Note: Lily’s Creative Color class at Quilters University begins March 8th

4 Ways of Describing Color

1. RGB- refers to colored light as in TV’s and computer monitors; Primaries= Red, Green, Blue

2. CYMK- refers to printers and photographers inks; Primaries= Cyan, Yellow, Magenta (plus black)

3. RYB- This is the color wheel you learned in grade school; Primaries= Red, Yellow, Blue

4. HSV- describes any color in terms of three qualities- Saturation, Value

You can describe any color in any of these four ways- it’s still the same color!

Hue- refers to the quality that gives a color its name- red-red orange rather than just red-orange. Color isn’t a space on a color wheel – its a continuum. There’s an unlimited number of variations between red and orange (even though the human eye can’t distinguish them all.)

Value- refers to the relative lightness or darkness of a color as compared to black and white. Pink is a light to medium value, dusty rose is somewhere in the middle and maroon would be a dark value. A series of values from black to white is called a “value scale”. Every hue may have an unlimited number of values.

Saturation- (also called chrome, purity, strength, dullness and other terms)- refers to the amount of black, white or gray mixed with a hue. Pure red is highly saturated; maroon has black added (and therefore includes less red); pink may have varying amounts of white added; a dusty rose has varying amounts and/or values of gray added.

Adding black to a color creates a “shade”.
Adding white to a color creates a “tint”.
Adding any value of gray creates a “tone”.
Any hue may have an unlimited number of tints, tones, and shades.

Using A Color Wheel

Color wheels do not exist in nature, but are useful in describing the visual relationships between colors.

“Color warmth”- This quality exists only in comparison with another color. Yellows and oranges are considered the warmest (most like sunlight). Blues and blue violets are considered cooler. But a greenish blue may seem warmer, in context, than a violet blue.

Neutral colors- Technically, black , white and gray are not considered colors; practically, they are useful and necessary colors.

Primary colors- In working with pigments (paints and dyes), red, yellows, and blue (or cyan, yellow, and magenta) are the only three colors that can not be mixed by combining two other pigments.

Secondary colors- Orange, Green, and Violet are created by mixtures of two primaries.

Black- If our pigments were perfect colors, you could mix black by combining the three primary colors.

“Mud”- This is what you get when you mix three primaries red + yellow + blue (or by using any combination of those pigments.) However, these muddy or subdued or dulled colors- much better to call them “Tones”- are invaluable.

Using Colors Together

Complementary colors- Any two colors opposite each other on the color wheel. Red/Green; Orange/Blue; Yellow/Violet; Blue-green; red-orange, etc.

Analogous colors- any 3-4 colors adjacent to each other–Orange, red-orange, red, red-violet

Monochromatic- Variations of one color

Triad- Three colors an equal distance apart on the wheel. Exciting color combinations may be discovered when the colors used are not exactly equidistant–a “skewed” triad. Suggestion: Use one of the colors in purer, cleaner form–pure and/or tints/–and the other 2 in subdued or grayed form–tones and shades. Brown for example is a shade of orange (a variety of oranges, actually), beige and tan are tones of orange, while peach is more of a tint. Combine these with almost any other colors on the wheel.

Three “Rules” to Remember

1. Every quilt should include some “grays” (i.e. some tones-subdued colors)

2. If the values are right, the colors will work (even when they are wildly “unrealistic”-provided you’ve also used less saturated colors.)

3. Small amounts of cleaner brighter and warmer colors will give a quilt sparkle; small amounts of cleaner, cooler colors in the shadows will add vibrancy to your colors.

©1997 Lily M. Kerns