Color Theory for Noobs | Beginner Guide

Summary

In this informative video, Julian from Flow Graphics discusses the fundamentals of color theory, essential for artists and designers. He covers key concepts like hue, saturation, lightness, and color groups, explaining how they interact and affect artwork. He also delves into the emotional meanings behind colors and their use in design, concluding with a test for viewers to identify changes in color attributes and schemes.

Takeaways

• 🎨 Color theory is crucial for artists and graphic designers, as it helps in understanding how to effectively use colors in their work.
• 🟥 Hue refers to the actual color itself, such as red, orange, or yellow. Changing the hue alters the color without affecting its lightness or saturation.
• 🔥 Saturation is the intensity of a color. A fully saturated color is vivid, while a color with zero saturation appears gray.
• 🌞 Lightness, also known as brightness, affects how bright or dark a color is. It can be adjusted by adding white (tints) or black (shades) to a color.
• 🌈 Color groups or color schemes are used to organize colors that work well together in art and design. They include monochromatic, analogous, complementary, and triadic schemes.
• 🔴 Monochromatic color schemes use variations of a single color, such as different shades and tints of red.
• 🟠 Analogous color schemes consist of three colors that are next to each other on the color wheel, such as yellow, orange, and red.
• 🟡 Complementary colors are those that are opposite each other on the color wheel, like orange and blue, and they are known for their strong visual contrast.
• 🟢 Triadic color schemes involve three colors that form an equilateral triangle on the color wheel, ensuring they are evenly spaced.
• 🌟 Colors have specific meanings and emotions associated with them. For example, red is linked with passion and danger, while blue is associated with calmness and wisdom.
• 🌈 Warm and cool colors are determined by the presence of yellow (warm) or blue (cool) in a color. This distinction can influence the mood and feel of a design.

Q & A

What is the basic concept of 'hue' in color theory?

Hue refers to the specific color itself. It's the first attribute of a color and can be represented on a color wheel, where different hues are positioned around the wheel.

How does saturation affect a color?

Saturation is the intensity of a color. A color with 100% saturation is fully vibrant, while a color with 0% saturation appears gray, indicating no saturation at all.

What is the difference between tints and shades in terms of lightness?

Tints are colors that have been made lighter by adding white, whereas shades are colors that have been made darker by adding black. Lightness refers to the brightness or darkness of a color without affecting its hue or saturation.

Can you explain the concept of a monochromatic color scheme?

A monochromatic color scheme consists of different tints and shades of a single color. It provides a harmonious and consistent look, as all colors are derived from one base hue.

What are analogous colors and how are they used in a color scheme?

Analogous colors are those that are placed next to each other on the color wheel. An analogous color scheme uses three colors that are adjacent to each other, creating a harmonious and visually appealing combination.

Define complementary colors and provide an example.

Complementary colors are those that are opposite each other on the color wheel. An example of complementary colors is orange and blue, which often work well together to create contrast and visual interest.

What is a triadic color scheme and how is it formed?

A triadic color scheme is formed by selecting three colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel, forming a triangle. This scheme provides high contrast and visual interest.

Why are certain colors chosen for specific emotions or meanings?

Colors are chosen for specific emotions or meanings because each color is associated with certain psychological responses and cultural symbolism. For example, red is often linked with passion and danger.

What is the significance of the color purple in terms of wealth?

Purple is associated with wealth because, historically, the dye used to create purple was expensive and difficult to produce, making it a color worn by royalty and symbolizing luxury and wealth.

How do warm and cool colors differ and what colors are typically considered warm or cool?

Warm colors include red, orange, and yellow and are associated with energy and warmth. Cool colors, such as blue, purple, and green, evoke a sense of calm and tranquility. The distinction is based on the presence of yellow (warm) or blue (cool) in the color.

What is the purpose of the color test in the video script?

The color test in the video script is designed to engage viewers and challenge them to apply their understanding of color theory. It asks viewers to identify changes in hue, saturation, and to recognize a color scheme based on the alterations made to three blue dots.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Introduction to Color Theory Basics

Julian introduces the concept of color theory, emphasizing its importance for artists and graphic designers. He explains the term 'hue' as the pure color itself, using a graph to illustrate the transition from one hue to another. Julian also discusses 'saturation' as the intensity of a color without altering its lightness or darkness, demonstrating this with dots of varying saturation levels. He then covers 'lightness', which involves adjusting the brightness or darkness of a color through the addition of white or black, creating tints and shades. The paragraph concludes with an introduction to 'color groups', which are various color schemes that can be used to create harmonious combinations in artwork.

