow-green.
Double Complements
two adjacent hues and their opposites. For example: Red-orange: Blue-green and Yellow-orange: Blue-purple
Triad
Use of 3 colors, usually colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel, but not always.
Afterimages
When one stares at a single color (red for example) for a sustained period of time (thirty seconds to a minute should suffice), then looks at a white surface, an afterimage of the complementary color (in this case cyan) will appear.
Simultaneous contrast
Two colors, side by side, interact with one another and change our perception accordingly.For example, red and blue flowerbeds in a garden are modified where they border each other: the blue appears green and the red, orange. Specifically, the idea that an object of any given color will cast a shadow tinged with that of its complementary color and tinting neighboring colors in the same manner
Transparency
the ability of a substance to transmit light easily.
Bezold Color Effect
When small areas of color are interspersed, an assimilation effect occurs. It's an optical illusion. As a result, a color may appear different depending on its relation to adjacent colors.
Color Symbolism
red: hot, passionate, danger, evil....blue:honesty, responsibility, compassion, melancholy, sad...yellow: warm, cowardice, bright...orange: confident, adventurous...green: nature, health, friendly, fresh, greedy...purple: royalty, beauty, sophistication...grey: neutral, apathetic, dull...black: death, mystery, night, monstrous, horrible...white: pure, innocent, cold, blank, empty, etc.
Color preferences
Not only have we inherited cultural associations, but we also respond to colors in individual ways. We have unique aversions and attractions to certain colors over others.
Local color
One of the two opposite ways of using color in representational art. It is the color that something appears from nearby when viewed under average lighting conditions. We think of the local color of a banana as yellow, for example.
Expressive Color
The other of the two opposite ways of using color in representational art. At the other end of the extreme is the expressionistic use of color, whereby artists use color to express an emotional rather than a visual truth.
Temperature
WARM COLORS - Red, orange, yellow, (red-violet, yellow-green), warm color tend to advance in visual space. COOL COLORS - Violet, blue, green, cool colors recede in space.
Tone
adding grey to a hue
Polychromatic color scheme
Uses lots of different colors, no connection, random.