Color

Color is light reflected off of objects. Color has three main characteristics: hue (the name of the color, such as red, green, blue, etc.), value (how light or dark it
is), and intensity (how bright or dull it is).

  • White is pure light; black is the absence of light.
  • Primary colors are the only true colors (red, blue, and yellow). All other
    colors are mixes of primary colors.
  • Secondary colors are two primary colors mixed together (green, orange,
    violet).
  • Intermediate colors, sometimes called tertiary colors, are made by mixing
    a primary and secondary color together. Some examples of intermediate
    colors are yellow green, blue green, and blue violet.
  • Complementary colors are located directly across from each other on the
    color wheel (an arrangement of colors along a circular diagram to show
    how they are related to one another). Complementary pairs contrast
    because they share no common colors. For example, red and green are
    complements, because green is made of blue and yellow. When complementary
    colors are mixed together, they neutralize each other to make
    brown.

The J. Paul Getty Museum