Color Theory Basics

How do we view and see color? What colors or hues go well together and combine to make an interesting composition? These questions that can be for mixed media can also be asked of plants. This is the type of color and its specific shade. How do the colors of a plant play into your design? While thinking about the colors themselves, how much and in what manner do they color come together? How bright or strong is each color?

Sometimes having a bright, saturated color is needed, other times muted color is the key. Think of value as shadow within a hue. When the color is stripped away and a grey-scale image is created it is the variety of black that remains. Is there is no difference in value a image can be flat. The specific lines or composition that you create to convey a message. These can be abstract or very concrete. For example a series of rectangles versus the image of a plant. One is difficult to define, the other is recognized as a plant. All of these things begin to combine and give us graphics as a part of our representations and their compositions.