Understanding Color

Chapter 5: The Instability of Colors.

Painters commonly experience the surprise of carefully mixing a color on the palette only to see it change when it is placed among other colors in a painting.

There are only 6 colors in this composition, but the placement of each block of color is affected by the colors next to it.

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Grace Hartigan, “River Bathers,” 1953

We are not normally aware of this phenomenon, but it is present wherever one colored shape meets another in our

line of vision.

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Changes take place in colors for two very different reasons:

• Any change in ambient lighting has the potential to alter the appearance of colors.

• The arrangement of colors is the second cause of color instability.

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Changes in ambient lighting affect subtractive colors only.

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Additive light is not affected by ambient lighting even though it appears more intense in the dark.

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Placement of colors affects both subtractive and additive color.

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The concept that every color is subject to being

changed by its placement is perfectly expressed by

Josef Albers’ phrase“interaction of colors.”

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A composition is something

made up of individual parts that have been

arranged in such a way that they are understood

as a single, complete idea.

Theo van Doesburg

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A composition is understood as separate from its setting and from other things around it.

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A design composition is a planned arrangement of forms and colors meant to be sensed as a single visual idea.

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A color composition is a group of colors meant to be sensed as a whole.

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A group of colors selected for use together is called many different things depending upon the industry or

design discipline it is intended for: a palette, a colorway, a color story, etc.

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The background of a composition is its ground.

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Different industries use different terms for the materials that are used as grounds.

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Colors printed on fabric or wall covering are said to be printed on a “ground.”

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The background of a carpet or banner is called the “field.”

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The paper used in printing is called “stock.”

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No matter what word is used, “ground” means background when color relationships are discussed.

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The ground may be accidental or unconsidered, but it is always a factor in the final composition.

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Ground establishes the visual reference point for carried colors.

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It is a critical element in color compositions that is often overlooked.

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The ground is not necessarily the largest area in a comosition.

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The area in a design that is ground is determined by the arrangement of forms, not by color or relative area.

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Visual cues determine which part of a composition is identified as image or pattern and which part is understood as background.

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Negative space is the area within a composition that is not part of the image or pattern.

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Negative space is

often, but not always,

the same area as the

ground.

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In some kinds of patterning it can be

difficult to decide which part of a

design is ground and which is

carried color.

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It is not neccessary for ground to be a clearly defined area. Colors will interact whether the ground is obvious

or uncertain.

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Three different kinds of color interaction cause apparent change in ground and carried-color situations.

• simultaneous contrast• complementary contrast• ground subtraction

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All three serve to intensify

the differences between

colors.

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Equilibrium is a physiological

state of rest that the eyes seek at

all times.

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The eyes are at rest when the primary colors of light–red, green, and blue–are within the field of vision.

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The artists’ primaries red, yellow and blue reflect these wavelengths.

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The process printing primaries cyan, magenta and yellow also reflect these wavelengths.

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The presence of any of these sets of primary colors in the visual field will bring the eyes to a state of equilibrium.

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It is not necessary, however, for the primaries to be present as individual colors for the eye to reach a state of rest.

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Any number of combinations and mixtures will allow the eyes to reach equilibrium...

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three primaries...

47a pair of complements...

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or two secondary colors...

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or a hue diluted by its complement (a tertiary color).

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The three colors do not have to be equal in area either.

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Equilibrium is reached most easily when the primaries are mixed together into muted hues.

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The slightest dulling of a pure color makes it less stimulating to the eye.

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The popularity of “earth” colors,

which are hues muted by the

addition of their complement, may

derive from the fact that they are

genuinely, physically, restful.

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The eyes will always seek the most physiologically comfortable pathways in color perception.

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Simultaneous contrast is an involuntary response that takes place when the eyes are not at rest – when a single

hue is present in the field of vision

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In this situation the eyes work to generate the missing complement, which appears as a wash of hue in any nearby

achromatic area.

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In this situation the eyes work to generate the missing complement, which appears as a wash of hue in any nearby

achromatic area.

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In this situation the eyes work to generate the missing complement, which appears as a wash of hue in any nearby

achromatic area.

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In this situation the eyes work to generate the missing complement, which appears as a wash of hue in any nearby

achromatic area.

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If a single primary color is present, the missing secondary appears.

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For any give color the eye spontaneously and simultaneously generates the missing complement

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The effect of simultaneous contrast is most apparent when the stimulating hue is a saturated color...

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or a brilliant tint...

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...but muted, tinted, or darkened hues will also cause it to take place.

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Simultaneous contrast will occur to some extent whenever a single hue is placed on, or next to, an achromatic area.

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Simultaneous contrast is a factor in the selection of every neutral (including, and especially, variations of white) that is intended for use with a single hue or close family of hues.

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Fortunately, it is not difficult to anticipate and counteract unwanted effects. If a green textile is used with a white one, adding a slight green undertone to the white counteracts the

red that the eye generates.

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Nearly all situations in which three primaries are present in the visual field allow the eye to be at rest, but compositions with blocks of very brilliant colors can be an exception.

