Formed by the juxtaposition of light and dark values.
On Itten's colour wheel we can see that yellow is the lightest and blue is the darkest, this is because blue is far away from yellow on the colour wheel and, red is the mid tone due to it being directly between both of these colours on the colour wheel.
This is shown below where I have placed a yellow, red and blue object on a white piece of paper.
However I wanted to experiment with tone using solely yellow. i will convert many of the images to greyscale as I feel this is a more accurate way to asses tone. Here I have placed 5 different yellow objects with different tones onto the yellow paper. Although all the items are yellow, there is still a difference between lighter and darker objects.
The box is the most readable against the yellow background because it has the darkest tone of all the objects.
The lid and perfume are the least distinguishable because their tone is closer to the tone of the paper on the colour wheel than the box.
Furthered, the lid has the closest tone to the paper, when it is put into greyscale the lid appears to start blending into the paper.
When the red cloth is placed onto the yellow paper next to the lid, it further pushes the lid to blend into the paper due to its much darker tone.
The blue purse gives evidence to the concept that darker colours are most readable on light backgrounds. This is due to the yellow and blue being far away from each other on the colour wheel.
This can be perceived below. I have written in both yellow pen and blue pen on a yellow piece of paper. The yellow is somewhat unreadable as the tone of the pen is similar to the tone of the paper. The blue pen stands out and is very readable due to the darker tone which it possesses.
Here is a piece of packaging that combines a light, mid and dark tone to ensure maximum clarity and readability.
Placing yellow and blue paper against different colour walls.
I took a piece of yellow and a piece of yellow and a piece of blue paper due to them being opposite in tone and weight. I put these pieces of paper against different colour surfaces in my house and recorded the effects I thought were most obvious on the paper and the wall.
I started in the kitchen where my walls are a muted yellow, yellow/magnolia mix.
I found that in person the walls appeared to be quite vibrant.
However when I placed both the yellow and blue piece of paper against the wall, they both made it look much duller.
This is because the pieces of paper are highly saturated and the wall has very little saturation. Therefore the colour of the wall pushes both pieces of paper to become more saturated and the paper makes the wall appear desaturated. The yellow paper makes the wall seem most desaturated because the paper is most highly saturated.
Although the camera does not pic it up the blue paper does desaturate the wall.
Another thing that I noticed was the appearance of simultaneous contrasts. The yellow paper against the wall makes the surrounding area appear more grey. This is due to the concept that colours want their complementaries to surround them. Yellow's complementary is violet hence why the muted yellow wall appears more grey.
Whereas the blue paper encourages the wall to appear more orange as, this is blue's complementary.
I then moved into a room where the walls were blue.
Putting the two pieces of paper against a blue wall the results which I found to the ones I got above.
Previously when I had placed the yellow piece of paper against the yellow wall, the wall became instantly desaturated, however when the yellow paper is placed against a blue wall, the blue wall seemed to desaturate what was once a bright yellow piece of paper.
I also noticed that when the yellow paper is placed against the wall, the blue is accentuated almost pushing it to the violet side of the blue spectrum. However when the blue paper is placed against the blue wall, the wall colour instantly becomes more green, and the paper is pushed to the more violet end of the blue spectrum.
Contrast of hue.
Here I have placed 6 different objects of the colours yellow, orange, green, red, blue and violet against a yellow piece of paper. According to the conventions of itten's colour wheel and the colour system, the products that stand out the most should be the furthest away on the colour wheel in terms of hue. I will carry out this experiment in colour and then greyscale to see if the same results still apply.
True to conventions of the colour system the yellow object is the least readable due to the hue of the card and the paper belonging to the same colour on the colour wheel and having similar chromatic value.
This was followed by orange as orange is next to yellow on the colour wheel therefore having a closer chromatic relationship to yellow than any other colour on the colour wheel.
Next should be green as green is the next furthest away from yellow on the colour wheel.
According to Itten's colour wheel red is the next most readable when placed against yellow, however the green did seem to stand out more than the red, even though red is further away on the colour wheel.
Although some may assume that blue would be the colour that would stand out the most due to the rules of contrast of tone and extension where blue is the darkest/ heaviest colour and yellow the lightest. However violet is yellows complementary on Itten's colour wheel and so when these colours are placed together they accentuate one another and appear stronger.
I have put all the images I have taken into grayscale to test which do stand out the most as I was unsure about such as which was more distinguishable between green and red, green and blue, blue and purple.
