Since ancient times, color theorists have developed their ideas and understanding of the interaction of colors. The first attempts to systematize views were made during the lifetime of Aristotle (384-322 BC), but the most serious research in color theory began under Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Leonardo noticed that certain colors enhance each other and discovered contrasting (opposite) and complementary colors.

First color wheel was invented by Isaac Newton (1642-1727). He divided a ray of white light into rays of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, and then connected the ends of the spectrum into a color wheel. He noticed that when two colors from opposite positions are mixed, a neutral color is produced.

Thomas Young (1773-1829) proved that a white light beam actually splits into only three spectral colors: red, green and blue. These three colors are the original ones. Based on his work, German physiologist Hermann Helmholtz (1821-1894) showed that the human eye perceives color as a combination of red, green and blue light waves. This theory proved that our brain "breaks down" the color of each object into different percentages of red, green and blue, and it is because of this that we perceive different colors differently.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) divided colors into two groups. He included warm colors (red-orange-yellow) in the positive group, and cool colors (green-blue-violet) in the negative group. He found that positive group colors made viewers feel uplifted, while negative group colors were associated with a feeling of unsettledness.

Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932), a Russian-German chemist, in his book “The ABC of Color” (1916) developed a color system depending on psychological harmony and order.

Itten Johanns (1888-1967), a color theorist from Switzerland, developed color schemes and modified the color wheel, which was based on three primary colors - red, yellow and blue, and included twelve shades. In his experiments, he explored the relationship between color and visual effects.

In 1936, American artist Albert Munsell (1858-1918) created a new universal color model. It is called the Munsell Tree, where the shades are arranged along branches of varying lengths in order of their saturation. Munsell's work was adopted by American industry as the standard for naming colors.

Color harmony

A successful combination of colors can be referred to as “color harmony.” Whether they consist of similar colors that give a softer impression to the eye, or contrasting colors that attract attention, harmonious color combinations are a matter of personal taste. The practice of art and design puts forward color theories, principles for using color, which allow you to make decisions regarding the choice of a particular color.

Color evokes an emotional and physical response, however the nature of the response can be changed by placing the original color in combination with one or more colors. Color combinations can be varied to create combinations that are related or contrasting, thereby influencing the viewer's experience.

Basic Concepts

Complementary colors (optional)

Colors are located opposite each other on the color wheel. They provide the most contrasting combination. Using two opposing colors will create visual vibration and excite the eye.

Similar colors + complementary (contrasting)

One color is accompanied by two colors located in the immediate vicinity of the color opposite the main one. Softening the contrast results in an intricate color combination.

Twin complimentary colors

They are a combination of two pairs of complementary colors. Since the colors involved in this combination enhance the apparent intensity of each of them, some pairs may be unpleasant to the eye. When using 4 colors, avoid color spots of the same area.

Similar colors

These are combinations of two or more colors that are in close proximity on the color wheel. They have similar wavelengths, making them easy to perceive.

Process colors

It is a combination of any three colors evenly spaced on the color wheel. Triads of primary colors are perceived more sharply, while secondary and tertiary triads provide a softer contrast.

Monochromatic colors

These are color schemes made up of shades of the same color. Use one color, explore variations in saturation and opacity.

Color brightness is a characteristic of perception. It is determined by our speed of identifying one tone against the background of others.

This is a relative characteristic and can only be known through comparison. Complex shades, mixed with gray or brown, create the necessary contrast for our eye to highlight the most suitable tones for this definition.

Bright tones are shades close to the pure spectrum. If the surface of the material reflects one or another wave (c) with the least distortion, then we consider that this tone is bright.

The admixture of white or black slightly affects the brightness of the color. So burgundy can be quite bright, like light yellow. Yellow-green is also a striking tone, as an intermediate wavelength between green and yellow.

Each spectrum has its own lightness: bright yellow is the lightest; the darkest are blue and purple.
The intermediate ones are: blue, green, pink, red.

This statement is true if we consider a line of shades of the same color.

If you select the brightest shade among other tones, then the brightest will be the color that differs as much as possible in lightness from the rest.

Bright shades set a contrast with duller, darker or lighter shades, due to which we consider the combination to be rich and expressive.

