Colour Theory and Applications Langara College
In visual perception a colour is almost never seen as it really is - as it physically is. This fact makes colour the most relative medium in art. Joseph Albers
Colour: The property possessed by an object producing different sensations on the eye as a result of the way it reflects or emits light.
Colour is not fixed to an object or surface, but is an event that is triggered in the observer.
Colour Awareness The act of seeing something comes before the act of reacting to it. Colour is sensed by the eye, but the perception of colour takes place in the mind – and not necessarily at a conscious level. They are experienced at different levels of awareness depending on how and where they are seen.
Colour is not simply formed on the eye…but also on the “I”
Colours may be perceived as an aspect of form, as light, or as surroundings. Colours permeate the environment, are an attribute of objects, and communicate without words.
Environments and Colour The colours in our environment are all encompassing. Both the natural world and man-made environments immerse us in colours, whether the cold whites of Antarctica, the lush greens of tropical forests, or the colour compositions of urban streets, the planned colour of architecture, landscape design, interior design or theatre design.
Surrounding colours have a powerful impact on the human body and mind, but most of the time they are experienced with an astonishing lack of awareness.
Colour in our environment is often only noticed when it is a focus of attention, like a dazzling sunset or a freshly painted room. Conversely, someone who expresses a dislike for the colour green may nevertheless take enormous pleasure in a garden, describing it as a purple and yellow garden–when in fact the surroundings are overwhelmingly green, with purple and yellow present as only a small part of the whole.
Colour can be used as pure function, to increase or reduce available light. Lighter colours reflect light and increase the available light in a space; darker colours absorb light and reduce the available light in a space. When a room is dark, adding additional illumination alone will not necessarily solve the problem. If the walls are absorbing light, they will continue to do so.
Illumination and colour are equals in environmental space: it is the balance of the two that establishes the level of brightness.
Colour of Objects The colours of objects are perceived very directly. The separateness of an object allows the viewer to focus both eye and mind on a single entity and a single colour idea. We are most consciously aware of colour when it is a single dominant attribute of a defined object: a blue dress, a red apple, an yellow flower.
Graphic colour Graphic colours are the colours of images or compositions: painted, drawn, printed, or on-screen. Graphein, the Greek root of the English word “graphic”, means both “writing” and “drawing”.
Once our eyes have allowed us to experience colour it is everything else about ourselves that determines the meaning we attach to it. The language of colour is limited, yet the variations in colour seem endless How many shades of blue are there? How many shades of red are there?
Tauba Auerbach – Every colour Imaginable -‐ 2012
Colour is recognized universally as a natural component of beauty. In Russian the word for red has the same root in Old Russian as the word for beautiful – but colours are much more than just beautiful, they are useful. Colour can be used to communicate ideas and emotions, to manipulate perception, to create focus, to motivate and influence actions
If used intelligently, colour can help give visual order to complex information. It can attract, enlighten and engage, and thus, add value
Colour can modify the perception of space, creating illusions of size, nearness, separation, or distance. Colours can be chosen to minimize or obscure objects and spaces, or to delineate space–separating one area from another. Colour can be used to create continuity between separated elements in design, or to establish emphasis or create focus in a composition.
Colour is regularly used as communicator in the natural environment of animals and of culturally understood rules, values, emotions and expressions of humans.
We also have social and cultural interpretations of colour that are less tangible, as they are not particularly associated with an object, but a way of describing a feeling
We use colour to establish identity and enhance meaning. colour communicates the historical moment. It is a marker of time. It has the ability to create a memory of a point in time.
Urban existence is often depicted as gray or monochrome, yet in many cities nothing could be further from the truth.
NYC
Vancouver Canada
Cinque Terre – Italy
Don’t stop looking. Colour is everywhere!