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… not what truly is.
Colors in context are a great example. They visually shift and fluctuate, in an ever moving dance with the colors and light around them.
My favorite illusion proving this was designed by Edward H. Adelson of Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Here it is: (click image to see larger version)
The copyright holder of this file allows anyone to use it for any purpose, provided that the copyright holder is properly attributed. Redistribution, derivative work, commercial use, and all other use is permitted.Square A and Square B are the same shade of gray, the same color. Oh yes they are!
I can’t see it, either: my mind cannot reconcile the fact that they are exactly the same, because B is the lighter square, even though it’s in shadow (so my mind tells me).
Here’s proof that they are the same. I covered up the surrounding area– the context. Now it’s easy to see that they are the same (click image to see larger version).
A dear friend and her husband run a commercial & residential painting company. They tell me great color and people stories. One of my favorite, and a frequently occurring one, is the client who looks at two different walls painted in the same color and vehemently accuses their company of using two different paint colors. Because walls in a room face different directions and they receive light differently: one may be in more shade, the sun may be setting casting a very bluish or pinkish light on the other wall. Several factors may be involved. But the paint on each wall came from the same can. Its the same color.
We have a lot of fun in my color classes debating which color is lighter, darker, more intense, less intense. Its a bit easier for us to answer those questions because for the most part we are comparing swatches of flat color to each other in the same light. They aren’t any rigid context, like these checkerboard squares.
I share this issue with you to remind you that when you are dealing with color: COLOR IS RELATIVE. The color you think you see is relative to the colors surrounding it, the atmosphere, the lighting…many factors. You see what you think you see, not what truly is.
Being conscious of this empowers you to make more conscious, informed color choices.
For an in-depth explanation of the fascinating subject of metamerism, read the May 2007 Margie’s Muse: “Metamerism in Action.”
"Golden Earring" from Beading Her Image
Excerpt from Margie’s Muse, April 2010
I am and always have been fascinated with faces. I have a library full of portrait photography books, just to study faces. I draw them on a weekly, if not daily, basis. I photograph them. (I wish I could ask more strangers if I can photograph them, but the few times I have, it frightens folks… so I stick to people I know.) I go to the movies in hopes of big screen close ups… giant faces. I’m thrilled when they are so big I can see the pores! Women, men, any race, any color, any age (the older the more intriguing)… it doesn’t matter… I love faces.
I draw and paint so many faces that people tend to label this preoccupation as portrait painting. But I’m not a portrait painter. I am not as interested in who I am painting as I am the expressions and the feeling that the face conveys. I prefer depicting faces of people I don’t know so I don’t get caught up in trying to create a realistic portrait. And I don’t use flesh tones or realistic colors.
I consider my depictions of faces “landscapes of the Soul,” not portraits.
"Iris" from the book Beading Her Image
It is the Soul I am seeking. The Soul beyond the face.
A painting hangs on our meditation room wall. Its my favorite of all I have painted so far. When I sit quietly and look at it and let it look at me, I sense myself standing taller. I feel a surge of being filled with more power than I am aware of throughout my day. I look at Her face and realize “This is who I want to be. Everything I sense in this face is where I am headed.”
These are the kinds of feelings and thoughts I want my landscapes of the Soul to inspire in viewers. I want them to instill a sense of more in each viewer: “There is more than this I see right now. I can be more. I can want more. I am more than who I think I am.”
I chose to create Beading Her Image for two reasons: to unabashedly indulge myself in the study of more faces. And to honor the sacred of women: those innate qualities that women have (and often deny) of power, charm, compassion, and beauty (not the magazine kind).
Beading Her Image has been out 5 years now, and is not slowing in popularity.
My hope is that the beaded landscapes of the Soul in the book fill you with more of your own beauty.
To see all the accompanying photos and close ups for this article, download the Margie’s Muse PDF version.
[Beading Her Image is on sale 25% off through April 30, 2010]
In the Feb. 18, 2010 episode of Project Runway guest judge Tory Burch said “I’m not sure that blue and orange are that complementary, do you think so?” Heidi, Michael, and Nina (the show’s regular judges) agreed with her.
Maybe Tory meant “I’m not sure that blue and orange are that complimentary, do you think so?”
In either case she – and they – are wrong. And it irks me that fashion designers don’t take the time to understand how colors interact with one another.
Blue and orange are complementary: they visually complete each other. Blue and orange are also complimentary: conveying a compliment, something that is flattering.
I’ve run across so many people that should understand color, but don’t: interior designers, graphic designers, jewelry designers, painters, artists of all mediums. And now, the top fashion designers in the USA.
Color is absolutely critical to these professions — it can make or break a project. Color influences mood, decisions, behavior. It definitely influences how people spend (or don’t spend) money.
It’s shocking to me that these artists do not see the value of learning about color. Why wouldn’t artists want to expand their color knowledge (and possibly their income) to develop their mastery? It’s not hard, and it’s a lot of fun.
Leaving a BeadFest show I shared a shuttle van with another teacher and her assistant. They asked what I did and I told them I taught color. The assistant said “You should see [the teacher in the van]’s work – she’s great with color!” And they opened up many cases of her beadwork. It was all the same three pale colors used in combination. They were lovely combinations, not a thing wrong with them. But over and over the same combinations, the same degree of paleness, the same predictability. (I bet she doesn’t know that humans can see the most subtle shift in color, and can visually distinguish perhaps as many as 10 million colors.)
Years ago, before I’d published my color books, a very well-known bead author said to me “No one will want to spend time learning about color: there’s just not that much to learn. I know what works well together.” (By the way, after 40 years of doing so, I still study color on a regular basis and am still learning.)
I find many artists engaging in two severly limiting behaviors: operating under the the arrogant assumption that they know all there is to know about color, and limiting their work to a couple of combinations they feel safe with. They don’t risk anything. The price is that they don’t gain anything. There’s no personal voice singing through the work, you can see and feel the timidity of playing it safe. It’s mediocre. It’s boring.
As artists on a path of growth we start with the academics: theory and the color wheel. We learn the basics so we know how colors interact optically and impact us emotionally. Then we have the confidence to expand into our own voice, working intuitively and expressively on a solid foundation of learned knowledge. Then comes the magic. Then the mastery. Then the whole cycle all over again, many times, microcosmically and macrocosmically. A never ending, fun-filled journey, rich with rewards.
Congratulations and thank you, Dear Reader. You are not one of the folks blindly unconscious to the value of understanding color. You would not be reading this if you were!
Project Runway Judges: You are welcome to take any of my classes and learn about color with me. I can show you 50 ways to make the complementary colors blue and orange look fantastically complimentary. We did it in my Denver classes.
Color for Bead Artists 