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So, briefly for reference: initially light, as electromagnetic radiation with a certain wavelength, is white. But when passing it through a prism, it decomposes into the following components: visible colors (visible spectrum): To red, O range, and yellow, h green, G blue, With blue, f purple ( To every O hunter and wants h nat G de With goes f adhan).

Why did I highlight " visible"? The structural features of the human eye allow us to distinguish only these colors, leaving ultraviolet and infrared radiation. The ability of the human eye to perceive color directly depends on the ability of the matter of the world around us to absorb some light waves and reflect others. Why is a red apple red? Because the surface of an apple, having a certain bio-chemical composition, absorbs all waves of the visible spectrum, with the exception of red, which is reflected from the surface and, entering our eye in the form of electromagnetic radiation of a certain frequency, is perceived by receptors and recognized by the brain as red. WITH green apple or an orange orange, the situation is similar, as with all the matter that surrounds us.

The human eye's receptors are most sensitive to blue, green and red colors in the visible spectrum. Today there are about 150,000 color tones and shades. At the same time, a person can distinguish about 100 shades of color, about 500 shades of gray. Naturally, artists, designers, etc. have a wider range of color perception. All colors located in the visible spectrum are called chromatic.

visible spectrum of chromatic colors

Along with this, it is also obvious that in addition to “colored” colors, we also recognize “non-colored”, “black and white” colors. So, shades of gray in the range “white - black” are called achromatic (colorless) due to the absence of a specific color tone (shade of the visible spectrum) in them. The brightest achromatic color is white, the darkest is black.

achromatic colors

Further, for a correct understanding of the terminology and competent use of theoretical knowledge in practice, it is necessary to find the differences in the concepts of “tone” and “shade”. So, color tone- a characteristic of color that determines its position in the spectrum. Blue is a tone, red is also a tone. A shade- this is a variety of one color, differing from it both in brightness, lightness and saturation, and in the presence of an additional color that appears against the background of the main one. Light blue and dark blue are shades of blue in terms of saturation, and bluish-green (turquoise) are based on the presence of additional green color in blue.

What's happened color brightness? This is a color characteristic that directly depends on the degree of illumination of an object and characterizes the density of the light flux directed towards the observer. To put it simply, if, all other things being equal, the same object is successively illuminated by light sources of different powers, in proportion to the incoming light, the light reflected from the object will also be of different powers. As a result, the same red apple will look bright red in bright light, but in the absence of light we will not see it at all. The peculiarity of color brightness is that when it decreases, any color tends to black.

And one more thing: under the same lighting conditions, the same color can differ in brightness due to its ability to reflect (or absorb) incoming light. Gloss black will be brighter than matte black precisely because gloss reflects more incoming light, while matte absorbs more.

Lightness, lightness... As a characteristic of color, it exists. How precise definition- most likely not. Following some sources, lightness- the degree of proximity of the color to white. According to other sources - the subjective brightness of an image area, related to the subjective brightness of the surface perceived by a person as white. Still other sources classify the concepts of brightness and lightness of color as synonyms, which is not without logic: if when the brightness decreases, the color tends to black (becomes darker), then when the brightness increases, the color will tend to white (becomes lighter).

In practice this is what happens. During photo or video shooting, underexposed (not enough light) objects in the frame become a black spot, and overexposed (excess light) objects become white.

A similar situation concerns the terms “saturation” and “intensity” of color, when some sources say that “color saturation is intensity .... etc., etc.” In fact it's absolutely different characteristics. Saturation- “depth” of color, expressed in the degree of difference between a chromatic color and a gray color of the same lightness. As saturation decreases, each chromatic color moves closer to gray.

Intensity- the predominance of a particular tone compared to others (in a landscape autumn forest orange tone will be predominant).

This “substitution” of concepts most likely occurs for one reason: the line between brightness and lightness, saturation and intensity of color is as thin as the concept of color itself is subjective.

From the definitions of the main characteristics of color, the following pattern can be identified: color rendering (and, accordingly, color perception) of chromatic colors is greatly influenced by achromatic colors. They not only help to form shades, but also make the color light or dark, rich or faded.

