2. Colour
• Origin of the colour
• Mixing colours
• Colour families and
expressiveness of the
colour
3. Origin of the colour
What is the colour?
A) a material’s quality
B) paint colour and colouring
C) an impulse the brain produces as the
result of a light stimulus
4. Origin of the colour
Colour is an impulse the brain
produces as the result of a light
stimulus.
5. Origin of the colour
How do we see colours?
To perceive the colour, we need three elements:
The sense of Light Objects
sight
6. Origin of the colour
The colour perception
was basing of Light-
refracting phenomena.
Light divide into colours
when it goes though a
triangular glass prism
7. Origin of the colour
How do we see colours?
Coloured objects are
only a visual
impression.
All objects transmit a
sense of colour
because their
surfaces absorb
white light and
reflect the colour we
8. Origin of the colour
How do we see colours?
This picture explain
how we receive colour
thanks a light-
sensitive cell, Rods
and Cones.
9. Mixing colours
We can talk about two type of colour
• Coloured lights
• Coloured pigments
10. Mixing colours
Coloured pigments
All the paint colours that exist made from
coloured powder (pigments) and a binder
(agglutinant)
•Pigments: Origin animal,
mineral vegetable and
artificial
•Agglutinant: makes de
coloured powder stick
11. Mixing colours
Coloured pigments
Depending on the type of binder we use,
we had different techniques:
•Dry techniques: coloured
pencils, wax crayons,…
•Wet techniques:
Watercolours, temperas,
acrylic or oil-based paints
12. Mixing colours
Coloured pigments
There are three primary colour: cyan,
yellow and magenta
You can't get them by
mixing other colours.
When we mix two primary
colours we obtain a
secondary colours: green,
red, blue
13. Colours families
A simply way to classify or choose colours
when creating a work art, is to separate
them into families.
•Cold colour family: blue, green, purpos,..
•Warm colour family: Yellow, orange, red…
14. Practice Exercises
The expressiveness of the
colour
Colour can express feeling and ideas.
I propose you a practice exercise. Look
the different pictures and associate three
or four adjectives or nouns.
16. Practice Exercises
The expressiveness of the
colour
sad crazy cold aggressive warm calm
happy loneliness death life light gold
faith freedom sweet positive bitter
party richness danger spiritual sensual
mysteriously simple