The green object can be seen on the left and the red on the right, although Itten's colour wheel states that the red object should stand out the most, in this experiment the green object was the stronger of the two. This is not due to the hue of the objects, but the tone and weight of the colours. the green object has a darker tonal value to the red object and so it stand out more.
This image supports the results in which we should find according to Itten's colour wheel, the green is infact less distinguishable against the paper than the blue item. We can assume that this is a fair result as being the same products, they have probably been made with proportionate weight and tone. weight and tone do not skew the results in this experiment.
Again this result dismisses what should be shown in terms of hue according to the colour wheel. the colour wheel states that as violet is yellows complementary this colour should be the strongest when placed against yellow, however in this experiment the blue item is most distinguishable.
In order for this experiment to work more successfully, It would be best to use objects that are equal in the remaining 6 contrasts in order to gage a fair reading of hue.
Contrast of saturation.
Formed by the juxtaposition of light and dark values and their relative saturations.
When we see a colour, for example blue, we are convinced it is the bluest thing that we can see.
The original colour we have seen which we are convinced is the truest form of the colour, however this can change when more saturated objects of the colour are placed alongside the original colour can become more saturated or desaturated.
Fred showed us an experiment of this in a studio session, through layering shades of blue.
We are convinced when we look at this image that it is the bluest thing we can see, however when another blue is placed on top this does change.
When this new layer is added, the previous becomes desaturated, and the new blue, is now the bluest thing we can see.
This is then repeated as another more saturated blue is layered above, making the two previous blues seem less saturated.
I have conducted the same kind of experiment comparing different oranges and reds.
When I place this orange magnet against this neutral grey paper it appears to be the most orange thing we can see.
However when I place this orange lid next to the magnet, the lid appears more saturated, and the previous magnet which was previously the most orange thing we could see has now been desaturated.
When placing the orange lid against the magnet the lid appears more saturated, and the previous magnet which was the most orange thing we could see has now been desaturated.
This can be furthered by adding another object, this bottle is a very highly saturated orange.
Because this bottle is so highly saturated, it makes the lid appear much less saturated than before. Placing the bottle next to these other objects also makes the bottle appear more saturated then when it is placed by itself.
This happens with all colours on the colour wheel.
For example, this red wristband appears to be the reddest thing that we can see when placed by itself on grey paper.
However when placing a red pipe cleaner next to the wristband. The wristband is desaturated and appears less red. and the pipe cleaner appears more saturated.
Again placing the pipe cleaner against the less saturated wristband makes the pipe cleaner seem more saturated, then when it is placed alone.
Contrast of temperature
Formed by juxtaposing hues that can be considered warm or cool, also known as the contrast of warm or cool.
Blue and orange are the coolest and warmest colours and are directly opposite each other in the colour wheel.
I have placed a red, orange, pink, purple and blue object on a neutral (grey) piece of paper.
The pink object is the mid temperature colour in this experiment.
However the pink object can be made to appear warmer when it is placed alongside a cooler colour such as purple.
Being the mid temperature the pink object can also be made to appear cooler, this happens when it is placed alongside a colour with a warmer temperature such as red.
However although red is the warmest colour we have seen in this experiment, it is not the warmest of the colours seen on the colour wheel. A red object although when placed next to a cool object such as purple appears warm, It also can be made to appear cooler when placed next to a warmer colour.
This is made possible when placed next to the warmest colour on the colour wheel, which is orange.
Although a purple object appears cool when placed next to a warmer colour such as pink, it is not the coolest colour on the colour wheel.
Purple appears warmer when placed next to a cooler colour such as blue, blue is the coolest colour on the colour wheel.
This experiment shows that although, when placed by itself a colour may appear cool or warm, the temperature of a colour is interchangeable depending on the temperature of the colour it is surrounded by or placed next to.
Contrast of extension
Formed by assigning proportional field sizes in relation to the visual weight of colour.
When colours stand out from one another they are out of balance, thus creating a hierarchy of visual weights.
I have used the 3 sets of complementary colours in order to experiment with the weights and field sizes of colour.
Pair one - Yellow and Violet.
When considering yellow and violet, when the violet section is the smaller of the two, the violet tried to jump out from the yellow. However, when the violet is in one place as a block colour it is easier to look at.
When the violet is spilt into smaller sections it then becomes harder to look at as the yellow is trying to jump out between each block.
The more equal the amounts of each colour the easier I find each to look at.
I found the results of this experiment are not very clear, as the colours of the paper are not highly saturated. The results of the experiment would be clearer using more saturated colours.