How can this knowledge help a photographer or videographer? Well, firstly, no camera or video camera is capable of conveying color the way a person perceives it. And in order to achieve harmony in the image or bring the image closer to reality during post-processing of photo or video material, you need to skillfully manipulate brightness, lightness and color saturation so that the result satisfies either you, as an artist, or those around you, as viewers. It’s not for nothing that the profession of colorist exists in film production (in photography, this function is usually performed by the photographer himself). A person who has knowledge about color, through color correction, brings the filmed and mounted material to a state where color scheme The film simply makes the viewer amazed and delighted at the same time. Secondly, in coloristics, all these color features are intertwined quite subtly and in different sequences, allowing not only to expand the possibilities of color rendering, but also to achieve some individual results. If you use these tools illiterately, it will be difficult to find fans of your creativity.

And on this positive note, we finally come to colorism.

Coloristics, as the science of color, in its laws is based precisely on the spectrum visible radiation, which through the works of researchers of the 17th-20th centuries. from a linear representation (illustration above) was transformed into a chromatic circle shape.

What does the chromatic circle allow us to understand?

1. There are only 3 primary (basic, primary, pure) colors:

Red

Yellow

Blue

2. There are also 3 composite colors of the second order (secondary):

Green

Orange

Violet

Not only are they located opposite the primary colors on the chromatic circle, but they are also created by mixing the primary colors with each other (green = blue + yellow, orange = yellow + red, purple = red + blue).

3. Composite colors of the third order (tertiary) 6:

Yellow-orange

Red-orange

Red-violet

Blue-violet

Blue-green

Yellow-green

Composite colors of the third order are obtained by mixing primary colors with composite colors of the second order.

It is the location of the color in the twelve-part color wheel that allows you to understand which colors and how they can be combined with each other.

CONTINUATION -

Color tone

What is denoted by the word “color” in the professional vocabulary of artists is defined in scientific color science by the term “color tone.”

Color tone is the quality of chromatic color, when determining which color is called red, yellow, blue, green; the characteristic of a color being different from other colors in the spectrum. In our minds, color tone is associated with the color of familiar objects. Many color names come from objects with characteristic color: sand, emerald, chocolate, cherry, which indicates the inextricable connection of color with the objective world. The terms “lightness” and “color tone” are closely related in content to the concepts of “light” and “color”. In nature, color tone and lightness appear inseparably. And their separation is one of the conventions fine arts, depending on the artist’s creative attitude, the type of his vision, the material and technique he uses. However, an absolute distinction cannot be made theoretically between the concepts of “lightness” and “color tone”. If, for example, we take blue paint, diluted to varying degrees with white, then we have lightness gradations or changes in its lightness. The same will happen with any other paint, but if we take one of the light gradations of blue and one of the light gradations of red. Then we will have to have pink and blue paints. “Painting is the transmission of tone (i.e., aperture of color), plus color, of visible material,” said N. P. Krymov. This once again indicates that every colorful spot contains a color characterized by three interconnected indicators - “lightness”, “hue”, “saturation”. And when a paint changes in lightness, some paints have less, while others have a greater change in color tone.

Saturation

Saturation - color strength - the degree of difference between a chromatic color and a gray color of equal lightness; degree of approximation to pure spectral color or percentage colors in a given shade. The closer a color approaches the spectral color, the stronger its difference from gray, the more saturated it is. Pink, light yellow, light blue or dark brown are low saturated colors. In practice, low-saturated colors are obtained by adding white or black paint to the chromatic color. An admixture of white makes the color lighter, and black paint makes it darker. Darkening or lightening a color always reduces its saturation. Saturation also depends on the color tone. Yellow is always more saturated than red, red is always more saturated than blue.

In color science, it is often not the saturation that is perceived visually that is measured, but the so-called purity, or colorimetric color saturation, which is determined by the ratio of the brightness of the spectral component to the overall brightness of the color. Color purity is a relative value and is usually expressed as a percentage. The purity of spectral colors is taken as one, or 100 percent, and the purity of achromatic colors is zero. Knowing hue, lightness, and color saturation, you can quantitatively measure any color. The slightest change in one of the three values ​​that determine color entails a change in color. The method of determining color using the three listed characteristics, convenient because color can be determined quantitatively, is successfully used in various fields of science and technology, including printing, textile production, color television, etc., where special instruments are used to measure color - spectrophotometers and colorimeters various systems. All methods for determining color in colorimetry are based on comparing colors that lie in the same plane and are under the same lighting conditions. In painting, when working from life, the artist must analyze and compare the colors inherent in volumetric objects or objects that are complex in shape, which, as a rule, are surrounded by a color environment or objects of a different color and which are located on several, sometimes quite distant from each other, plans and , therefore, in different lighting conditions.

