Welcome to
The Painting Lesson
by Linda Carson
big black pig studio
98 King St. N., Waterloo Ontario Canada
www.bigblackpig.com
Colour Theory
Maurice Denis once said:
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"Remember that a picture--before being a war horse, or a nude woman, or an anecdote--is essentially a flat surface covered with colours assembled in a certain order." |
If you've ever tried to send someone else shopping for you, you already know that it's not enough to ask for "the green one." Dark green, or light? Blue-ish, or yellow-y? Lime green, or olive? Artists use a handful of keywords to get specific about colours and the use of colours in painting.
- the colour wheel
- hue
- saturation or intensity
- value or tone including:
- primary colours
- secondary colours (and tertiary colours)
- process colours or CMYK
- complementary colours
- warm colours
- cool colours
- local colour
- achromatic grays
- chromatic grays
- monochrome versus polychrome
- gory technical details about physics and light
- visual illusions & effects like contrast and irradiation
Back to the main lesson?Art & Text (C) Linda Carson 2002
Loosely translated, that means:
"Please don't copy this material or redistribute it
in some other form, for any reason.
This is my livelihood."