05:00

🌈 Exploring Core Color Schemes and Their Meanings

This paragraph delves into the fundamental color schemes, starting with 'monochromatic', which uses various tints and shades of a single color. 'Analogous' color schemes are next, involving colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel. 'Complementary' colors, which are opposite each other on the wheel, are highlighted as they often create striking visual effects, as seen in movie posters. 'Triadic' color schemes are also discussed, which form an equilateral triangle on the color wheel. Julian mentions that while there are many color schemes, these are the core ones. He then transitions to the significance of color meanings, explaining how each color can evoke specific emotions and has cultural associations. For example, red is linked to passion and danger, while blue is considered calming. The paragraph also touches on warm and cool colors, with yellow and red being warm and blue and purple being cool. Julian concludes with an interactive test for viewers to identify changes in color dots and to recognize color schemes, inviting feedback in the comments.

Keywords

💡Color Theory

Color Theory is the foundation of understanding how colors interact and relate to each other. It is essential for artists and graphic designers to create visually appealing and harmonious designs. In the script, Julian discusses color theory as a crucial topic for anyone involved in art, emphasizing its importance in selecting and combining colors effectively.

💡Hue

Hue refers to the pure color itself, without any modification in lightness or saturation. It is the basic attribute that defines what the color is, such as red, blue, or yellow. In the video, Julian explains hue by showing how changing the hue shifts a color from red to orange, or from yellow to green, illustrating the concept with a simple graph.

💡Saturation

Saturation is the intensity or purity of a color. It measures how much a color is diluted with white or black. A fully saturated color is vivid, while a color with zero saturation is gray. Julian uses the example of dots on a screen to demonstrate saturation, where the left dot is 100% saturated and the right dot is 0% saturated, showing the transition from a rich color to gray.

💡Lightness

Lightness pertains to the brightness or darkness of a color, independent of its hue or saturation. It is achieved by adding white (lightening) or black (darkening) to a color. Julian explains lightness by drawing rectangles that gradually become lighter (tints) or darker (shades), showing how lightness affects the overall brightness of a color without changing its identity.

💡Color Groups

Color Groups, or color schemes, are collections of colors that are chosen to work well together in a design or artwork. They help in creating a cohesive and aesthetically pleasing visual effect. Julian introduces color groups by drawing a color wheel and explaining how different colors can be arranged to form various schemes, such as monochromatic, analogous, complementary, and triadic.

💡Monochromatic

A monochromatic color scheme consists of different shades and tints of a single color. It provides a harmonious and unified look, as seen in Julian's example where he discusses using only reds in a painting. This scheme is simple yet effective for creating a focused visual impact.

💡Analogous

Analogous colors are those that are next to each other on the color wheel. Choosing an analogous color scheme involves selecting three colors that are adjacent, such as yellow, orange, and red, as Julian demonstrates. This scheme offers a balanced and visually appealing combination that is often used in art and design.

💡Complementary

Complementary colors are those that are opposite each other on the color wheel. They create a high contrast and are often used to draw attention or highlight certain elements in a design. Julian mentions how movie posters frequently use complementary colors like orange and blue to create a striking visual effect.

💡Triadic

A triadic color scheme is formed by selecting three colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel, forming a triangle. Julian illustrates this by choosing orange, green, and purple. This scheme provides a vibrant and dynamic combination that is often used in creative works to create a sense of energy and balance.

💡Color Meaning

Colors have specific meanings and emotions associated with them, which can influence the perception and mood of a viewer. Julian discusses how red is linked to passion and danger, while blue is associated with calmness and wisdom. Understanding these meanings can help artists and designers choose colors that convey the intended message or emotion in their work.

💡Warm and Cool Colors

Warm and cool colors are terms used to describe the psychological temperature of a color. Warm colors like red, orange, and yellow are often associated with energy and warmth, while cool colors like blue, green, and purple are linked to calmness and tranquility. Julian explains that adding more yellow to a color makes it warmer, and adding more blue makes it cooler, affecting the overall mood of the color.

Highlights

Introduction to color theory as a crucial topic for artists and graphic designers.

Definition of hue as the primary color itself.

Explanation of hue with a visual graph showing color transitions from red to orange, yellow, and green.

Saturation described as the intensity of a color without affecting its lightness or hue.