Color wheel

The colors of the spectrum - red, yellow, blue - are called primary colors. They cannot be obtained by mixing other colors. If you mix the two extreme colors of the spectrum - red and violet, you get a new intermediate color - purple. As a result, we have eight colors considered the most important in practice: yellow, orange, red, purple, violet, blue, cyan and green. By closing this strip into a ring, you can get a color wheel with the same sequence of colors as in the spectrum. If you mix adjacent colors in different proportions in a color wheel of eight colors, you can get many intermediate shades. By mixing orange with yellow, we get orange-yellow and yellow-orange, etc. Color wheels can vary in the number of colors they contain, but not more than 150, because more eyes cannot distinguish.

The color wheel can be divided into two parts so that one part includes red, orange, yellow and yellow-green colors, and the other includes blue-green, light blue, indigo, and violet. The first of them are called warm colors, the second - cold. The classification of colors as warm or cool is based on the fact that red, orange and yellow colors resemble the color of fire, sunlight, hot objects; blue, blue, purple colors reminiscent of the color of water, airy distance, ice. Pure green is considered a neutral color. It can be warm if yellowish tints are noticeable in it, and cold if bluish and bluish tints predominate in it.

Each color has three basic properties: hue, saturation and lightness.

In addition, it is important to know about such color characteristics as lightness and color contrasts, get acquainted with the concept of local color of objects and experience some spatial properties of color.

Color tone

In our minds, color tone is associated with the color of familiar objects. Many color names come directly from objects with a characteristic color: sand, sea ​​wave, emerald, chocolate, coral, raspberry, cherry, cream, etc.

It is easy to guess that the color tone is determined by the name of the color (yellow, red, blue, etc.) and depends on its place in the spectrum.

It is interesting to know that a trained eye, in bright daylight, can distinguish up to 180 color tones and up to 10 levels of saturation. In general, a developed human eye can distinguish about 360 shades of color.

67. Children's holiday colors

Color saturation

Color saturation is the difference between a chromatic color and a gray color of equal lightness (ill. 66).

If you add gray paint to any color, the color will fade and its saturation will change.

68. D. MORANDI. Still life. Muted example color range

69. Changing color saturation

70. Changing the saturation of warm and cool colors

Lightness

The third sign of color is lightness. Any colors and shades, regardless of color tone, can be compared by lightness, that is, it can be determined which one is darker and which one is lighter. You can change the lightness of the color by adding white or water, then red will become pink, blue - cyan, green - light green, etc.

71. Changing the lightness of color using white

Lightness is a quality inherent in both chromatic and achromatic colors. Lightness should not be confused with whiteness (as the quality of the color of an object).

It is customary for artists to call lightness relationships tonal, so one should not confuse lightness and color tone, light and shadow and color structure of a work. When they say that a picture is painted in light colors, they primarily mean light relations, and in color it can be gray-white, pinkish-yellow, light lilac, in a word, very different.

Differences of this type are called valers by painters.

You can compare any colors and shades by lightness: pale green with dark green, pink with blue, red with purple, etc.

It is interesting to note that red, pink, green, brown and other colors can be both light and dark colors.

72. Difference in colors by lightness

Thanks to the fact that we remember the colors of the objects around us, we imagine their lightness. For example, a yellow lemon is lighter than a blue tablecloth, and we remember that yellow lighter blue.

Achromatic colors, that is, gray, white and black, are characterized only by lightness. Differences in lightness consist in the fact that some colors are darker and others are lighter.

Any chromatic color can be compared in lightness with an achromatic color.

Consider the color wheel (Fig. 66), consisting of 24 colors.

You can compare colors: red and gray, pink and light gray, dark green and dark gray, purple and black, etc. Achromatic colors are matched in lightness to be equal to chromatic ones.

Light and color contrasts

The color of an object constantly changes depending on the conditions in which it is located. Huge role Lighting plays a role in this. Look how the same object changes beyond recognition (ill. 71). If the light on an object is cold, its shadow appears warm and vice versa.

