Color Temperature
The first Color Temperature wheel diagram
from Charles Hayter
Warm colors are those that pop off the page.
Reds, oranges, and yellows usually create a sharp focus.
Cool colors (blues, most greens, most grays) recede in space
Leonardo da Vinci used this illusion to create the effect of atmospheric perspective in his famous Mona Lisa. In this painting, the woman’s figure is composed primarily of warm hues, while the landscape in the background is composed primarily of cooler blues and greens. This distinction in color temperature serves to place the figure in advance of the background.
Leonardo da Vinci Mona Lisa
(1503–06)
The 20th-century artist Hans Hofmann was also interested in color-generated spatial relationships, although he was mainly concerned with subverting this impression that cool colors recede and warm colors advance.
Hans Hofmann The Golden Wall (1961)
In The Golden Wall, Hofmann
explored a sensation he called “push-pull.” By overlapping carefully chosen
fields of color, the artist forced the colors to move forward and backward in
unexpected ways, giving the unnerving feeling that the canvas pulsates in three
dimensions. Contrary to expectation, the blue area in the upper-right corner of
this work “pulls” forward, while the red-orange areas around it “push”
backward.
What colors are associated with a hot desert or hell?
Those are the warm colors of the spectrum...they suggest noise, anger, danger, and intensity.
What colors are associated with the shadows of a snowy landscape or the calm and serene sea?
These are the cool colors of the spectrum
Objects in direct sunlight are warm; objects in shadow are cool
Perceptually, cool colors tend to recede into the distance whereas warm colors appear to advance.
The 2nd cube uses both value and temperature...the top has been lighten and the side has had blue added to it.
Primary colors never vary in their temperature (unless you add large amounts of their complementary hues to them). Red, yellow and orange, will remain warm colors. Blue will almost always remain cool.
Green is a mixture of yellow and cyan and can become warmer or cooler depending on the dominating component.
Purples also can appear to be either warm or cool, depending on the amounts of cyan or magenta you choose
Grays can also be manipulated to lean towards warm or cool colors
Light Bulbs