Color

It's hard to describe color. It's something that everyone sees. If you wanted to get philosophical there is no way to know that the red I see is the exact same red that others see. I'd never fully know. But there is no doubting that color plays an important part in not just art, but in life.

It is pretty cool that each color has a different meaning and feeling to it. Like blue has a calming feel to it. Probably because the ocean and sky are blue. It can also represent sadness. Red has more angry feeling to it. Maybe because fire is associated with that color? Green is more nature-based and organic in that sense. Probably because trees, stems, and grass are all green. Yellow has a brighter personality and stands out in a crowd. Yellow is by far the brightest of these 6 main colors. Purple is trippy. But maybe that's my own view on the color. Orange has this high energy about it. Also, likely because it is red and yellow combined.

Primary colors are red, blue, and yellow. Secondary colors are green, orange, and purple/violet. Red and blue make purple. Blue and yellow make green. Yellow and red make orange. Tertiary colors are the inbetween colors of those six main colors. So yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, red-violet, and red-orange.

Complementary colors are opposite on the color wheel. Yellow and purple, blue and orange and red and green. When these colors are used together they are made to pop. I always think of these colors in sports teams. Yellow and Purple are the Lakers colors. Blue and Orange are the Thunders colors. Green and Red are Christmas colors and also the Wild colors. Even the tertiary colors have their complementary colors like blue-green and red-orange. 

Analogous colors are three colors that are right next to each other. All three of these colors are primary, secondary or tertiary. So red, orange and red-orange are analogous colors. 

Monochrome colors are colors that only use one color but if you add white or black. Basically different shades of one color So for blue, you could use all the shades of blue from sky blue to midnight blue. 

Lastly, neutrals are colors that are without color. So like beige, ivory, browns, black, grays, and white. These colors don't have a ton of meaning to them but they go well with all primary, secondary and tertiary colors.

It's kind of interesting that every color can be described as a mixture of other colors. Turquoise is a light blue-green. Blue-green is half green and half blue. Green is a mixture of yellow and blue. Blue is a primary color. I guess you can't really define blue, red, yellow as a mixture of other colors, but for most colors you can. 

Even black and white can be described in relation to other colors. Black is too much color and white is devoid of color. Same for neutral colors I mentioned. Brown is basically a dark orange. Ivory is a really light yellow. Beige is a mixture of brown and ivory.