Colour Theory & Colour Contouring

http://forum.tis.edu.mo/grade1/

COLOUR THEORY

Colour theory creates a logical structure for colour which is useful, particularly to us as make-up artists. There are three basic categories to understanding colour theory; colour wheel, colour harmony and the context of how colours are used.

COLOUR WHEEL: this is split into three categories.

- Primary colours; red, yellow and blue.  These are known as the foundation colours because all other colours are created from them.

- Secondary colours; orange, green and violet.  These are a combination of two primary colours.  For example, if you mix red and yellow together, you will get orange.

- Tertiary; yellow-orange, orange-red, red-violet, violet-blue, blue-green and green-yellow.  These are made by combining a primary colour and a secondary colour adjacent to it.

                                : it is also divided into warm and cool colours.

- Warm colours; such as oranges and yellows.  Described as passionate, bright and aggressive colours.

- Cool colours; such as blues and greens.  Described as more soothing and calm colours.

HOWEVER red can be either warm or cool, depending on whether or not it has an orange or blue undertone to it.

HUE - this is another word for colour

TINT - you create a tint of a colour by adding white to the pure hue

SHADE - you create this by adding black to the pure hue

TONE - a tone is created by adding grey to the hue

TRIAD & TETRAD COLOUR SCHEMES:

A triad colour scheme is made up of three colours that are equally spaced apart from one another on the colour wheel.  For example the primary or secondary colours would create a triad colour scheme.

A tetrad colour scheme is made up of four colours on the colour wheel that are two sets of complimentary colours.  For example violet, yellow, blue and orange would create a tetrad colour scheme.

COLOUR CONTOURING

In this week's seminar with Lara (our lecturer) we had a workshop called 'Colour Contour'.  In this workshop we looked at contouring the face using two complimentary colours; the darker colour for shading, and the lighter colour for highlighting.  We also had to add tints, shades and tones to areas on the face, however I ran out of time when working on my model, so I just have the basic shades and highlights of the face.

I really enjoyed this week's seminar and working with the different colour theories, because it was a good and interesting way to look at contouring the face.  It also allowed us to see more definitely where things should be highlighted and shaded.

Below are pictures of Lara's demonstration and my own attempt at the colour contouring.