MAKE SMART ART

  • EXPLORE Art MAKING
    • PAINTING STUDIO >
      • ACRYLIC
      • WATERCOLOR
      • TEMPERA
      • Oil Pastel
      • chalk Pastels
    • CLAY PLAY
    • ANIMATION STUDIO >
      • Action Art + Science
      • Kinetic Art Simple Machines
      • SIGN LANGUAGE
    • BOOKMAKING STUDIO
    • PRINTMAKING STUDIO >
      • MONOPRINTING
      • WOODCUT
    • PAPER STUDIO
    • CONNECT & CREATE
  • BY GRADE
    • Kindergarten Studio >
      • KLEE CASTLES
      • 2D Paper Collage
      • 3D Paper Sculpture
      • ICE CREAM CONES
      • ROCK GARDENS
      • About KINDERGARTEN
    • FIRST GRADE STUDIO >
      • KLEE CATS
      • MIRO LANDSCAPES
      • about GRADE 1
    • SECOND GRADE STUDIO >
      • GRADE 2
    • THIRD GRADE STUDIO >
      • Simple Machines
      • Optical Illusions
      • about GRADE 3
    • FOURTH GRADE STUDIO >
      • SOIL LAYERS
      • RED ROCK LANDSCAPE
      • NARRATIVE ESSAYS >
        • 50 ESSAY TOPICS
      • water cycle
      • tall tales
      • about GRADE 4
    • FIFTH GRADE STUDIO >
      • MATTER
      • CONCRETE POETRY
      • LAKE LANDSCAPES (geology)
      • VENETIAN PAPER MASKS
      • GRADE 5 ROBOTS
      • about GRADE 5
    • SIXTH GRADE STUDIO >
      • ZENTANGLES
      • The Middle Ages Architecture
      • about GRADE 6
  • SMARTSY STUFF & UPDATES
  • Contact Me
  • EXPLORE Art MAKING
    • PAINTING STUDIO >
      • ACRYLIC
      • WATERCOLOR
      • TEMPERA
      • Oil Pastel
      • chalk Pastels
    • CLAY PLAY
    • ANIMATION STUDIO >
      • Action Art + Science
      • Kinetic Art Simple Machines
      • SIGN LANGUAGE
    • BOOKMAKING STUDIO
    • PRINTMAKING STUDIO >
      • MONOPRINTING
      • WOODCUT
    • PAPER STUDIO
    • CONNECT & CREATE
  • BY GRADE
    • Kindergarten Studio >
      • KLEE CASTLES
      • 2D Paper Collage
      • 3D Paper Sculpture
      • ICE CREAM CONES
      • ROCK GARDENS
      • About KINDERGARTEN
    • FIRST GRADE STUDIO >
      • KLEE CATS
      • MIRO LANDSCAPES
      • about GRADE 1
    • SECOND GRADE STUDIO >
      • GRADE 2
    • THIRD GRADE STUDIO >
      • Simple Machines
      • Optical Illusions
      • about GRADE 3
    • FOURTH GRADE STUDIO >
      • SOIL LAYERS
      • RED ROCK LANDSCAPE
      • NARRATIVE ESSAYS >
        • 50 ESSAY TOPICS
      • water cycle
      • tall tales
      • about GRADE 4
    • FIFTH GRADE STUDIO >
      • MATTER
      • CONCRETE POETRY
      • LAKE LANDSCAPES (geology)
      • VENETIAN PAPER MASKS
      • GRADE 5 ROBOTS
      • about GRADE 5
    • SIXTH GRADE STUDIO >
      • ZENTANGLES
      • The Middle Ages Architecture
      • about GRADE 6
  • SMARTSY STUFF & UPDATES
  • Contact Me

elements of art: color

but first... the color calculator!

Professional artists and designers depend on color for everything they do. Color is Science. Color is Math. Color can be simple or complicated. Some colors work well together, and some colors need special consideration when they're asked to work together. Color has power. Color can communicate emotions. An artwork can make people feel calm, agitated, peaceful, serene, happy, energetic, strong, busy, slow, fast...there are so many ways to use color to show feelings!

The color calculator from Sessions College of Design is the best color expert you could ask for as an artist or designer. Just select a color you want to work with from the color wheel, and it will calculate a bunch of color combinations (we'll get into those in a minute) that will create the effect you want! If you find yourself stuck deciding what colors to use in your art, or what mood you want to create in your work, click on the Color Calculator and get creating!

and speaking of moods...
​some of the art room's favorite books about color!

examples of color in art

primary colors

The primary colors are used to create all other colors in the world!  These 3 very important colors are red, yellow and blue. You cannot do anything to mix red, yellow or blue, but without all three of them, other colors couldn't exist.  
  • Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-43
  • Mark Rothko, Untitled (Yellow, Red, and Blue), 1953
  • Jacob Lawrence, Workshop (Builders #1), 1972 and many others
  • Cy Twombly, Summer Madness, 1990 (Click link, then click #20)
  • Hans Hofmann, The Golden Wall, 1961
  • Pablo Picasso, Claude and Paloma Playing, 1950
  • Fritz Glarner, Relational Painting No. 64, 1953
  • Roy Lichtenstein, Stepping Out, 1978
  • Ancient Roman, Glass Garland Bowl, late 1st century B.C.E.
  • Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Ambassadeurs Aristide Bruant in his cabaret, 1892
  • Nicolas Poussin, The Death of Germanicus, 1627

warm & cool colors

Warm colors = Red, Orange, and Yellow
Think of warm things like sunsets and fire. Warm colors jump out to the eye, and come forward in a painting. They are bold and exciting.
Cool Colors = Blue, Green and Blue-Violet
Think of cool things like the ocean, and spring grass on your toes. Cool colors feel peaceful and serene. Violet can also be warm if it has more red than blue in it.

