Colors

and
Chromatic Contrasts
Although Leonardo da Vinci had already dedicated himself to the study of
optics, the functioning of the human eye, shadows (ex.: he discovered that
shadows are not black nor grey, but blueish), atmospheric phenomena, and
so on, general interest in phenomena related to light and color increased
remarkably during the 19th century. In a relatively short period, the
fundamentals of the structure of the eye and how it works were explained, as
well as the sequence of colors, the di erence between how colors are
composed in light and the pigments used in painting, and the processes of
color perception. The revolutionary discoveries of this era are still the
foundation of the theory of color and both physiological and physical optics.
By the 1870s, when the Impressionists emerged on the artistic scene, these
discoveries had already been made and published in scienti c dissertations.
However, in artistic circles, they became widely known only a few years later.
Colors are born and change through light:
The fact that colors are created through light represents one of the most
fundamental concepts, which we owe to the English scientist and philosopher Sir
Isaac Newton (1643-1727).
Through experiments conducted with a specially cut glass object in the shape of a
wedge, known in optics as a prism, Newton was able to reproduce and explain
the phenomenon of the rainbow. He demonstrated that daylight, or "white" light,
when passed through a prism, is broken down into the chromatic spectrum, which
he de ned as consisting of the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and
violet. Based on these ideas, he was the rst to obtain a circular arrangement of
colors.
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 Long after Newton's death, in 1807, the English oculist and physicist Thomas
Young (1773-1829) discovered that light spreads in waves. He was also the
rst to propose the theory that the human eye’s retina is sensitive only to the
three colors red, green, and violet, and that all other colors are formed by
combinations of these three primary colors of light. This model would later be
made widely known by the German physicist and physiologist Hermann von
Helmholtz (1821-1894) and passed down with the name still recognized today
as the "trichromatic theory."
Although at the time the dynamics of color vision were not yet fully
understood, the concept was already close to what is still valid today. In fact,
light is perceived on the retina as a chromatic stimulus, and only in the brain is
it processed as the perception of color. The retina cells, called cones, are
responsible for color vision.
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Although scienti cally light is de ned as a ray of energy without color, we are
aware of its ability to change and also its in uence on the colors of objects.
The same object, depending on the type of lighting it is exposed to, can
change color. For example, if we illuminate a red object with ltered green
light, it will appear black. Certainly, in a less obvious way, this mechanism
also works the same way with natural sunlight, which, for instance, in the
evening contains a much higher percentage of red than it does at noon. The
fact that objects also change the tone and intensity of their usual color
became a central theme in the paintings of many Impressionists.
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Color Systems
First of all, it is important to mention that there are various color systems
depending on the type of medium used. In this case, we are talking about the
RYB system, related to red, yellow, and blue, typically used by artists working
with colored cosmetics or paints. You may have also heard of the CMY system
– based on Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow, or CMYK, with the addition of black
(key color), which is used in graphic design and printing, or RGB, the system
used in electronics such as television, photography, and computers. The main
di erence between them is: when considering the RYB system, we look at the
physical presence of a color on an object or a living thing, something that
can be touched, such as a face or an apple, for example. This is known as a
subtractive system. The others involve colors created by something that
cannot be touched, such as light, rainbows, re ections, and digital images
on screens. These are known as additive systems. This is why we have a
di erent perception of colors created by light or physical objects, and why
makeup and other physical colors may look di erent on camera or screens than
how we perceive them with our eyes.
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The fact that objects appear colored only in the presence of light is clear to
us from the experience of not perceiving colors in the dark. The reason an
object appears, for example, red in the light is due to the fact that its
surface absorbs all the colors of the spectrum except red. The re ected
rays of the red spectrum are then perceived by the eye in such a way that the
brain interprets them as red.
 Properties of colors:
Brightness >>> value (light/dark = white/black)

Temperature >>> cold/warm

Tonality >>> tone (hue + grey)

Saturation >>> how pure is a color

 Primary colors:

Yellow

Cyan Magenta
 Secondary colors:

Orange

Green

Purple
Primary and Secondary colors are pure colors (hues)
 De nitions
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 Color: the property possessed by an object of producing di erent
sensations on the eye as a result of the way the object re ects or emits light.

Hue: these are the colors on a color wheel. The hues are the primary colors,
- red, yellow and blue - and the secondary colors, - green, purple (called
violet sometime) and orange.

Ex: the hue of these colors is yellow:


Tint (it. tinta): hue + white

Shade (it. sfumatura): hue + black

Tone (it. tono): hue + grey >>> TONALITY

Value (it. valore): the lightness or darkness of a colour, tint, tone or

shade. Shades have dark values. Tints have light values >>>
BRIGHTNESS

Tones, tints, and shades are all still called colors.

