Color Theory And You: The Best Way To Make Someone Sad.

Color is one of the most important things we all use in our art, it sets the mood or can draw our attention somewhere. Understanding it and using it to your advantage can bring art to the next level. Color theory is one half the technical understanding of colors and how they work and one half understanding the philosophy of color. Both complex, both important.

There are four main aspects to color themselves.

Hue- The color, it says if it’s red, blue, or orange.

Tint- How much white you add to a pure hue.

Tone- How much grey you add to a pure hue.

Shade- How much black you add to a pure hue.

Before we go any further you’ll need to familiarize yourself with this

This is a color wheel, it’s a basic tool to help you understand and make color schemes. But before we can get into color schemes we need to talk about color harmonies.

Complimentary - This will pair colors that are opposite each other on our color wheel. The complete contrast of colors makes a very vibrant look while not being too jarring.

Amelie (2001)

It Follows (2014)

Triad - Colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel. These lead to very vibrant color schemes. The colors should be closely balanced but one color should be dominate.

Pierrot Le Fou (1965) 

Superman Returns (2006)

Split Complementary - This is a variation to the complementary color scheme. You take a base color and add two colors adjacent to its complement.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

DeJa Vu (2006)

Tetradic- This is a rectangular color scheme for colors arranged in two complementary pairs. This offers a lot of variation.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

Birdman (2014)

Analogous - this uses colors that are right next to each other on the color wheel. They blend well and feel comfortable. These are more easily found in nature. Be weary, you still need enough contrast. One color should dominate, a second to support it, and another as an accent.

The Godfather (1972) (Also the best movie ever)

Traffic (2000)

Accented Analogous - The combination of Analogous and Complementary color schemes. So you use colors that area adjacent to each other on the wheel and you use a complementary accent as its opposite.

Monochromatic - This only uses colors derived from a single hue by exploring its shades, tones, and tints.

Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

The Matrix (1999)

 

Now that you understand the variations of color schemes you can make you need to understand the psychology to colors. Colors are closely tied to certain ideas and feelings, for instance a strong red has been shown to raise blood pressure while blues can calm you. Two ways red can raise your blood pressure is using it for hate and cruelty

Kill Bill (2003)

Or love and passion.

American Beauty (1999) (It's overrated imo)

Different colors mean a lot of different things Green can be Hope and fertility,

But also mundane and lifeless

Here is a more detailed photo with more colors, the feelings attached, and most importantly, more movies.

You can also create associations either through repetition or add context with preexisting ideas with what a color means.

Up (2009)

A New Hope farm boy Luke vs Return of The Jedi Jedi Knight Luke

Inside Out (2015)

Star Wars: Episode IV - Empire Strikes Back (1980) Bespin Duel

The Godfather (1972) (Still the best movie ever)

Knowing all of this you can now make a color palette that accurately fits your work of art in it’s technical and emotional aspects.