OUAN404 - Visual Language - Colour Theory

An Introduction to Colour Theory

- Colour isn’t defined as a block, there are different spectrums, billions tones, shades etc.

Physical, Physiological, Psychological

- Relationship between these 3 elements when perceiving colour

- Incredibly problematic physiological gets confused with physical and often clash.

- Optical Physics - Core rules of colour

Fundamentals 

all light around us is white light - made up of spectrum of colours

Different light has different properties in space until hits eyes/lens

All cones are deceptive to different wavelengths.

when 2 are stimulated together they mix. Yellow doesn’t exist as a spectral colour.

Becomes problematic and contradictory to what we know. - If the light is affected, it affects the colours that we see.

The only way we see colour is if light is reflected off something - So does colour still exist?

Interpreting info from brain but when the three cones combine it allows us to see a bigger spectrum.

Reacting to light at different point creating the illusion. We only see red, green, blue

Which is the correct colour? Its all down to this white light and physical optics. i.e. a screen, different people etc.

We have been train since childhood what colour is. All down to physio. conditions i.e.. colour blindness

We can’t be sure the apple is red, we will all see it different.

Contentious of you.

Josef Albers (1888–1976)

Johannes Itten (1888-1967) (From Bauhaus)

We’re looking at colour in pigments 

It was investigated prior towards tv - based in physical pigment.

Itten devised the system of the colour wheels. 

Complimentary colours are opposites on the wheel. 

A Complimentary is primary + secondary of the other two colours.

They start to remove colour from each other that creates a colour so tertiary it becomes a ‘neutral’

Cancelling the colour values out.

Its about physical and physio. elements in the colour wheel.

These greys and neutrals are still all based on the fundamentals of colour!

Spectral Colour …

Yellow cannot be a primary colour because it is made up or red and green

Screen Primaries: Red, Green, Blue

Print primaries - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (CYMK)

Subtractive Colour mode when mixing these ^^^

Additive Colour  (RGB) - Mixed to give you white

Spectral Colour; How we perceive these.

The colours we see are interpreted by different wavelengths of light.

Systematic Colour (Part 2) - Dimensions of Colour

- Consider implications in colour - How do we apply? Systems of usage?

- Chromatic Value = Hue + Tone (Luminance) + Saturation

- Colour has dimensions. It is a 3D medium.

Hue 

- Relates to what defines colour, where it sits on the colour wheel e.g. It’s a 'Reddy Violet’. 
- All of these different names for colours are what we call HUE.Luminance
- We can look at it in terms of it’s shades  
-Tints are another axis - ways to articulate the Hue i.e. Dark Yellow, Dull Yellow etc.

-Tone - Combine shade and tints. Ultimately the same meaning as luminance. 

Saturation

- Taking the purity of that colour away.
- If you push the colour more towards the grey it’s desaturating 

here as if you were to move it towards other colour it is removing it’s original colour into something else - Also Desaturation.

Making chromatic comparisons between the reds. Ones more pinky and ones more orange. Does that make it Primary Red?

We can’t trust what we are seeing, when colour is in context, next to each other then how we see it changes.

Defining colour by comparison - Which is the most appropriate term/chromatic value to choose.

Colour system is very important - Pantone 

- More contemporary method of defining colour.

- The colour will be matched to the number/code of the tone and it matches. (Colour matching system)

Changing the aspects of lighting etc. The apple is not red, it is only red by contentious.

Subjective Colour (Part 1) - Colour and Contrast

We can understand colour through a complex set of contrasts.

That is how we differentiate colours - we define how much of a contrast exists.

- Cont. of Tone - basic perception of light and dark. black and white in colour wheel - whole range of tonal values
Less contrast in tone with grey ‘Word’
If we introduce a colour that in further away in town i.e. orange and blue there is a greater contrast.
However its not as simple as that, because we’ve introduced hue it becomes problematic.
Starts to affect how we perceive colour. - Yellow is of higher contrast on black background where as on white it blends in more. Blue and Red recede on a darker background. (darker tonal value) 

- Contrast of Saturation - The chromatic value is how we begin to define colour. When placing something of higher saturation in place of a lower saturated colour they begin to look more grey and dull. (The blue and yellow crosses)

- Contrast of Extension - We have no control of what jumps forward, it exists as it is. Balance and imbalance within colour depending what we can see.
 - Contrast of Temperature - You can almost measure how we subjectively respond to colour. We associate ourselves with red, orange etc. as ‘Warm Colours’ - subjective response, its not actually changing temperature - we just perceive and associate these colours with these aspects. Becomes a gradient when placed next to each other. They’re flat colours, the gradients don’t exist - the constant of temperature. Appears like it is warming up on one side and cooling down on the other - optically creating this. However with the black distinguishing lines we loose this effect. 

 - Complimentary Contrast - Black and White are the obvious ones. The idea of complimentary being harmonious - they shouldn’t be placed together in this aspect. 

 - Simultaneous Contrast - When we look at the blue lines it creates the illusion of orange in the grey. How one colour affects the other. It want’s it’s complimentary colour thus creating the illusion that the orange is seeping in.