Lessons in Color Theory - Color Interaction

COLOR immediately attracts attention.

Color Theory is the art and science of color interaction and its effects.

For artists and designers color theory is of interest because they need to know the expressive effects of color on our mind and spirit.

COLOR INTERACTION

Color Interaction refers to the way colors influence one another.

COLORS ARE NEVER SEEN IN ISOLATION.

Color also looks different depending on the lighting and adjacent colors. Below is an example of simultaneous contrast. When you look at the two brown squares, how light and dark does each look?

For most the brown square on top of the left blue side appears brighter. This is due to color contrast. Blue and orange are opposite colors. Because the brown square has a lot of orange in it there is the appearance of contrast. This causes BOTH the blue and brown to appear brighter than they actually are.

So, clearly, the change of a single color in a work of art or design can dramatically change its appearance.

THE BEZOLD EFFECT

What you see below is called the Bezold Effect.

Color theorist William Bezold (1837-1907) realized that change in a single color can substantially alter our perception of the entire pattern. As you can see below the pattern on the left has a dominant yellow color. The pattern on the right uses a dark blue instead of yellow. It's amazing how unique each pattern appears!

Color interaction can be used to make optical illusions, too. Do you think the gray lines on the left are the same exact shade as the gray lines on the right?

YES. They are the exact same shade of gray.

As you can see, the relationship between colors has a significant impact on what we see.

PROJECT IDEA

Want to do a simple experiment with color to test the Bezold Effect? Draw a checkerboard grid and color every other square with yellow - same as a regular checkerboard pattern. Then fill in the remaining top half of the squares with red and the bottom half with pink. See how the two colors interact with the yellow. Which yellow looks brighter?

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Crafty In Cobb

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