Art107 Research Project

Attributes of Color

2009-05-05T10:39:00.005-07:00

There are three main attributes of color. They are hue, value, and saturation.
A hue is any color on the color wheel in it's pure state, meaning that no changes have been made to the color by mixing it with other colors.
The value of a color refers to how light or dark the color is.
The saturation of a color is the purity or intensity of a color.
I will discuss each of these attributes in more detail in the posts below.

Hues

2009-05-05T10:39:00.003-07:00

Any color in the color wheel picture above is defined as a hue. Once you change these hues by mixing it with another color, black or white, it simply becomes a color, and is no longer called a hue.

Value

2009-05-05T10:39:00.001-07:00

As mentioned before a value refers to the lightness or darkness of a color. Each value is defined using a number. In the scale below, the first block is a value number 10, the second is a value number 9, etc. all the way down to the last block which has a value of 0.

Value also applies to color. The picture below is a color value scale. Each value is defined in the same way as the previous picture from the lightest value of 10 at the top to the darkest value of 0 at the bottom.

Adjusting Value

2009-05-05T10:38:00.000-07:00

Value can be adjusted by mixing the color or hue with either black or white. Mixing white with a color will lighten its value, and will create what is known as a color tint. Mixing black with a color will darken and lower its value, and will create what is known as a color shade.
Below is a picture with an example of changing the value of a hue into a tint and then into a shade.

Saturation

2009-05-05T10:05:00.000-07:00

The saturation of color is the purity or intensity of a hue or color. Any hue on the color wheel has a high saturation level because their color is pure and therefore bright, and intense. Once you change the value of a pure hue by mixing it with color, black, or white, the color becomes less intense and does not look as bright. In doing so, you are lowing its saturation level.