The contrast of light and color is most clearly and clearly perceived at the “turn” of the form, that is, at the place where the shape of objects turns, as well as at the boundaries of contact with the contrasting background.

73. Light and color contrasts in still lifes

Light contrast

Artists use contrast in lightness, emphasizing the different tones of objects in the image. By placing light objects next to dark ones, they enhance the contrast and sonority of colors and achieve expressiveness of form.

Compare identical gray squares located on a black and white background. They will seem different to you.

On black, gray appears lighter, and on white, it appears darker. This phenomenon is called lightness contrast or lightness contrast (Fig. 74).

74. Example of contrast in lightness

Color contrast

We perceive the color of objects depending on the surrounding background. White tablecloth It will appear blue if you put orange oranges on it, and pink if there are green apples on it. This happens because the background color takes on a shade of complementary color to the color of the objects. A gray background next to a red object appears cold, and next to a blue and green object it appears warm.

75. Example of color contrast

Examine the silt. 75: all three gray squares are the same, on a blue background gray acquires an orange tint, on yellow - violet, on green - pink, that is, it acquires a shade of additional color to the background color. Against a light background, the color of an object appears darker; against a dark background, it appears lighter.

The phenomenon of color contrast is that a color changes under the influence of other colors surrounding it, or under the influence of colors that were previously observed.

76. Example of color contrast

Complementary colors next to each other become brighter and more saturated. The same thing happens with primary colors. For example, a red tomato will look even redder next to parsley, and a purple eggplant next to a yellow turnip.

The contrast of blue and red is a prototype of the contrast of cold and warm. It underlies the coloring of many works of European painting and creates dramatic tension in the paintings of Titian, Poussin, Rubens, A. Ivanov.

Contrast as the juxtaposition of colors in a painting is the main method of artistic thinking in general, says N. Volkov, a famous Russian artist and scientist*.

In the reality around us, the effects of one color on another are more complex than in the examples discussed, but knowledge of the main contrasts - in lightness and color - helps the painter to better see these relationships of colors in reality and use the acquired knowledge in practical work. The use of lightness and color contrasts increases the possibilities visual arts.

77. Umbrellas. Usage example color nuances

78. Balloons. Example of using color contrasts

Special significance to achieve expressiveness in decorative work acquire tonal and color contrasts.

Color contrast in nature and works of decorative art:

A. M. ZVIRBULE. Tapestry “Together with the Wind”

b. Peacock feather. Photo

V. Autumn leaves. Photo

g. Field of poppies. Photo

d. ALMA THOMAS. Blue light of infancy

Local color

Look at the objects in your room, look out the window. Everything you see has not only a shape, but also a color. You can easily identify it: the apple is yellow, the cup is red, the tablecloth is blue, the walls are blue, etc.

The local color of an object is those pure, unmixed, unrefracted tones that, in our minds, are associated with certain objects, as their objective, unchanging properties.

Local color is the primary color of an object without taking into account external influences.

The local color of an object can be monochromatic (Fig. 80), but it can also consist of different shades(ill. 81).

You will see that the main color of roses is white or red, but in each flower you can count several shades of local color.

80. Still life. Photo

81. VAN BEYEREN. Vase with flowers

When drawing from life, you need to transfer from memory characteristic features local color of objects, its changes in light, partial shade and shade.

Under the influence of light, air, combination with other colors, the same local color acquires a completely different tone in the shadow and in the light.

In sunlight, the color of the objects themselves is best seen in places where partial shade is located. The local color of objects is less visible where there is a complete shadow on it. It lightens and discolors in bright light.

Artists, showing us the beauty of objects, accurately determine changes in local color in light and shadow.

Once you have mastered the theory and practice of using primary, secondary and complementary colors, you will be able to easily convey the local color of an object, its shades in light and shadow. The shadow cast by or on the object itself will always contain a color that is complementary to the color of the object itself. For example, in the shadow of a red apple there will definitely be a green color as a complement to the red. In addition, each shadow contains a tone slightly darker than the color of the object itself, and blue tone.

82. Scheme for obtaining shadow color

We should not forget that the local color of an object is influenced by its environment. When there is a green drapery next to a yellow apple, a color reflex appears on it, that is, the apple’s own shadow necessarily acquires a shade of green.

83. Still life with a yellow apple and green drapery