"Color is a power which directly influences the soul." Wassily Kandinsky

ABCs of Color
© 1998 Nita Leland

Achromatic--lacking color, neutral; gray, white or black
Basic palette--based on red, yellow, blue or magenta, yellow cyan primaries
Color scheme--a logical relationship of colors on the color wheel
Dominance--having larger color area or brighter color for emphasis
Earth color--low intensity color created from natural earths or synthetic equivalents
Fugitive color--color that fades or changes over a short period of time
Granulation--sedimentary or settling characteristic of pigment
Hue--the name of a color (red, yellow, blue, etc.)
Intensity--purity or brightness of a color; sometimes called chroma or saturation
Juxtapose--place colors side by side for contrast
Key-- high key: light-to-middle values; low key: middle-to-dark values; full contrast: complete value range from light to dark
Local color--actual color of an object
Movement--direction: horizontal (serene), vertical (stable) or diagonal (energetic)
Neutral--gray, white or black
Opacity--covering power of pigment
Primary colors--colors that can't be mixed--red, yellow blue, magenta, cyan
Quality (paint)--characteristic of painted surface--for example, thin, velvety or overworked
Reflected color--colored light that bounces from a surface and falls on a surface nearby
Split Primaries--two of each primary color used to create bright mixtures
Temperature--the warmth or coolness of a color (red-orange is warmest, blue-green is coolest)
Unity--the purpose of design, when everything is working
Value--light to dark range of a color
Wheel--circular arrangement of colors used in color theory and selection
Xpert--what you can be if you explore color
Yellow--the top of the color wheel--(the lightest value and highest intensity color)
Zen of color--your color intuition, which should always be your final authority.

See also ColorSpeak and Exploring Color Revised.

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