Get inspired with sienna design templates.
The color sienna is one of the deep, earthy hues that always adds a sense of stability to a project.
Inspiration in the color sienna.
Learn the history and meaning of the color sienna, a deep brown-red named after one city but representing the world at large.
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How to use the color sienna.
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Tap into the psychology of the color sienna.
Sienna color is an earthy color and evokes thoughts of nature, comfort, and security. The red hue to sienna gives it a warmth reminiscent of a close connection with others. Sienna color essentially combines what makes us part of this earth with what makes us part of humankind.
Raw sienna color versus burnt sienna.
The original sienna color is the dark, brown-based red made from heating terra di siena clay. When the process was developed to roast the clay instead, the color burnt sienna was born. Burnt sienna is much lighter and redder than sienna color.
Combine sienna with other colors.
The color sienna combines beautifully with other warm colors like orange and yellow, all of which bring out one another’s warmth. To tap the earthy feel of sienna color, combine it with greens or blues. For a lighter and more contemporary palette, pair sienna color with warm shades of off-white like cream, or even a metallic copper or bronze.
Sienna color compared with ochre and umber.
Sienna color is related to ochre and umber. All three pigments come from heating clay, but the color sienna is significantly darker than ochre. The two do have a similar profile in their balance of brown and red, however. The color umber is darker than both sienna color and ochre.
Information about sienna color.
The sienna HEX code picker is #882D17. This is the original shade of the earthy tone based on heated raw sienna.
The color sienna can be achieved in a RGB space with 136 red, 45 green, and 23 blue. Sienna color can be achieved in a CMYK color space with 0% cyan, 67% magenta, 83% yellow, and 47% black.
What is the meaning of the color sienna?
Sienna color is a brown-based red that is a staple of earthy pigments. The color sienna gained its greatest acclaim in the Renaissance, but the color has been present in civilizations around the world for tens of thousands of years. In its natural state, raw sienna is yellow-brown, but its heating process turns it deep brown-red. Sienna color pigment evokes grounding, calmness, nature, and humanity.
The color sienna was named after the Italian name, terra de Siena, or “earth of Siena,” where raw sienna was commonly found.
The history of sienna color.
The color sienna was one of the first pigments.
Sienna color shares its origin with ochre and umber. Together, these are three pigments made by heating clay. The color sienna was one of the first pigments used by humankind and has been found in cave paintings dated back tens of thousands of years. Raw sienna contains iron oxides like limonite, which gives it a yellow hue. The presence of manganese oxide is what makes sienna color much darker than ochre, but not as dark as umber.
Roman use of the color sienna.
Sienna color was used extensively in Ancient Rome. There was a natural affinity for the color sienna in Northern Italy because it was in Siena, Tuscany, that the clay to create sienna color pigments was mined. Even today, the streets of Tuscan cities are lined with sienna color buildings. The original Italian name for the color sienna was terra de Siena, or “earth of Siena.”
The color sienna in works of art.
Popular use of sienna color in art was most pronounced in the area surrounding Siena, Italy. Duccio di Buoninsegna and other painters in the region used the color sienna and other earth-based pigments a great deal after the 13th century. By the start of the Renaissance, sienna color had become one of the most widely-used pigments in art. The color sienna entered English in 1760.
The color sienna across different cultures.
A look at natural variations in sienna color.
Sienna color pigment was historically made with the raw sienna mined in Italy. The Italian sources of sienna were nearly exhausted by the mid-1900s. The remaining natural sienna is mined today in Sicily, Sardinia, the French Ardennes, and the Appalachian Mountains. Each source of raw sienna differs slightly in its composition, which affects the color sienna when made into dyes. Fortunately, the 20th century also saw the development of synthetic sienna, which is primarily used today.
The spread of sienna color in the Renaissance.
The color sienna spread to the rest of Italy and then the rest of Europe during the Renaissance. Some of time’s most famed artists applied the earthy tone prominently in their works of art. The use of sienna color pigments doubled by the mid-Renaissance when the innovation of roasting sienna (instead of traditionally heating it) produced a new, lighter, redder pigment named “burnt sienna.” These two varieties of sienna color were most famously used by Vasari, Caravaggio, and Rembrandt.
Sienna color in the eye of the Pantone Institute.
The Pantone Institute guides professionals and consumers on the use and impact of color. Pantone has two color codes for sienna, one for the traditional hue and one for the burnt variety. The traditional color sienna, Pantone says, is autumnal. Sienna color reflects home, hearth, and warmth toward one another. The best color to combine with sienna, Pantone suggests, is a medium blue.