|| Colour Theory & (Face) Charts ||

The colour wheel

In this post I will talk about The colour theory as it was mentioned in the lesson, and I felt quite intrigued.

"Understanding and feeling the colour" 

Being able to use colors consciously and harmoniously can help you create spectacular results. 

The colour wheel is very helpful while combining colours. The first colour when was designed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666. 

There are a number of colour combinations that are said to look best together. These are called colour harmonies and they consist of 2 (or more) colours with a fixed relation in the colour wheel. 

There are three types of colour- primary, secondary and tertiary. The primary colours are known to be blue, red and yellow. The three secondary colours (which are green,orange and purple) are made by mixing two primary colours. There is six tertiary colours and they are created by mixing primary AND secondary colours. 

There are also warm and cool colours (the diagram above presents that well). Warm colours are more energetic whereas cool colours tend to give an impression of calm. White, black and grey are considered to be neutral colours. 

Complementary Colour Scheme 

Colours that are opposite each other are considered as complementary colours. For example as the diagram shows, it could be red and green. The high contrast of complementary colours creates a vibrant look especially when used at full saturation.

Analogous Colour Scheme 

Analogous color schemes use colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. They usually match well and create serene and comfortable designs.

Analogous color schemes are often found in nature and are harmonious and pleasing to the eye.

Triadic color scheme 


A triadic color scheme uses colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel.
Saturation defines a range from pure color (100%) to gray (0%) at a constant lightness level. A pure color is fully saturated. 
Hue defines pure color in terms of "green", "red" or "magenta". Hue also defines mixtures of two pure colors like "red-yellow"
Source: http://www.workwithcolor.com/color-properties-definitions-0101.htm

Triadic color schemes tend to be quite vibrant, even if you use pale or unsaturated versions of your hues.

Source: http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm


Attributes that define colour:

Lightness defines a range from dark (0%) to fully illuminated (100%). Any original hue has the average lightness level of 50%. 


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These are some of the looks that I have created after learning about the colour theory. 

This is an Achromatic look. I decided to make this look a bit different while applying it onto my model. I did not apply any of the eyeliner which I did while doing my face chart. This is because I realised that it would be too much of a 'bold' look because of the lips which are also black.

This is a complementary look. I have used pink and reds, however the photos do not reflect the shades very well. In the photo on the right, the model has red ombre lips, pink cheekbones and a smokey pink eye shadows on the eyes. Also, I have put some contour on the nose. With this make up, I tried to emphasise all the face features in a very gentle way. I did not 100% copy the face chart because while applying the make up, I did realise that the make up I wanted to do, would be too much with pink eyebrows. Especially, when my vision for it was for it to be gentle and still quite feminine. 

The photo on the right shows more of an artistic approach that I took after creating the complementary look. The make up very much reminded me of a Barbie, therefore I decided to pop a blonde wig on in order to really create this fake Barbie look.