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Vivid hues used together can at times deliver such strong, separate, and contradictory stimuli that the eyes respond to each as if it were a single sensation.

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The struggle to maintain equilibrium means that the eyes must work, and work hard. The resulting eye fatigue can lead to genuine discomfort, like headache or blurred vision.

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Afterimage or successive contrast is an image that appears after a stimulating hue is taken away.

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Afterimage requires a brilliant color stimulus and a nearby, but separate,

blank white or light surface.

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Contrast reversal is a variation of afterimage where the “ghost” reversal appears as a sort of double negative.

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Afterimage also occurs without hue.

A black and white illustration viewed in this way will appear with the values

reversed, like a photographic negative.

QuickTime™ and aGIF decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Complementary contrast describes what happens when two

colors with a complementary relationship–even the slightest

complementary relationship–are used together.

According to your book, the difference between complementary contrast and

simultaneous contrast is that two hues must be present for complementary

contrast and only one hue is present for simultaneous contrast.

Complementary contrast intensifies the difference between two hues that are already present, and already

different.

Complementary contrast occurs with

every form of color:

saturated color, tint, shade, or

muted. hue.

A saturated color is seen at its maximum hue intensity when it is paired with its complement or near complement.

The difference in hue between the two is emphasized, but neither color undergoes any change.

This is true for for saturated colors

that are opposite at all points on the

spectrum, not just primary-secondary

color pairs.

The second aspect of complementary

contrast is its power to bring out

undetected hue.

The second aspect of complementary

contrast is its power to bring out

undetected hue.

Colors do not have to be exact opposites for complementary contrast to occur.

They can be near-complements or part-complements like red-orange and green or yellow-green and violet for

the effect to occur.

When colors other than the primary and secondary pairs are in a complementary or part-complementary

relationship, they undergo a shift in hue toward the most similar primary–secondary pair.

When colors other than the primary and secondary pairs are in a complementary or part-complementary

relationship, they undergo a shift in hue toward the most similar primary–secondary pair.

The orange cup against a violet background looks more yellow than when seen against an achromatic background.

Two navy blue samples, placed together, may suddenly appear greenish-navy and purplish-navy.

Two navy blue samples, placed together, may suddenly appear greenish-navy and purplish-navy.

Two navy blue samples, placed together, may suddenly appear greenish-navy and purplish-navy.

The important thing to remember is that the eye seeks not only

equilibrium, but also the simplest and most “completing” hue

relationship.

Complementary and simultaneous contrast both

intensify differences between samples that are already unlike.

Ground subtraction is completely different.

It takes place when a ground and its carried colors have qualities in common–and also qualities

that are different.

Whatever qualities that are shared by a ground and its

carried colors are reduced; at the same time, differences between

them are emphasized

A pinkish purple...

A pinkish purple

on a pink background looks more purple.

A pinkish purple...

A pinkish purple

on a purple background looks more pink.

This is an example of hue subtraction.

The effect of altered value is the same when

hue is present.

Any ground subtracts its own qualities from colors it carries.

The more similarities a color has with its ground, the more apparent

their differences will be.

In theory, primary colors will not change in hue by placement, although they can be altered in apparent value.

In theory, primary colors will not change in hue by placement, although they can be altered in apparent value.

Secondary and intermediate colors (and all hues between them) will change, at times quite dramatically, when placed on

grounds that share different aspects of their own qualities.

The difference between the two carried colors seems even greater because both hue and value are affected.

A muted or chromatic gray is more vivid on a grayed ground and more muted on a chromatic one.

The more complex a color is–the more elements it contains–the more likely it is to be affected by colors around it.

The more complex a color is–the more elements it contains–the more likely it is to be affected by colors around it.

The changes that take place in complex colors are not necessarily more dramatic than those that take place with

simpler colors.

Change is simply more likely, because the more “ingredients” that are present, the greater the number of possibilities that it

will have elements in common with (and also different from) its ground.

Finally, color shifts can be extreme when both ground

subtraction and complementary contrast are

in play.

In this comparison, the achromatic gray has been created by mixing violet and yellow. In addition to the complementary contrast, there is ground subtraction.

Finally, there is a value contrast.

The principle of ground subtraction can be used in reverse to make different (but similar) colors appear

to be identical.

The principle of ground subtraction can be used in reverse to make different (but similar) colors appear

to be identical.

A different kind of shift takes place in subtractive colors when a color that has been selected from a small sample, like a paint chip or fabric cutting, is

applied to a large surface.

The direction (placement in space) of a large color plane affects whether it will read as lighter or darker, or more muted or more chromatic than it does as a small chip.

Changes of this kind are NOT color interactions.

These changes are caused by the different angles of light.

Typically, light reaches surfaces from above and at an angle. This is why walls appear lighter and ceilings darker.

Colors also appear more chromatic on a larger plane.

A vivid color, mindlessly cheerful in a small doses, can be overwhelming as a painted wall.

Adjusting a color selection to compensate for the difference between a small sample and the same color in a large area is an issue faced more in architecture and interior design than in other

design fields.

But the scale and quantity of colors makes a difference in every design decision.