Demonstration of saturation levels with dots showing 100% saturated to 0% (gray).

Introduction to lightness, affecting the brightness or darkness of a color.

Illustration of lightness with rectangles showing tints (lighter shades) and shades (darker shades).

Discussion on color groups and their importance in creating harmonious color schemes.

Explanation of monochromatic color schemes using only tints and shades of a single color.

Description of analogous color schemes, choosing colors that sit next to each other on the color wheel.

Complementary colors defined as those opposite each other on the color wheel, often used in design for contrast.

Triadic color schemes explained as colors forming an equilateral triangle on the color wheel.

Acknowledgment that while there are many color schemes, the core ones are most commonly used in practice.

Importance of understanding the emotional and cultural meanings behind colors in design.

Red associated with passion, danger, and heat; used in stop signs for its commanding presence.

Orange linked to energy, creativity, and happiness, often used in advertising.

Yellow symbolizing happiness, energy, and activity, commonly seen in advertising and design.

Black commonly associated with death and power, a strong color in design.

Green representing nature, healing, and medicine, often used in health-related symbols.

Blue associated with calmness and wisdom, often used in hospitals and educational settings.

Purple historically linked to wealth and royalty due to the difficulty in producing the dye.

White symbolizing purity and peace, often used in contrast with black.

Introduction to warm and cool colors, with examples of how adding yellow or blue affects a color's warmth.

Interactive test for viewers to identify changes in color attributes and schemes.

Encouragement for viewers to engage with the content and provide feedback in the comments.

