Colours | IHM Notes Site
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COLOURS

DIMENSIONS OF COLOUR

  • Known as characteristics or properties of colour.

  • They are termed as

  1. Hue​

  2. Value

  3. Intensity or Chroma

  4. Temperature

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1. HUE

  • Hue is the name of the colour

  • All primary and secondary colours.

  • Colour can be lightened or darkened depending on use.

  • Eg; light blue, dark blue; but they are all blue

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2. VALUE

  • Describes the lightness or darkness of colour.

  • White has the highest value

  • Black has the lowest value

  • A shade is a hue that has been darker by adding black.

  • A tint is a hue that has been lighter by adding white.

value-scale.jpg

3. INTENSITY/ CHROMA

  • Refers to brightness or dullness of a colour 

  • Very bright colour is said to be of full intensity.

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4. TEMPERATURE

  • It is relative warmth or coolness.

  • Blue, green, violet are cool colours.

  • Red, orange, yellow are warm colors.

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WARM AND COOL COLOURS

  • Walls on the north side which gets less of sunlight should have warm colours and south should have cooler darker colours.

  • Warm colours are active while cool colours are relaxing.

  • Cool colours make a small room look big and warm colours make large room small.

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NEUTRALS

  • Neutrals are white with any small amount of colour

  • Black - all primary colours

  • Grey - white + black

  • Beige - can be used with most colours

  • Brown

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COLOUR WHEEL

  • Visual representation of colour theory

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  Primary colours -> Secondary/ Binary Colours -> Tertiary/ Intermediate Colours

Prang's colour wheel.jpg

PRANGS COLOUR SYSTEM

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PRIMARY COLOURS

  • Red, Yellow and Blue are primary colours.

  • They cannot be made by mixing other colours but can be mixed to form other colours.

  • Equal distance from each other in colour wheel.

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SECONDARY/ BINARY COLOURS

  • Formed by mixing two primary colours in equal quantities.

  • They are also called six standard colours.

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Secondary colours.png

TERTIARY/ INTERMEDIATE COLOURS

  • It is formed when a Primary and a neighbouring Secondary colour is mixed in equal quantity.

tertiary-colors.png

COLOUR SCHEMES

  • It refers to the combination of colours used for decorating.

  • It is categorised into three types:-

  1. Monochromatic​

  2. Analogous 

  3. Complementary

Classification of Colour Schemes.png

MONOCHROMATIC 

  • Use only one colour from the wheel

  • It has a disadvantage of monotony

  • Interest is gained by using different values of colour from light to dark

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ANALOGOUS

  • Colour schemes uses neighbouring colours on the colour wheel.

  • 3 to 5 colours are used with one dominating.

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COMPLEMENTARY

  • These colour schemes use opposite hues in the colour wheel 

  • They create great contrast like red and green giving a Christmas scheme.

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* TYPES OF COMPLEMENTARY COLOUR SCHEMES -

1. DIRECT COMPLIMENT

  • Uses exactly opposite such as red and green

  • Two pairs exactly opposite like yellow and violet

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2. SPLIT COMPLIMENT

  • Base hue and two colours on each side like red orange green and blue

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3. TRIADIC COMPLIMENT

  • Uses three colours equidistant on the wheel like yellow, blue and purple

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CHROMATIC & ACHROMATIC COLOURS

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  • Chromatic colours are all colours apart from black, white and grey.

  • Achromatic colours are black, grey and white.

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ROLE OF COLOURS IN INTERIORS

1. To increase the height of the room.

-> Paint the ceiling and walls with light cool colours to increase the height of the room

 

2. To decrease the height of a room

-> Paint the ceilings with darker, warmer colours than the walls

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3. To increase the size of a room.

-> Square room looks more elongated if two opposite walls are painted a dark colour and the other two lighter colour

 

4. To reduce the size of a room.

-> Paint all the walls in warm darker shades to decrease the room size. 

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5. To reduce the length of a long narrow room.

-> Paint either smaller or longer walls with dark warmer colours.

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IMPACT OF COLOUR ON HUMANS

  • Blue: lower blood pressure, masculine

  • Red: creates hunger, danger, strength, love

  • White: gives purity, cleanliness, fresh, calm

  • Yellow: brings health, happiness, warmth

  • Green: inspires creativity, peace, nature, safe

  • Grey: high tech, wisdom, corporate

  • Black: Mystery, sorrow

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