So many colors, so little time- Illustration #8

Hello, hello, hello fashion and art enthusiasts!

Strap on your seat belts, because we're gonna be talking about color! I'm not sure how much art experience everyone has had out there, so I'll just start from the very very beginning, because we covered it in class. I also feel compelled to share some of my little tricks for remembering them.

You have your basic color wheel, and everything is separated into 3 kinds of colors:

• Primary- pure color (not mixed with anything)
• Secondary- mix the primaries together
• Tertiary- mix the secondaries and primaries together

Color wheel

According to my art class papers, the color wheel was designed by Johannes Itten and there were some others designed by Munsell and Ostwald. I don't know who they are, but they certainly were cool for designing the color wheel!

There are a few other color schemes that I'm going to talk to you about. I actually like talking about color schemes (even though the names can be hard to spell and sometimes they can be confusing). I must be really weird lol. It's all because I like to see which colors can work together and why. It's just something interesting to me. So even though there's a fair few, and the names are weird, I promise once you get it, it sticks with you. And the colors all look really awesome together, so they can't be all bad, right? Right. Let's go. A quick list of the names to get your feet wet:

• Analogous
• Monochromatic
• Complimentary
• Split complimentary
• Neutral
• Triadic

For reference throughout this post:

*tints and shades.

• Tints are hues with white added- resulting in a mix above the hue's normal value
• Shades are hues with black added- resulting in a mix below the normal value of the hue.

**values and intensities

• Value is the lightness or darkness of a hue
• Intensity is the brightness or dullness of a hue

And now I'm going to talk a little about each one, and hopefully the pictures will help. First, Analogous. This utilizes colors which are closely related in hue- located adjacent to each other on the color wheel. For example: yellow, yellow-orange, orange, and red, plus *tints and shades of each. A way to remember is "analogous" is "next to" colors on the wheel. Both have N's in them. Or you can think of it as "analogous" is "adjacent" to the colors, both starting with A's.

Analogous color scheme

Analogous in fashion

Next is monochromatic. It consists of one hue and its various values. For example: blue, plus *tints and shades. "Mono" means one; pretty self explanatory.

Monochromatic in fashion

Complimentary is next. It features two hues located directly across from each other on the color wheel. For example: green and red, plus their various **values and intensities. You can remember it like this, "You compliment the person across from you". That's how I learned it back in the day when I first learned color schemes :)

complementary

Complementary in fashion

Now it's Split Complimentary's turn. That is the one that utilizes one hue plus the hues on either side of its complement on the color wheel. For example: green, red-orange, and red-violet, plus their various **values and intensities. So it skips over that one in the middle. In my example, it's skipping over red, which in in between red-orange and red-violet. Just remember "Skip to Split". Don't judge my silly sayings.

Split complementary in fashion

Neutrals are up next. Neutrals are colors which have been reduced in intensity, or neutralized, by the addition of its complement, white black or gray. Warm neutrals, as you can see, have the warmer tones added to them and then they cool colors are below those with the darker colors. Neutrals are very popular for fall, but I know y'all already knew that :)

neutrals

Neutrals in fashion

And we've saved Triadic for last. This consists of three hues which are equally spaced on the color wheel. For example: green, orange and violet, plus their various **values and intensities. See how these kind of look like peace sign? I remember this one like this "Hippies like T Harmonies", to get me to think that hippies use peace signs, which leads my brain to the peace sign on the color wheel, to lead me to the evenly spaced colors. Again, don't judge me for these weird sayings. You'll be 80 years old and still saying them because they stuck with you. You'll thank me someday :)

Triadic in fashion

So that's all I have on basic color schemes and such! Hope this was helpful!

Vivre la mode, tout le monde!