I’ve been asked recently to chat more about how to identify the undertone of colours…
Look at the Colour Wheel
Overtone vs Undertone
Colour Overtone
The overtone is the overt colour you see – we label warm overtone colours (yellow, orange, red, pink) as warm because they remind us of things that are warm such as the sun, a fire, heater etc.. We label cool overtone colours (blue, green violet) as cool, because they remind us of things that are cooler – water, cool forests, nighttime.
The Undertone of Colours
The undertone of a colour is how it’s created – what is mixed.
- Blue is cool
- Yellow is warm
So colours that have more yellow in them (even if it’s blue) become warm undertone.
Colours that have more blue in them (even if they are warm overtone – such as red) become cool undertone.
The closer a colour is to the colour wheel to yellow, generally the more naturally warm it becomes.
The closer a colour is on the colour wheel to blue, it’s generally more cool.
So what about red which is equidistant from blue and yellow? Add a smidge of yellow and it becomes warm, add a smidge of blue and it becomes cool.
Black and White are both cool, so adding white or black can make a cooler version of a colour (but may not change its undertone compeltely.
Want to see examples of the undertone of different colours?
Check out these posts:
Want to discover the colour palette that suits you best?
Get an online personal colour analysis here. Or if you want to also get the full style education and get all your colour and style fundamentals sorted, you can get your colour analysis as part of my 7 Steps to Style program
More Colour Tips Here
Hola, soy Ruth, vivo en Buenos Aires Argentina, y hablo español, si bien entiendo inglés, no lo hago de forma tan fluida para disfrutar tus videos, por eso me pierdo de todo el contenido que publicas de esa forma… me gustaría pedirte si es posible que hagas una desgrabación de esos videos y que lo publiques a continuación del vídeo para quienes no somos tan fluidos en inglés ,con ayuda del traductor de Google podemos entender casi toda la nota,
Me encanta todo tu trabajo y hace años que leo tu blog,
gracias por seguir compartiendo tu conocimiento con nosotras, te envío cariños
Ruth