Fundamentals of color science and coloring. Color circle

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Secrets of color have long excited people. Even in ancient times, it received its symbolic meaning. Color has become the basis for many scientific discoveries. He not only influenced physics or chemistry, but also became important for philosophy and art. Over time, knowledge about color became wider. The sciences that study this phenomenon began to appear.

Concepts

The first thing to mention is the basics of color science. This is the science of color, which contains systematized information from various studies: physics, physiology, psychology. These areas study the phenomenon of shades, combining the results obtained with data from philosophy, aesthetics, history, and literature. Scholars have long explored color as a cultural phenomenon.

But coloring is a more in-depth study of color, its theory and application by a person in various fields of activity.

Historical background

No wonder that these sciences have long worried people. Of course, at that time there were no such concepts as "color science" and "coloristics". Nevertheless, color was given great importance in culture anddevelopment of peoples.

History can provide us with a huge reservoir of knowledge about this. Therefore, it is customary for scientists to divide all this time into two stages: the period before the 17th century and the time from the 17th century to the present day.

Becoming

Starting a journey through the history of color, you need to return to the Ancient East. At that time, there were 5 primary colors. They symbolized the four cardinal points and the center of the earth. China stood out for its special brightness, naturalness and multicolor. Later, everything changed, and monochrome and achromatic painting began to be observed in the culture of this country.

India and Egypt were even more developed in this respect. Two systems were observed here: ternary, which contained the main colors at that time (red, black and white); as well as Vedic, based on the Vedas. The last system was deepened into philosophy, so it contains red, symbolizing the eastern rays of the Sun, white - the rays of the South, black - the rays of the West, very black - the rays of the North and invisible - the center.

In India, great importance was given to the design of palaces. Traveling the world, and now you can see that white, red and gold were often used. Over time, yellow and blue began to be added to these shades.

Religion in color

Western Europe in the Middle Ages looked at the basics of color science from the side of religion. At that time, other shades began to appear, which had not previously been taken as the main ones. White began to symbolize Christ, God, angels, black - the underworld and the Antichrist. yellow meantenlightenment and the work of the Holy Spirit, and red - the Blood of Christ, fire and the sun. Blue symbolized the sky and the inhabitants of God, and green - food, vegetation and the earthly path of Christ.

At this time in the Near and Middle East, the same thing happens with color. This is where Islam comes into play. Basically, the meaning of the colors remains the same. The only green becomes the main one and symbolizes the Garden of Eden.

Rebirth

Color science and coloring are being transformed again. Before the second stage comes the Renaissance. At this time, Leonardo da Vinci proclaims his color system. It consists of 6 options: white and black, red and blue, yellow and green. Thus, science is gradually approaching the modern concept of color.

Newtonian breakthrough

The 17th century is the beginning of a new stage in the classification. Newton uses the white spectrum, where he detects all chromatic colors. In science, there is a completely different vision on this matter. There is always red, to which orange is added, there is also green and blue, but blue and purple are found along with them.

New theories

The 19th century in Europe leads us to naturalism and impressionism. The first style proclaims the full correspondence of colors, shades and tones, and the second is based only on the transfer of images. At this time, painting appears with the basics of color science.

After there is a theory of Philipp Otto Runge, who distributes the system according to the principle of the globe. Along the equator of the "globe" are locatedpure primary colors. The top pole is white, the bottom is black. The rest is occupied by blends and shades.

The Runge system is very calculated and has a place to be. Each square on the globe has its own "address" (longitude and latitude), so it can be determined by calculus. Others followed in the footsteps of this scientist, who tried to improve the system and create a more convenient option: Chevreul, Goltz, Bezold.

The truth is near

In the era of modernity, scientists were able to get closer to the truth and create a modern color model. This was facilitated by the peculiarities of the style of the time itself. Creators create their masterpieces, paying great attention to color. It is thanks to him that you can express your vision of art. The color begins to merge with the music. It gets a huge amount of shades, even in the case of a limited palette. People have learned to distinguish not only primary colors, but also tone, darkening, muting, etc.

Modern view

The basics of color science led a person to the fact that he simplified the previous attempts of scientists. After Runge's globe, there was Ostwald's theory, in which he used a circle with 24 colors. Now this circle has remained, but it has halved.

Scientist Itten was able to develop an ideal system. His circle consists of 12 colors. At first glance, the system is quite complicated, although you can figure it out. There are still three primary colors: red, yellow and blue. There are secondary colors that can be obtained by mixing three primary colors: orange,green and purple. This also includes third-order secondary colors, which can be obtained by mixing the primary color with second-order secondary colors.

