A variety of browns are used in this bowl. Mixing different sets of complementary colors creates different browns. Some browns appear to have more of one color in them than another. For example, the brown background glaze used in this bowl appears to have more red mixed into it than its complement, green.

Color

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The primary colors, red, yellow and blue, are the main colors used in this painting.

Two primary colors can be mixed to create a secondary color: orange (from red and yellow), green (from yellow and blue), or violet (from blue and red).

In this work of art, the artist has used the three primary colors, red, yellow, and blue; and a secondary color, green.

Saturation or intensity refers to the "purity" of color. A pure color is at its highest saturation, its most intense and brightest form. If white, black or another color is added to a pure color, its saturation decreases and its intensity drops.

On this palette, the artist arranged her colors in the traditional order starting with white in the upper left and marching on down through yellow, orange, red, and into the area of blue and black at the bottom. At some point she stopped using this as a palette, on which to mix paints, and decided to use it as though it were a canvas.

Dramatic changes in intensity can be made by mixing varying amounts of two complementary colors. Where equal parts of two complementary colors are mixed together (here, breen and red), a neutral brown created.

When small dots of pure color are applied close together, the viewer's eyes mix the colors. Notice that each dot of pure color the artist has used looks bright, but when your eye mixes them they are subdued, almost neutral.

Color

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When small dots of pure hue are applied close together, the viewer's eyes mix these hues. Notice the brightness of the pure hues the artist has used.

Colors are often associated with moods and physical sensations. For example, we say "green with envy," "a blue mood," "a black look." Certain colors also look cool, such as the colors blue, green and violet; and others look warm like the colors red, orange and yellow. Colors are used by artists to help evoke emotional responses in their viewers.

Warm and intense colors appear to advance toward the viewer, while cool or dull colors appear to recede. The yellows used to create the warm glow of lights in the windows in the middle distance contrast with the cool violets used in the background and atomsphere in this painting.

In this painting the artist also selected colors for expressive purposes. Notice that all of the primary colors (red, blue and yellow) and secondary colors (green, orange and violet) have been used.

For over a hundred years some artists have used color in an arbitrary way. Instead of imitating the natural colors of objects, they have used colors for symbolic or expressive purposes. In this painting the artist selected colors not because those are the colors he really saw, but because for him they symbolized universal principles such as spiritual harmony with nature.

Here the artist makes very little reference to things as they appear in nature (the figure of a woman). Instead, shapes are used which merely suggest natural objects and colors are applied scientifically, in much the same manner as notes form chords in musical compositions. In this work, orange, green, and purple - the three secondary colors - form a "dominant chord" that produces, according to the artist's theories, a feeling of harmony in the viewer.

In this painting the artist has used colors simply for the way in which they react with one another. Notice the intense red semi-circle and how it advances toward the viewer. The less intense colors seem to recede. Here, color creates movement!

Artists use colors to create a variety of desired effects. When an artist paints a scene or objects realistically, colors are used in imitation of the things being painted.

This fiber artist wanted to create the look of a small village as seen from an airplane, through the clouds. She chose dyes that made delicate, pale colors, the equivalent of tints (colors made less intense by the addition of white). In this way, she used the same knowledge of color that a painter would have used to mix colors that make the village seem far below.

Value refer to the lightness or darkness of a color. Colors mixed with white are called tints. Pink is a tint of red. Colors mixed with black are called shades. Burgundy is a shade of red. Paintings that use only one color and the tints and shades of that color are called monochromatic (one=mono; color=chromatic).

Tints and shades of red make up nearly all the colors used in this painting, along with a tint of violet. For the most part, this painting could be called monochromatic.

Colors next to one another on the color wheel are called analogous (it means "related"). Analogous colors share a common color and usually appear to be in harmony.

The majority of colors in this painting are blue, green, and yellow. Green is made from a mixture of blue and yellow and is therefore analogous to blue and also to yellow.