Tones, tints, and shades all have di erent values.
 Now think:

Would you de ne lilac a hue?

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 NO.
Most artists would not call lilac a hue because it is not a
pure color. If the color lilac was being discussed, it's hue would be
described as purple (or violet). The color lilac would be called a tint
(if added just with white, like in this case) or a tone (if added with
grey).
 Chromatic Contrasts
When colors are juxtaposed or put next to another, they generate
speci c optic contrasts.
Artists from the XIX century started playing with such.
You could do that too in your compositions.
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 1.
Contrast of Hue
This is the simplest of the di erent types of contrast that painters
often use. You should remember that the term Hue just means a
color which has not been diluted in any way. It is color in its
"purest" form. When we put multiple di erent colors up against
each other we will see a very strong contrast between them.

Look at the painting in the next slide by Ellsworth Kelley

(1923-2015, American) which is a simple illustration of the strength
of contrast of hue. He uses the three primary colors in their purest
form and paints each individually:

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All three of these primary colors are in strict opposition to each other. So
much so that there doesn't seem to be any relation to them at all. Each
color stands alone as if it were its own entity altogether.
Piet Mondrian (1872-1944, Dutch)
 2.
Contrast of Value
(It. Chiaroscuro)
This is another rule of color theory which is fairly easy to grasp but
which is often ignored. When speaking of the contrast of value we
are talking about the lightness vs the darkness of certain colors
(chiaroscuro). The easiest way to illustrate this is to rst deal with
only black and white as it is the easiest way to see a di erence in
value.

In the following slide you can notice how the contrast of value
changes between each square and the background:
 When we paint, this contrast can be very important if we want to create a
balance between the values of all the colors we used.
In order to understand if there is balance we should take a good picture of the
palette we used and turn it into B&W. That is the way to gure out if the lightest
colors, or hues, are in balance between each other. Same with the darkest ones.
Now, are you able to tell which tones in the last column are the lightest?
If we want to balance the values we should darken them a little bit.
 3.
Cold-Warm Contrast
In this type of contrast we are looking at the perceived temperature
of a color:

Red- Hot
Orange- Warm
Yellow- Warm
Green - Cool
Blue - Cold
Violet - Cool
When we look at a landscape we will notice that things in the far distance take on more of a cool bluish
tone (this was rst observed by Leonardo Da Vinci who named this phenomena Atmospheric
Perspective).
In fact, cold colors appear to go backwards, while warm colors appear to come closer to our eyes.
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 4.
Complementary Contrast
 Complimentary colors (colors opposite one another on the color
wheel) when put one next to the other give the strongest
brightness (however when mixed together they cancel each other
out) Cyan and Orange
Yellow and Purple
Magenta and Green

Primary colors:
Cyan
Yellow
Magenta
This small box
belonged to Van
Gogh, who used
a lot the
Complimentary
Contrast in his
paintings.
He made
simulations with
these yarns to
choose the
desired chromatic
combinations to
apply.
 4.
Simultaneous Contrast
Felix Nadar, Eugene Chevreul, 19th century
Simultaneous contrast identi ed by Michel Eugène Chevreul refers
to the manner in which the colors of two di erent objects a ect
each other. The e ect is more noticeable when shared between
objects of complementary color.

The Impressionists used this contrast extensively.

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This contrast is characterized by two phenomena:

A. When we see a primary color next to its complementary color, a

brighter area is created at the point of contact.

B. Primary colors evoke their complementary color, and vice versa

(if you have colored leds, set them on a primary or secondary
color and turn them on; remain with your eyes open for a few
seconds or more; turn the leds to a white light and look at the
room: what color do you see now?)
A)
A)
B)
B)
 5.
Contrast of Saturation
 Contrast of saturation refers to the di erence between a pure
color, and the same but less saturated color, known as the
'tone', which has an equal tonal value to the saturated color, but a
reduced purity. Contrast of saturation is also the di erence
between a pure color, and its darker shades and lighter tints:
For those who would like to explore deeper,
Johannes Itten (1888-1967) , who was an artist and teacher at the Bauhaus School, gave
an important contribution in the theory of colors. The 12-hue color circle that we have
already seen, was conceived by him and in fact we call it today the Itten’s wheel (it. Il cerchio
di Itten)

He also wrote an important book on the subject:

The Art of Color where you can nd some exercises Itten gave to his students. Very
interesting.
Find here the link for free access:
https://archive.org/details/johannes-ittens-the-art-of-color/mode/1up?view=theater

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Ps.: archive.org is an amazing site to sometimes nd rare or
inaccessible books