The essence of the system

The main thing you need to know about the Itten circle is that this system was created not only to correctly classify all colors, but also to combine them harmoniously. The main three colors, yellow, blue and red, are arranged in a triangle. This figure is inscribed in a circle, on the basis of which the scientist received a hexagon. Now, isosceles triangles appear in front of us, which place the secondary colors of the second order.

To get the right shade, you need to maintain equal proportions. To get green, you need to combine yellow, blue. To get orange, you need to take red, yellow. To make purple, mix red and blue.

As mentioned earlier, it is not easy to comprehend the basics of color science. The color wheel is formed according to the following principle. Draw a circle around our hexagon. We divide it into 12 equal sectors. Now you need to fill in the cells with primary and secondary colors. The vertices of the triangles will point to them. Empty spaces must be filled with shades of the third order. They, as mentioned earlier, are obtained by mixing primary and secondary colors.

For example, yellow and orange will create yellow-orange. Blue with purple - blue-violet, etc.

Harmony

It is worth noting that the Itten circle not only helpscreate colors, but it is also beneficial to combine them. This is necessary not only for artists, but also for designers, fashion designers, make-up artists, illustrators, photographers, etc.

The combination of colors can be harmonious, characteristic and uncharacteristic. If you take opposite shades, they will look harmonious. If you choose colors that occupy sectors through one, you get characteristic combinations. And if you choose related colors that are located in a circle one after another, you will get uncharacteristic compounds. This theory refers to the sector of seven colors.

In Itten's circle, this principle also works, but in a slightly different way, since it should be taken into account that there are 12 shades here. Therefore, in order to get a two-color harmony, you should take the tones that are opposite each other. Three-color harmony is obtained if an equilateral triangle is inscribed in a circle, a rectangular harmony is obtained using the same method, but inside we enter a rectangle. If you place a square in a circle, you get a four-color harmony. The hexagon is responsible for the six-color combination. In addition to these options, there is analog harmony, which is formed if we take the chromatic colors of yellow. For example, this way we can get yellow, yellow-orange, orange and red-orange.

Properties

It is worth understanding that there are also incompatible colors. Although this concept is quite controversial. The thing is that if you take bright red and the same green, the symbiosis will look very defiant. Each one triesdominate the other, which results in dissonance. Although such an example does not mean at all that it is impossible to harmoniously combine red and green. To do this, you need to understand the properties of color.

Hue is a set of shades that belong to the same color spectrum. Saturation is the degree of lightness. Lightness is the approximation of a hue to white and vice versa. Brightness is how close a hue is to black.

Also share chromatic and achromatic colors. The second includes white, black and shades of gray. To the first - all the rest. All these properties can affect the compatibility and harmony of shades. If you make the green less bright and a little faded, and make the red calmer, due to the increase in lightness, then these two supposedly incompatible shades can harmoniously combine.

Childish look

The basics of color science for children should be built in a playful way, as, in principle, all education. Therefore, it is worth remembering the famous phrase about spectral colors: "Every Hunter Wants to Know Where the Pheasant Sits." For those adults who are unfamiliar with this childish life hack, it should be clarified that the first letter of each word in this sentence stands for the name of the tones in the spectrum. That is, we have red at the head, then orange, yellow, green, blue, blue and purple. These are the colors that enter the rainbow in the same sequence. Therefore, the first thing you do with your child is draw a rainbow.

When the baby is very small and, of course, does not know what the basics of color science are,it is better to buy him coloring pages with examples. This is done so that the child does not paint the sky brown and the grass red. A little later, you will make sure that the baby will be able to independently determine the colors, but first it is better to discuss the possible options with him.

Emotions

Scientists have been able to understand for a very long time that any shade of the primary color can affect a person's emotions. Goethe first spoke about this in 1810. Later, scientists found that the human psyche is connected with external reality, which means that the perception of color can also affect emotions.

The next step in this study was the discovery that each tone has a specific emotion attached to it. Moreover, this theory manifests itself almost from birth. It also became clear that there is a certain color code that refers to a number of emotions. For example, sadness, fear, fatigue, everything can be described in black or gray. But joy, interest, shame or love are usually associated with a red tint.

Besides the psychological influence, color was studied under clinical supervision. It turned out that red excites, yellow invigorates, green reduces pressure, and blue calms. Also, it all depends on the property of the shade. If it is a calm red, then it can symbolize joy and love, if it is dark and bright, then blood and aggression.

The basics of color science and coloring are very complex sciences. It is difficult to fully understand them, since everything here is quite relative and subjective. On thecolor can influence one person in different ways, some people are not at all subject to shades. To some artist, the combination of purple and yellow may seem very harmonious, to another - disgusting and contradictory.