warm colors

  • Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1888
  • Paul Gauguin, Still Life with Mangoes, 1891-1896
  • Mark Rothko, Untitled (Violet, Black, Orange, Yellow on White and Red), 1949
  • Vincent van Gogh, The Night Café, 1888
  • Robert Adam, The Croome Court tapestry room, Worcestershire, 1758-67
  • Frederic Church, Cotopaxi, 1862
  • Caravaggio, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, 1601-1602

analogous colors

Analogous colors are next to each other on the color wheel. They create unity in art because they are made of the same colors. Example sets of analogous colors are blue, blue-green, and green or orange, red-orange, and red.
  • Josef Albers, Homage to the Square: Soft Spoken, 1969
  • Vincent van Gogh, The Olive Trees, 1889
  • Claude Monet, The Water-Lily Pond, 1899
  • Mark Rothko, Untitled (Violet, Black, Orange, Yellow on White and Red), 1949
  • Helen Frankenthaler, Freefall, 1992
  • Ed Paschke, Painted Lady, 1995
  • Giorgio de Chirico, Mystery and Melancholy of a Street, 1914
  • Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Young Girl Reading, c. 1770
  • Geertgen Tot Sint Jans, John the Baptist in the Wilderness, ca. 1490

neutral colors

Neutral colors are created by using white and black or are created by mixing sets of complementary colors together to make varying shades of brown. Examples of neutrals include gray, brown, tan, white, black, etc.
  • El Lissitzky, Proun 19D, c. 1922
  • Claude Monet, Sunrise (Marine), 1873
  • Georgia O’Keeffe, Black Iris, 1926
  • Camille Pissarro, Place du Théâtre Français, Paris: Rain, 1898
  • Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, 1912

color intensity

Intensity refers to how saturated a color is. It is the brightness or the dullness of a color. Colors with high intensity are bright, and colors with low intensity are dull.
​

high intensity colors

  • Pablo Picasso, The Weeping Woman, 1937
  • Andre Derain, Charing Cross Bridge, 1906
  • Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Seated Girl (Fränzi Fehrmann), 1910
  • Jim Dine, The Circus #3, 2007

low intensity colors

  • Salima Hashmi, Poem for Zainab, 1994
  • Paul Klee, Hammamet with Its Mosque, 1914
  • Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Moulin Rouge The Departure of the Quadrille, 1892
  • Camille Pissarro, Place du Théâtre Français, Paris: Rain, 1898
  • Helen Frankenthaler, Mountains and Sea, 1952

cool colors

  • Claude Monet, The Artist’s Garden at Giverny, 1900
  • Winslow Homer, Fishing Boats, Key West, 1903
  • Richard Parkes Bonington, The Undercliff, 1828
  • James McNeil Whistler, Nocturne, Blue and Silver: Chelsea, 1871
  • Natalya Goncharova, Linen, 1913
  • Katsushika Hokusai, 36 Views of Mount Fuji, ca. 1829-32

complimentary colors

Colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel are called Complementary Colors. When they're next to each other, they make each other pop out and appear brighter. When they're mixed together, they pull the color out of each other. The complementary color sets are:
​ Yellow + Purple, Red + Green, and Blue + Orange.
  • Wassily Kandinsky, Improvisation 31 (Sea Battle), 1913
  • Pablo Picasso, Woman in Striped Armchair, 1941
  • Rufino Tamayo, Women of Tehuantepec, 1939, Oil on canvas

Purple + yellow

  • Claude Monet, Water Lilies, 1914-1926
  • Fritz Scholder, Dream Horse G, 1986
  • Henri Matisse, The Dream, 1940
  • Pablo Picasso, Woman with Yellow Hair, 1931 (also red/green)
  • Ray Spillenger, Purple and Yellow, 1963
  • Francis Bacon, Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X, 1953
  • Federico Barocci, The Nativity, c. 1597
  • Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1954

blue + orange

  • Mary Cassatt, Mother and Child, 1890
  • Edgar Degas, Ballerina and Lady with Fan, 1885
  • Claude Monet, Rouen Cathedral, West Façade, Sunlight, 1892
  • Paul Klee, Ad Parnassum, 1932
  • Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait, 1889
  • Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872
  • Fritz Bultman, Blue I, 1958
  • Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Portrait of Oscar Wilde, 1895
  • Sandy Skoglund, Revenge of the Goldfish, 1981
  • Stuart Davis, Colonial Cubism, 1954
  • Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893
  • Arnold Böcklin, Island of the Dead, 1880

red + Green

  • Marc Chagall, I and the Village, 1911
  • Ando Hiroshige, Plum Estate, Kameido From “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo”, 1857
  • Shinobo Ishihara, Test for Color Deficiency
  • Vincent van Gogh, The Night Café, 1888
  • Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434
  • Henri Matisse, Portrait of Madame Matisse (Green Stripe), 1905
  • Pablo Picasso, Woman with Hat, 1962
  • Georgia O’Keeffe, Anything, 1916 (Click link, top right image)
  • Vincent van Gogh, La Berceuse (Woman Rocking a Cradle; Augustin-Alix Pellicot Roulin, 1851-1930), 1889
  • Kay Kurt, Weingummi II, 1973

analogous colors


Hours

M-F: 8am - 3pm

Email

julie.davidson@slcschools.org