What is hue in art?

Kandinsky was right when he said that “color is a power that directly influences the soul”.

While there’s undeniable beauty in black and white ink illustrations or monochrome pencil sketches, there’s something really special about color that directly touches your soul.

What makes color so important in art? Well, to be mathmatical, in 33% that’s… hue. So, what is hue in art?

Color vs. hue

First off, we must understand this: color and hue ARE TWO SEPARATE THINGS. 

Color is a combination of three key aspects (that’s why I said 33% of what makes color so special is hue):

Value

Value determines how light or dark a color is. If you use digital painting software, you can modify value with the “Brightness” slider.

Saturation

Saturation means how intense or vibrant a color is. Saturation is often called chroma. (Technically, they’re not the same things. However, we don’t need to go that deep into color theory right now).

Hue

Hue is the color attribute that determines the name of a color, such as red, green, blue, yellow, or purple. It is also referred to as the color’s wavelength. Or, in other words, hue is the pure, unadulterated color we see, without any changes in brightness (value) or intensity (saturation). It’s the color itself – the name we give it, like red, blue, yellow, green, orange, or purple.

To sum up, color is the overall experience of hue, saturation, and lightness, while hue is the specific color family within the visible spectrum.

Hue and the color wheel

You might say: “Okay, but where can I find the hue in my painting process”? Apart from the pigment in your color pencils, you’ll find it everytime you open Procreate or any other painting software – in the color wheel tool.

A color wheel is a circular diagram that represents the relationships between different hues. It is a fundamental tool in color theory, used to understand and create harmonious color palettes (color schemes). 

Color wheel consists of two halves, one for the cool colors and one for the warm. Apart from that, it’s divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary colors.

Primary colors are the basic hues that cannot be created by mixing other colors. These are: red, yellow, blue.

Secondary colors are created by mixing equal parts of two primary colors. The secondary colors are orange, green, and purple. Example: yellow (primary) + blue (primary) = green (secondary)

Tertiary colors are created by mixing a primary color with the adjacent secondary color. The tertiary colors are vermillion, magenta, violet, teal, chartreuse, and amber. Example: red (primary) + purple (secondary) = magenta (tertiary)

Hue interactions: similarity & differences

I bet you’ve heard about color schemes (monochromatic, triadic, etc.)… And I also bet you haven’t thought about them in terms of hue similarity and dissimilarity.

I first read it in Mitchell Albala’s The Landscape Painter’s Workbook, where he says:

Painters often think of hue interactions as all there is to a color strategy, without considering other aspects of color. […] Identifying a hue interaction by name (analogous, complementary, etc.) is helpful, but not as important as recognizing whether that interaction is based in similarity or differences.

Mitchell Albala, The Landscape Painter’s Workbook, 2021, p. 115.

While it might not necassary be a grounbreaking concept, I hope this cool idea will give you a fresh look on color schemes next time you’ll be choosing the color palette for your artwork.

Hue vs tint vs tone vs shade

“Fine, so I can find hue on the color wheel- cool. What else can I do with it?” 

You probably don’t want to use only pure hue in your art, right? Your illustration will do much better with some nice desaturated and darker colors. 

How do you achieve that? It’s easy: the pure color of hue can be altered to create different expressions:

Tint: Mix hue (pure color) with white to create a lighter, pastel version.

Tone: Mix hue with gray to produce a muted, subdued hue.

Shade: Mix hue with black to darker the color for a more somber tone.

What is hue in art? Conclusions

To sum up, let’s summarize the most important things about hue:

1. Hue and color are not the same thing. 
2. Color is the way we experince light and consists of hue, value, and saturation.
3. Hue is the basic color we see, without any changes in lightness or saturation. It is the color itself, like red, green, blue, yellow, green, orange, or purple.
4. Hues are arranged on a color wheel.
5. You can go one step further and identify hue interactions not just by names (analogous, triadic, etc.) but recognize whether the hue interaction is based in similarity or differences.
6. By mixing hues with whites, gray, or blacks, you can produce altered (desatured, lighter, or darker) verions of it.

For more information on color, check out Color in digital painting. The only guide you’ll ever need.

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