Transcripts

hi everybody my name is Julian and today

I'm going to be talking about color

theory this is a really important topic

for any artist or graphic designer

anything surrounding art you need to

know color theory and I also get asked a

lot of questions about color theory and

things to do with colors a lot so I

thought I might as well make a video for

you all so I'm going to start with hue

this is pretty straightforward and it's

pretty easy to understand

hue is essentially what color the color

is so if I draw a little graph here I

want to draw a red in the middle will

draw orange yellow will draw purple next

to the red and then pink you can see

this color is basically changing and

yeah pink should be next red but let's

ignore that so essentially hue is just

what color it is so if we have a color

red here and we duplicate this and we

change it we've just shifted the hue

from a red to an orange and then we've

shifted the shoe to the orange to a

yellow and then was just add the hue

from a yellow to a green and so on it's

basically just what color you have

selected there's not much more to it

the next is saturation so this is a word

you probably gonna see a lot if you work

with Photoshop or any sort of digital

program and you'll probably hear it a

lot too in the art world this is

essentially the intensity of the color

this doesn't change how light or dark

the color it is it doesn't change what

the color is it just changes how intense

that actual color is so like you can see

on my screen I've got a bunch of dots

the left-hand dot is a hundred percent

saturated the right-hand dot is 0%

saturated so no saturation of a color is

just gray and this applies for any color

so you can see as I shift these colors

around here the left is always saturated

the right is always not saturated so

fully saturated green slowly getting D

saturated into gray the next is

lightness and this can also be split up

into tints and shades so this is

basically how bright or darker color is

this doesn't affect the hue or the

saturation or anything like that it's

basically just adding white or black

into the color so if I sort of draw some

little rectangles here you can see I'm

sort of making

lighter and lighter so they're basically

tints and then I'll make some more and

I'll make it darker and darker and these

are some shades so you can see the

darkest colors sort of like a dark brown

but it's still quite saturated and rich

in color and then the light colors

basically like a pink and it still has a

lot of color it's just very light so you

can sort of use a general term to call

it lightness or brightness of the color

or if you just make it darker it's

called a shade if you make it lighter

it's called a tint so next up is color

groups this is probably one of the more

confusing parts of color theory I'll try

to make it pretty straightforward for

you all because it's pretty simple once

you understand it so I'm going to draw a

little color wheel here and I'm

basically going to show how different

colors relate to each other essentially

color groups are basically dis color

schemes you could use these color

screens for an artwork or for a painting

or anything you're creating it's just a

way that colors can look cool together

and sort of interactive each other so

what I've drawn right here is a

monochromatic color scheme it's

essentially what we just talked about

with tints and shades depth only one

color so if I was to make a painting

just out of reds and nothing else that

would be a monochrome color scheme and

it's one type of color scheme that we

can use the next is analagous or analog

for sure I guess you could say and this

is basically what color is next to

another color so I'm going to draw a

little color wheel here and this sort of

analog color scheme is basically picking

three colors on this color wheel and

they all just need to sit next to each

other so if I draw some little lines

here let's say we're going to pick

yellow and then we'll pick orange in the

middle out if we spell it right and then

we'll pick a red - and that's analagous

color scheme we've picked three colors

that all sit next to each other and this

can apply for any colors so if I just

rotate this over here and spin it around

it can work for any colors so I could

pick a green a yellow and an orange I

could pick a blue or purple on a red

they just need to sit next to each other

in the color wheel next is complementary

you'll probably hear this a lot in sort

of art and design and this is basically

colors that are opposite each other in

the color wheel you've probably seen a

lot of movie posters love to use the

colors orange and blue they're

complementary colors they work really

good together I'm saying with green and

red

and yellow and purple so basically it

doesn't matter what the colors are they

just need to be opposite each other in

the color wheel and they are

complementary colors the next color

group we're going to talk about is

triatic so this is essentially making a

triangle on the color wheel so if we

pick orange green and purple and make a

little triangle that's a triadic color

scheme they all sit at a triangles point

away from each other so if you just made

a perfect triangle anywhere in the color

wheel as long as they all sit evenly

that's a triadic color scheme there's a

lot more color schemes than these ones

I've just listed here though these are

sort of the core fundamental color

schemes or color groups and to be

completely honest you don't always use

all those other color groups it's more

or less theory you do apply it in like

when you're actually creating your

artwork though I can say as an artist

who works in the field I don't often

actually refer to the color groups and

the next part and one of the most

important parts is the meaning behind

colors so a lot of people don't actually

understand that a lot of colors are

picked for very specific reasons and

each color actually has a meaning behind

it and it gives off a certain emotion

whether you like it or not each color

actually does have a motion and meaning

behind it for anybody it's not

subjective um all of these colors do

actually give off a bodily sort of

emotion and an impact that we don't

actually realize so red is most commonly

associated with passion and danger and

fire and heat that's why stop signs are

red orange is often associated with

energy and creativity yellow is sort of

happiness joyfulness energy being active

you'll see this a lot of advertising

people using these colors as well black

sort of obvious um it's really

associated with death and also power as

well

green most commonly associated with

nature as well as healing and medicine

you see a lot of health symbols in games

be green for this reason blue is also a

calming color see a lot of hospitals

painted blue for this reason it's also

associated with wisdom purple is often

associated with wealth actually the

reason this is is because the color

purple the actual dye was a lot harder

to create and make a few hundred years

ago

so it was often only sort of worn by

kings and queens and Royals so that's

why it's sort of associated with that

and what is obviously known as sort of

purity and peace basically the opposite

of black we also have warm and cool

colors green is somewhat of a neutral

color but let's just say it's cool

so obviously red your orange yellow oil

somewhat warm colors blue purple and

green are somewhat cool colors and you

can also make any color on a color wheel

warm or cool so I've duplicated the

green here so you can see the dot on the

left of the green has a bit more yellow

added to it so it's a bit more warm and

then the dot to the right of the green

dot has a bit more blue added to it so

it's a bit more of a turquoise color and

that's more of a cool color so if people

refer to warm or cool colors it's

essentially how much yellow or how much

blue has been added to a color so yellow

being warm blue being cold so next I

have a little test for everybody

watching so I want you to go through

this with me so I'm gonna draw three

blue dots on my screen right now and I'd

like to basically get your idea of

what's happened to these blue dots so

I've got one I've got two I've got three

so on the first dot I'm going to change

something about this dot and I want you

to write in the comments what I've

changed about that dot the second dot

I'm gonna change something about this

dot as well I want you to let me know

what did I change what type of color

sort of meaning did I change and the

third dot I'm actually going to create a

color scheme and I want you to tell me

what color scheme or color group that

third sort of grouping is so write in

the comments what one two and three are

I love to hear all of your feedback so

that's it those are the basics of color

theory obviously there's a lot more to

it though I really do think once you

know those core things you really have a

way better understanding of what Col

theory is and how to actually create

artwork and work with colors once you

know those things that I've gone through

in the video you can really do anything

so I hope you enjoy the video of course

likewise if you have any ideas for

future videos or anything else you'd

like me to cover be sure let me know in

the comments I'd love to hear

everybody's feedback so I hope you have

an amazing to everybody it's been Julian

or flow graphics here see ya