When you blend colors additively (like on a monitor or TV), they all merge to become white. Light is additive, which means that when all the hues of the visible spectrum are combined, white light is produced. Pigment, on the other hand, is subtractive, therefore combining all basic hues yields browns and blacks.
Some colored lights are made by adding red, green, and blue chemicals together; these include fluorescent tubes and some compact fluorescents. Other colored lights are created by mixing pigment particles with oil or waxes and applying the mixture to a glass surface. The pigment particles absorb light of certain frequencies while letting others through. The result is a color-shifted light source.
Colored lighting has many applications. It can be used to paint walls, furniture, and even people. It can also be placed behind models or props to give them depth and realism. Finally, colored lighting can be used as an effect in itself; for example, it can be placed next to white flowers to show off their colors or placed near windows to illuminate rooms in dark parts of a house.
There are two types of colored lights: cold-lit objects appear bright because they reflect some of the incident light back toward the viewer, while hot-lit objects look brighter because they emit some of their own light.
The color of colored lights varies depending on which chemicals are used to produce them.
Mixing is often stated in terms of three primary colors and three secondary colors in both scenarios (colors made by mixing two of the three primary colors in equal amounts). When all subtractive colors are mixed in equal proportions, the result is a dark brown, but when all additive colors are combined in equal amounts, the result is white. These are the only two possibilities for the outcome of any mixture of these colors.
Consequently, if you mix several colors together, the result will be either white or black depending on how you mix them. A mixture of red and green makes white; blue and yellow make white; orange and purple make black. This is why color mixes often appear very light or very dark compared with the original colors themselves. The intensity of a color can never be increased by mixing with another color; instead, it can only be diminished through mixture with something else.
For example, if you mix one part red paint with four parts white paint, the end result will be grayish-black. Mixing red with black produces violet, which is an additive color. So even though black is an additive color, it cannot be produced by mixing other colors together. Instead, it can only be created by adding white to black, which is why many artists use black as a base color before adding other colors to create different shades of white, black, and other colors.
White light is created by combining red, green, and blue light. The fundamental colors of light are defined as red, green, and blue (RGB). As depicted on the color wheel or circle on the right, mixing the colors creates new hues. This is a color that is added. To create black, you would mix all three colors at once.
The combination of red, green, and blue can be any ratio. You can even have more blue or more red, but not equal amounts of each. The resulting color will depend on which ratios are used. For example, using only red and blue lights, you could make purple; only green and blue; various shades of yellow; and so on.
When discussing colors in terms of their effectiveness in making other colors, it is important to remember that the human eye is sensitive to some wavelengths of light that other animals cannot see. Thus, while it is possible to make other colors with red, green, and blue, due to this inherent limitation, these colors are said to be "primary" because they are the most effective at making others.
Also note that although whites appear to be the sum of the colors, they are actually made up of many different colors - including red, green, and blue - that just happen to be close together on the color wheel. If you were able to separate these colors, they would reappear on their own again.
When the fundamental colors — yellow, red, and blue — are put together, they generate gray or brown; if you mix them to make gray, the predominating colors decide the shade of the final combination and whether it is cold or warm. If you mix equal amounts of red and blue, you will get purple; if you add more red than blue, you will have red-brown, and if you add more blue than red, you will have blue-gray.
To create a monochromatic color scheme, use only one primary color in a composition. The choice of which color to use for your scheme is up to you; there are many possibilities. For example, you could use red, white, and black, or blue, orange, and white. You can also combine two or more colors to create new ones; for example, using red and blue produces magenta, and mixing red with yellow produces orange. Finally, you can subtract colors from each other to produce results such as green or violet.
The key to creating effective monochromatic designs is knowing how to manipulate colors so that they work together harmoniously. This can be done by considering how different each color is from the others and placing them in relative terms: some far away, some close together on the color wheel, some dark, some light. Then use this information to guide you in combining colors into schemes.
Our brain determines what hue we are seeing based mostly on one factor: the light that enters our eyes. White light is made up of all hues of radiation. When an item receives light, some wavelengths are absorbed while others are reflected. The ones that it reflects are the ones that we can see in color. Red objects reflect red waves and blue objects reflect blue waves. All other colors between these two extremes are reflected some of each.
When white light hits a red object, only the amount of red light that reaches its peak value is transmitted through to the eye. The rest is absorbed by the red object. For this reason, red is said to be "absorbing" to white light. It follows then that black is "reflecting" all wavelengths of light and so it appears completely dark in color. Dark colors are also absorbing for light of all wavelengths since none of them reach their maximum value. Light colors such as yellow and green have wavelengths that both absorb and reflect light. They influence the appearance of objects around them by absorbing certain wavelengths and reflecting others.
Colors are determined by the way that atoms inside an object react with light waves of different lengths. These reactions cause electrons within those atoms to jump from one energy level to another. This produces rays of light that we perceive as colors. Colors are represented by different frequencies of light.