Learn Colour Basics
Welcome to the Colour Literacy Project’s Colour Basics pages. These pages are structured around the four Colour Literacy Cornerstones:
Cultivating Colour Literacy
1. EXPERIENCING COLOURS
Raise awareness of the fundamental role colour plays in our lives.
Connect colour to history and to social and cultural relations.
Open our eyes to the wonder and beauty of colours in the world.
2. PERCEIVING COLOURS
Focus on the interconnections between LIGHT, OBJECTS, OBSERVERS and CONTEXTS.
Integrate perception-based colour learning with a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Design, and Math) framework.
3. DESCRIBING COLOURS
Raise awareness of the many variations of colours.
Expand colour vocabulary to include the three dimensions of colour.
Introduce basic colour specification systems.
4. WORKING WITH COLOURS
Introduce colour experiments and explorations before explanations.
Focus on developing problem solving and investigative know-how.
Build bridges between science, art and design.
Foundations and Misconceptions
One of the main goals of our project is to re-frame colour education to start with seeing, noticing and describing all the variations of colours we can see. Too often studying about colour begins with mixing red and yellow and blue- coloured paints (or maybe cyan, magenta and yellow paints instead), and learning the names of colours in the rainbow. Instead, we would like you to have a look around your surroundings, and really notice the colours you see. Once you are able to see and notice and describe colours, with all their beautiful variations, you will have a well-established base from which to continue your colour journey.
Our Colour Foundations pages introduce key ideas about the important role of colour in our lives and how we see colours. Our Misconceptions pages cover common misconceptions about colour.
Our pages include several straightforward exercises for you to do, which will help deepen your experience with colour. Beginning colour studies with the way we experience colour in our daily lives is another important goal of our project.
These pages are a work in progress, and more topics/pages will be posted soon. If you have any comments about this Colour Basics section, please reach out to us using the CONTACT link at the bottom of each page.
To find our more about the Colour Literacy Project’s philosophy and approach, please read our tenets.
