Thank you.
I’ve found that it helps to think in terms of “value.”
Every color has a corresponding value ( value is the lightness-darkness scale, think highlights, mid tones, shadows)
For example: Primary red and blue (and colors derived from them) tend to be “dark”, meaning they can still look “chromatic” under medium to low light conditions. In contrast yellow ceases to exist in the shadows, it transforms into an ochre/ brown so it’s more of a “light” color.
You can use this knowledge to substitute the natural color with others that express the same value as seen in the scene you are painting.
:P there’s a lot more to it, but I hope this info is of some use to you.
That’s a really cool way to think about it! I’m a career graphic designer so I work with color all the time, but I hadn’t really put it in those terms before.
Yellow is such a tricky color. I’ve also run into the “dark yellow” issue many times. I’m sure you know this already, but it’s the thinnest band of color as well, meaning it stops looking like itself sooner than any other color as you shift through hues.
Have you heard about how language can affect color perception? I’ve heard that some languages don’t have a word for orange. Something would either be red or yellow. Not only do they not have a word for it, it actually changes those native speakers perception of where a distinct color begins and ends apparently. So where we would see orange as its own band, they don’t. I wish I remembered which language I heard that about, but I find it really fascinating.
Oh cool! A fellow graphic designer :) of course you could make sense of my explanation! (To add to it, the munsell color system is , sort of, a good way to visualize all that)
Also, I agree with you: yellow is a bitch.
About the language thing, it makes total sense; to which degree it affects perception would be interesting to know! And now that you mention it, english has very good vocabulary to speak with nuance about color. In spanish different concepts commonly tend to get lumped together under the same name. Or the proper terminology is not widely used, or is used wrongly; at least in the art side of things on a begginer level. So I do think that also limits understanding of the properties of color in a way!
Thank you. I’ve found that it helps to think in terms of “value.” Every color has a corresponding value ( value is the lightness-darkness scale, think highlights, mid tones, shadows)
For example: Primary red and blue (and colors derived from them) tend to be “dark”, meaning they can still look “chromatic” under medium to low light conditions. In contrast yellow ceases to exist in the shadows, it transforms into an ochre/ brown so it’s more of a “light” color.
You can use this knowledge to substitute the natural color with others that express the same value as seen in the scene you are painting.
:P there’s a lot more to it, but I hope this info is of some use to you.
That’s a really cool way to think about it! I’m a career graphic designer so I work with color all the time, but I hadn’t really put it in those terms before.
Yellow is such a tricky color. I’ve also run into the “dark yellow” issue many times. I’m sure you know this already, but it’s the thinnest band of color as well, meaning it stops looking like itself sooner than any other color as you shift through hues.
Have you heard about how language can affect color perception? I’ve heard that some languages don’t have a word for orange. Something would either be red or yellow. Not only do they not have a word for it, it actually changes those native speakers perception of where a distinct color begins and ends apparently. So where we would see orange as its own band, they don’t. I wish I remembered which language I heard that about, but I find it really fascinating.
Oh cool! A fellow graphic designer :) of course you could make sense of my explanation! (To add to it, the munsell color system is , sort of, a good way to visualize all that)
Also, I agree with you: yellow is a bitch.
About the language thing, it makes total sense; to which degree it affects perception would be interesting to know! And now that you mention it, english has very good vocabulary to speak with nuance about color. In spanish different concepts commonly tend to get lumped together under the same name. Or the proper terminology is not widely used, or is used wrongly; at least in the art side of things on a begginer level. So I do think that also limits understanding of the properties of color in a way!
Just piling up some stuff here that helped me (and still helps), kind of ugly photos but the gist is there IMO:
Saving that infographic for later!
Are you a Spanish speaker? That’s an interesting insight.