Pair two - Blue and Orange.
I have found that the pieces of paper in these two colours are more saturated and so the results should be more obvious.
When either of the colours have a smaller proportional field size against the other, it stands out as shown below.
When these colours are broken down into sections, the background colour jumps out in between the gaps, this is much stronger using blue and orange as the paper is more highly saturated.
Again when the colours are at equal proportioned sizes, they are easy to look at and therefore balanced.
Pair three - Red and Green.
These two colours were the most saturated colours I had and so the results were the strongest.
Each colour stood out very much from each other in small blocks.
The strongest result I saw was when I separated these two colours into smaller sections and laid them against each other. Each of the colours tried to jump out from one another as shown with the above two pairs, but this colour combination was more unbearable to look at.
From this experiment I found that the more balanced the field sizes of colours are, the less they will stand out from one another and vice versa. I also found out that the results of the experiment depend on such other elements such as saturation. When the colour is more highly saturated the results are stronger, and when less saturated the results are not as obvious.
If a colour can be labelled with one name, for example red, what makes one different from another?
For this experiment I am using the colour violet as an example to determine what makes one shade of violet different from another, here I will be exploring the effects of many of the contrasts.
Below are the 5 shades of violet I am working with.
What are the differences between the first two for example?
Although the two colours shown above are vaguely named as the same colour (violet), they may share the same name, however they also show many differences from one another.
For example, there is a large contrast in tone, tone is formed by the juxtaposition of light and dark values, the violet shown on the left has a much lighter tone than the purple on the right. This is also reflective in the weight of both colours, the left has a lighter weight whilst the right, a heavier one. Both shades however do seemingly have the same level of saturation, and therefore can be classed as cool colours.
Again the colour on the left shows darker tone and weight, however it has now been forced to appear much cooler than previously. There is a larger distance in hue between this two colours and so they appear less similar to each other than the previous pair. The right hand colour displays a much warmer temperature having more red implemented that the left which has much more blue.
When the colour is placed by itself against or surrounded by a neautral colour, it appears to be the most purple thing we can see. However the reds in the colour below, push the purple to appear blue when placed next to each other.
The below two colours are very similar in terms of tone and weight, so what factors make them different?
The saturation levels are different between these two colours, the right hand colour being more saturated than the left. The right hand colour also has a much warmer temperature than the colour on the left. This can be verified by looking at the percentages of cyan and magenta in each of the colours.
The right hand colour has a much higher percentage of magenta (a warm tone) compared to cyan with a ratio of 2 parts magenta 1 part cyan.
Although this colour still has a higher percentage of magenta, there is only a difference of 6% between both colours. The amount of magenta has decreased, which has now been taken over by cyan. Hence why this colour appears cooler.
The colour guide also explains why one of the colours I selected also appears blue...
It clearly shows on the image that the levels of cyan in this swatch are higher than previous swatches, the absence of a higher value of magenta pushes the colour to appear much cooler.
How is a colour of 5 different shades affected by one shade of another colour?
I am going to do this experiment using 5 different shades of yellow and one shade of blue.
I will evaluate how each shade of yellow reacts to the blue.
Here are the 5 shades of yellow against a neutral white background.
And here they are placed against the blue.
The blue has different effects on all of the colours.
The colour below has been further desaturated due to the high saturation levels of the blue, In the same way that the yellow has made the blue seem highly saturated, due to being duller.
The combination of these two colours also shows good balance in accordance to Contrast of extension as neither colours are trying to jump out from one another.
The application of the blue has also altered the hue and temperature of one colour.
One of the yellows when placed against the white neutral background appeared to have quite a high percentage of green, however once placed against the blue, the hue of the yellow seem to shift to a more spectral yellow, this must be due to the ratio of green in the blue, which is much higher than that of the yellow.
The blue has also changed the temperature of the yellow, the yellow below, previously, does appear to have very strong golden tones.
However when placed against the blue, these warm tones are accentuated and the yellow appears to take on an orange tinge.
I have also noticed an evidence of complementary contrast, when the yellow is placed against the blue, the blue begins to take on a more violet appearance due to the yellow wanting its complementary colour to surround it.
The tone of the complementary colour that appears to surround the yellow, depends on the tone of the yellow. For example the yellow above has a light tone, therefore the violet that begins to surround it has a lighter tone too.
The same happens with the golden yellow, due to this having a darker tone, the violet that starts to surround it has a darker tone too.
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