The first attribute of color is hue, which is the name for a color, such as yellow, green blue, red. The color wheel is used to represent the basic color (hues) of the visible spectrum. All the hues indicated on the color wheel are of full intensity. For the sake of simplicity, the most common color wheel is made up of 12 color gradations, even though there are actually an infinite number of color gradations possible between each color on the wheel.

The second attribute of color is value, or the relative lightness or darkness of a color. Lighter values are achieved by adding white to a color, and darker values result from adding black.

The third attribute of color is chruma, or saturation, the relative purity or intensity of a color determined by how much or how little gray is added to the color. The value of the colors on a chroma scale do not change; only the intensity of the color varies.

So, the three attributes of color-hue, value, and chroma-are what defines every color. Albert Munsell, the color theorist, describes each and every color as having three dimensions; therefore, to fully describe any color it is necessary to describe each of these dimensions or attributes.

Other color terms useful to a basic understanding of color theory are tint, shade, and tone. All of these are colors of full intensity or chroma mixed with white, black, or some value of gray. Mixing with white creates a tint (pastels), mixing with black produces a shade, and combining some value of gray with another color creates a tone.

Colors are often referred to as either warm or cool. The colors on the color wheel are easy to separate into warm and cool colors. Red, orange, and yellow are considered warm while green, blue, and purple are described as cool. As colors become less pure, the terms warm and cool become more useful as relative comparisons rather than absolute descriptions.

Natural light contains all the colors of the spectrum. By breaking light down into its component parts, or spectral colors, it is possible to combine and mix the individual colors to form new ones. Additive color is the process of mixing colored light. The

most common application of this can be found in theater lighting. For example, a red light overlapping a green light produces a yellow light. Colored pigments, however, behave very differently than colored light when combined or mixed. The primary colors of light are red, green, and blue; the primary colors of pigments are red, yellow, and blue. When all three primary colors of light are combined, they form white light, and, when two colors of light are added together they always produce a color of lighter value.

The principles of additive color are most critical in theater or other dramatic lighting. For the purposes of interior color design, it is important to understand the effect of artificial light- ing on the perception of color. For example, incandescent light brings out the warm colors of an interior while fluorescent light emphasizes the cool colors.

Subtractive color is the result of mixing pigments, dyes, or other colorants. The apparent color of a surface is based on what part of the visible spectrum of light is absorbed versus what portion is reflected back to the viewer. Since the main concern of this book is the color of interior finishes, and not lighting, the focus will be on subtractive, rather than additive, color. The primary subtractive colors are red, yellow, and blue. These are called primary colors because all other colors are derived from some combination of these three. When all three primary colors are combined in equal amounts the resulting color is a deep, blackish brown. Note that the primary colors are spaced exactly equidistant from one another on the color wheel. Midway between each primary color is what is called a meandery color.

When two adjacent primary colors are mixed together they form the seamary color found between them on the color wheel. For example, yellow and blue paint mixed together makes green. The other secondary colors are orange (red and yellow combined) and purple (red and blue combined). When adjacent primary and secondary colors are mixed, they form artiary colors. Between each of the six primary and secondary colors are the tertiary colors consisting of red-orange, orange-yellow, yellow-green, green- blue, blue-purple, and purple-red.

PARTTITVE COLOR

When a very consistent, fine pattern of two distinct colors is viewed from a slight distance, the eye tends to mix the colors optically and derive a third color. This is called partitive color.