I will be exploring what colour is, how I work with colour and how I work will with it as part of my practice. There are theories directly related to the work I will create as an illustrator in relation to colour. I need to uncover how and why I need to control colour as a practitioner... Colour is arguably infinite, contextual and dependent on what is around it. It is very rare that we see isolated colour; it is always surrounded by other colours and objects and that manipulates how we respond to it. There is a physical aspect and a physiological aspect to colour; the physics of it in terms of light and optics in terms of refraction. Physiological calculations and measurements depend on the human being and how we each individually see colour - how we interpret it through the eye and into the brain. Any single colour we see is aligned with a certain light. Colour is directly linked to light. If all the lights were switched off there would be no colour to differentiate between. Our perception of colour is based on principles of light.
Monochromatic light is the spectrum dividing down into singular colours, with each colour having its own wavelength. Not seen as an individual or separate entity. It is always a series of wavelengths in a broader spectrum; there are no edges, no boarders. It just keeps going. However, our eyesight is limited (mine even more so!) and we are only able to pick up a certain number of wavelengths. Cats and dogs have a far more sophisticated way of seeing colour and are able to see infrared and ultraviolet - where we cannot. The eye represents the pyramid of light. When all colours exist together it creates white light. Only when hitting a lens or a prism can those wavelengths start to separate into a spectrum of chromatic values - areas of colour that we can identify but all based on the principle of white light.
Different colours travel at different speeds, vibrating at different wavelengths, continuing beyond what we can see. Our perception of any colour is based on receiving that light and refracting it. Looking directly at light without any form reflecting it - looking at the sun, for example, will only show light. The way we receive colour is through reflection on a surface; something for the white light to bounce off. We can prove that the surface is important to how we perceive colour. The surface is just as important as the light itself. A demonstration of white card was shown; the surface is very reflective - any light that hits it will bounce back. It has no properties of its own. It shows the properties of light and how we read it and understand it. White is contextual, neutral, highly reflective. It takes on all the colour around it. Another demonstration of black card shows it absorbing most of the light and the colour around it. Even when we have colour, the coloured surface itself will change because of the properties of light. The amount of light that is absorbed by the surface and the amount of light reflected will effect the colour itself.
This presents a problem... If we are working on a body of work, that is print based, and someone reads it in a red light - whatever you have created will come across as purple. We need to understand these problems so that we can have control of colour. The sky has no colour whatsoever. At no point can we grab a piece of the sky and declare that it is blue. It is pure white light oscillating at different wavelengths; bouncing off of pollen, pollution, particles and atoms in the atmosphere, picked up by the short wavelengths. Sunsets coming in at a low angle gives a more reddish sky - again, bouncing off particles. The sky has no colour; we perceive it based off the light hitting the crap that is floating in the sky.
Rods and cones. Rod cells are photoreceptor cells in the retina of the eye that can function in less intense light than cone cells. They are used in peripheral vision and are almost entirely responsible for night vision. They have little role in colour vision which is why colours are less apparent in darkness. Cones are responsible for colour vision and function in bright light. Type 1 is sensitive to red, Type 2 is sensitive to green and Type 3 is blue. When any single cone is stimulated then we see green. It is not a simple process though; if red and green are stimulated then we see yellow. Yellow arguably doesn't exist; we see red, orange and green wavelengths to perceive yellow. MY RODS AND CONES are completely knackered! I have been told many times whenever I do colour tests (which I fail). I find it hard being in intense light situations which is why I have to wear UV glasses to filter out intense brightness that cause me remaining functioning left eye a combination of strain, weepiness and headaches. I was born with underdeveloped Optic Nerves as a result of being a premature baby - so my eyes are less than stellar in the first place. I have no night vision and colours are very washed out for me. I know for a fact that whatever I perceive to be red is not what someone else would call red, and I have accepted and work with that every day. I am very thankful to be able to perceive some level of colour though!
Because this is about individual interpretation, light hitting the eye, different bits being shown when light is received and divides - the only colours we actually see are red, green and blue. Any other colour we see are made up of a combination of proportional adjustments of wavelengths between red, green and blue. Our brain can be fooled, however. What are these implications? Impact? There are variances in how we see tones. Everyone sees colour but there are many types of colour variations and the way in which eyes and cones see colours. Colour itself is not a constant in the way we perceive it and it can be affected by psiological contexts. If an apple is red; are we seeing the same shade of red? Colour is a real core awareness.
Josef Albers and Johannes Itten really started to study the principals of colour and how they can be used. Colour, pigment, media; solid, physical stuff. The historical aspects of colour theory are based on mixing pigment. The colour wheel was developed over the past century documenting the primary colours and how mixing them will give secondaries and tertiaries. It is a colour system we have been introduced to at some point in our lives. Complementary colours refer to the chromatic opposite of one colour. Yellow is the opposite of violet, blue to orange and red to green. Itten's colour wheel demonstrates this and maps out / builds relationships between colours.
From this point forward my approach to colour will need to evolve; I need to consider production and distribution when making work in the world, considering the colours I'm suing and ensuring they will be what other people perceive too. I need to think about what is colour and what is chromatic value - how is it created? The colour swatches, hue and saturation, and colour mapping I experience in Photoshop ever day have a core principal in colour theory and the need to define colour.
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