Before moving on to the cultural portrait assignment students should familiarize themselves with a bit more design theory related to colour and background. The following definitions relate to understanding colour theory and how it is applied to the study of art and design.
Colour Schemes
Accent
A colour that is added to a composition that does not belong to any particular colour combination but adds visual interest or a focal point in the image.
Analogous
Colour combinations that consist of similar colours. Colours from the same section of the colour wheel.
Double Complement
The combinations of adjacent completing colours.
Monochrome
A colour scheme using varying values of only one colour.
Split Complement
A Colour scheme consisting of a accent colour and the two colours to either side of its complement on the colour wheel.
Triad
Colour combinations that are made from mixing colours from either the additive or subtractive colour primaries.
Wide Analogous
Colour combinations that encompass a wider range adjacent colours on the colour wheel, up to a range equal to one half the colour wheel.
Describing Colour
Additive Colour
A system of colour that uses lights where colours become brighter when they are added together.
Ambient Light Effect
The illusion of the colour characteristics of an image seeming to be of a different tonality under different light sources, i.e. a change in the perceived visible colour when an image is viewed under daylight and then tungsten light.
Chroma, or Saturation
The intensity of colour.
Complement
A colour opposite in hue, i.e. located on the opposite side of the colour wheel.
Contrast
The visual attribute that allows colours to be distinguished from one another as a function in the difference in value between various colours.
Contrast Differential
The difference in contrast between two or more elements.
Dynamic Range
The amount of contrast between the lightest and darkest points in an image. Also used to describe the maximum recording limit of a medium such as film or digital.
Fluorescence
A colour phenomenon that occurs when a substance changes ultraviolet light into a visible light spectrum making the colour appear brighter than its surroundings.
Hue
A difference in colour.
Intermediate Colour
A colour between Primary and Secondary Colours on the colour wheel.
Luminosity Shift
The phenomenon of colours seeming brighter or darker depending on the size of object.
Neutral, or Desaturated
A less intense version of a colour.
Secondary Colour
A colour which is made as a result of mixing two primary colours together.
Shade
A darker variation of a colour as a result of the addition of a black pigment.
Simultaneous Contrast
An illusion where two identical colours are perceived to be different than each other as a result of the surrounding colours influencing an individual’s perception.
Spectrum
The progression of visible light from red through violet, and is the premiss that the colour wheel is based off of.
Subtractive Colour
A system of colour that uses matter such as paint where colours become darker when they are added together.
Successive Colour
The phenomenon that happens after staring at one colour for an extended period of time where the individual will see a ghosted image in the opposite colour for a few seconds until the eyes adjust.
Tertiary
A darker and less saturated colour as a result of mixing a small quality of the opposite colour.
Tint
A lighter variant of a colour as a result of the addition of a white pigment
Value
The range of a colours tonality ranging from bright shades to dark tones, where white and black are the two extreme values.
Visual Mixing
The result of two varying coloured objects appearing as one coloured element because they are moving to fast or the objects are too small for the eye to distinguish.
Design Terminology
Busy Background
A surface with many design elements which make identifying the main object or focal point difficult. Busy backgrounds are typically associated with bad design as they reduce legibility of the key content.
Dominant Element, or Focal Point
The most significant object in a design which draws the viewer’s attention.
Legibility
The ability to clearly see and discern the difference between elements of a design.
Vanishing Boundaries
Is the inability to discern adjacent elements from one another as the two colours are similar in value resulting in the two elements blending to look like one.
Varying Backgrounds
A surface which has a gradation between two or more colours or shades.
Vibrating Boundaries
The effect caused when two adjacent elements are identical in value but differ significantly in Hue causing visual irritation as if the colours were acutely vibrating.
