From the course: Graphic Design Foundations: Color

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Temperature: How hot is hot?

Temperature: How hot is hot?

From the course: Graphic Design Foundations: Color

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Temperature: How hot is hot?

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- Temperature is easy to measure when you're talking about the weather, just look at a thermometer. The temperature of a color is not as easily quantifiable because there isn't really a way to measure its hotness. We determine the temperature of a color by hot how or cold a color looks. Even though we can't actually feel anything. It's based on what we know would feel warm or cool to the touch, the sun, fire, a steaming loaf of bread. Colors in the range of red, yellow, and orange, tend to read as warm or hot. Snow, the night sky, a leafless tree, colors in the range of white, blue, or gray, read as cool. Temperature can relate to the overall degree of heat, the quality of the light alone, or to a specific color in an image. Lets look at the temperature of light in this image. Not only is the scene lit by a warm sunlight, but the overall palate of the piece is very warm, providing a general sense of heat. By comparison, this Parrish painting, which uses warm light, provides a greater…

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