And the Colors Multipy (8 of 8)
There are as many ways to present colors as there are reasons to identify and reproduce them. For example, in the computer program Word, color options for text are presented with hexagons building outward from white through the tints into the shades of each of the six colors on the standard wheel. If you're choosing paint, the choices are presented in a strip of gradations in that color family.
It's not necessarily that we can't find resources against which we can compare a color in order to identify it. The problem is usually keeping the color in your "mind"s eye" when it's not in front of you, and then knowing when another color matches, complements or clashes with your first color.
Notice those three options:
Hopefully, by now you can pick out the tints because they are much lighter, and the shades of blue because they are darker in value. When you are trying to match a color exactly, two colors can often seem a bit "off', because their values are not the same, so check that first. Then recheck how you have deconstructed your color. Think of it as doing a fast forward on this tutorial... is it a primary color? secondary? tertiary? Where does it "fit" on the wheel? What colors would "mix" to get this color?
Then again there are times when you've given yourself the impossible mission of matching something that simply can't be matched with what is available in the store. Your next option is complementing the color by picking a tint or shade in that color family. Choose a tint, or a shade, more than one step away on the gray scale, from the value of your original color. (This will look like an obvious decision and not a mismatch.) The middle top square above looks like a tint of the blue second from the bottom (on the left), and they would work together.
At a quick glance, there are blues on the right side of the chart that clearly have green in them. Though they have different values they could work well together. If a cool color has a "warm" feeling, it's possible it has a bit of brown in it, think olive green as an example, (the color wheel needs to expand quite a bit, to place that one in a natural progression of color). You know then that it will go with a warm color palette. If a warm color has a "cool" feeling, maybe it has a touch of gray in it and would work well as an accent color to a cool palette.
Sometimes, if you pair colors from across the color wheel which have the same value or intensity, they appear to clash. So, if you wanted to pair one of these blues with a color that is situated on the opposite side of the color wheel, you might be more successful if the two colors did not have the same value.
In the end, though, it all comes down to personal taste and individual choices. The creator, manipulating color in their work, evokes an emotional response from their audience. Some choices will appeal to the individual viewer more than others. That's the prerogative of the viewer, just as the color choice is the prerogative of the creator. My purpose in talking about this was to give us a common "language" going forward, as we look at future projects.
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There are as many ways to present colors as there are reasons to identify and reproduce them. For example, in the computer program Word, color options for text are presented with hexagons building outward from white through the tints into the shades of each of the six colors on the standard wheel. If you're choosing paint, the choices are presented in a strip of gradations in that color family.
It's not necessarily that we can't find resources against which we can compare a color in order to identify it. The problem is usually keeping the color in your "mind"s eye" when it's not in front of you, and then knowing when another color matches, complements or clashes with your first color.
Notice those three options:
1) matching= exactly reproducing a color.
2) complementing= finding colors that look good together, though they aren't an exact match,
3) clashing= the incompatibility of mismatched colors, which, in some cases, can make them visually vibrate when placed side-by-side.
There is a place for each of these possibilities in planning out your project...and yes, there might actually be a time when you are looking to clash colors! (It makes a bold statement.) But we've all had those moments when we know that two colors don't quite go together, though we can't say why. It is really a matter of deconstructing the colors.
I pulled out all the blues from my crayon box...
... you can see how they compare to the strip of spectrum blue...
Hopefully, by now you can pick out the tints because they are much lighter, and the shades of blue because they are darker in value. When you are trying to match a color exactly, two colors can often seem a bit "off', because their values are not the same, so check that first. Then recheck how you have deconstructed your color. Think of it as doing a fast forward on this tutorial... is it a primary color? secondary? tertiary? Where does it "fit" on the wheel? What colors would "mix" to get this color?
Then again there are times when you've given yourself the impossible mission of matching something that simply can't be matched with what is available in the store. Your next option is complementing the color by picking a tint or shade in that color family. Choose a tint, or a shade, more than one step away on the gray scale, from the value of your original color. (This will look like an obvious decision and not a mismatch.) The middle top square above looks like a tint of the blue second from the bottom (on the left), and they would work together.
At a quick glance, there are blues on the right side of the chart that clearly have green in them. Though they have different values they could work well together. If a cool color has a "warm" feeling, it's possible it has a bit of brown in it, think olive green as an example, (the color wheel needs to expand quite a bit, to place that one in a natural progression of color). You know then that it will go with a warm color palette. If a warm color has a "cool" feeling, maybe it has a touch of gray in it and would work well as an accent color to a cool palette.
Sometimes, if you pair colors from across the color wheel which have the same value or intensity, they appear to clash. So, if you wanted to pair one of these blues with a color that is situated on the opposite side of the color wheel, you might be more successful if the two colors did not have the same value.
In the end, though, it all comes down to personal taste and individual choices. The creator, manipulating color in their work, evokes an emotional response from their audience. Some choices will appeal to the individual viewer more than others. That's the prerogative of the viewer, just as the color choice is the prerogative of the creator. My purpose in talking about this was to give us a common "language" going forward, as we look at future projects.
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