Color Technique of the Month January 2001 Polyzine

Color Technique of the Month January 2001 Polyzine Color Technique of the Month
By Deirdre F Woodward

Martha Stewart’s January Ever wonder how Martha Stewart gets those lovely matching colors in her projects/kitchen/magazine/ animals? She probably uses a color wheel. Actually, she probably uses her staff to match the colors, but they probably use a color wheel to do it right. The color wheel is a good thing.

A color wheel is very simple to understand. We are all familiar with the basic color wheel, I'm sure, from learning the color spectrum in elementary school. To refresh your memory, here it is again:

There are three primary colors in the color wheel: red, yellow, and blue.

These three primary colors can be mixed to make three secondary colors: orange, green, and purple:

This process can occur again to recreate six tertiary colors: red-violet, violet-blue, blue-green, green-yellow, yellow-red.

Interesting as all this is, it's not where Martha and her army of helpers get their colors. No, no. Martha, Inc. is all about tints.

What I've been talking about when I say color is actually a hue. A hue is the pure color of any color family. Red is the hue of the red family, blue is the hue of the blue family, orange is the hue of the orange family.

Hues are not the only colors, however. There are also tints and shades.

Let's focus on tints. A tint is created when you add white to a hue. Take any hue -- red, for example. Add white, and what do you get? Pink! Pink is a tint of red.

Add yellow to red and you get orange -- another hue altogether. Add white to orange, and you get tints: light orange, ochre, skin, sunrise, whatever J. Crew catalog is calling that color these days; you name it!

Here is a color wheel showing the tints of the three primary hues and the three secondary hues:

One dilemma that faces many of us is how to use color in our art. Many time we want to create something, but the colors we choose don't seem to work well together or don't seem to speak about the object we are attempting to bring forth.

There are many different ways that colors can and cannot be combined. Take a look at the following example of four hues uncomfortable with each other.

As hues, these four colors don't like each other. They compete with each other. Red is hot, while blue is cool, so they compete. Blue-green is warm, while green is cool, so they compete.

With tints, it's hard to make a mistake. While hues can compete with one another, tints tend to complement each other. Take a look at the four colors below:

These four colors are tints of the hues red, green, blue, and blue-green. These four tints like each other and work well together.

Using only tints and black and white for contrast, it's possible to create lovely, pleasing items:

Remember, however, that tints evoke certain responses from people. These colors are considered feminine. I wouldn't create, say, a football out of these colors, unless you are trying to make a specific statement about the sport and femininity!

So the next time you wonder how Martha gets everything looking so perfectly, just remember: tints.

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