Color Experiments

The color experiments presented were fascinating and useful in my attempts to use color exactly in the future.

1. The X experiment made me realize that, while in reality it isn't, value can appear to be relative to the colors surrounding it.  A set color value can appear several shades darker or lighter in the right surroundings 

2. With the Depth experiments, it didn't really teach me anything I didn't kinda know in the back of my head.  I had experimented with color depth perception in my paintings and floundering attempts at design earlier. However, this put depth in exact terms in regards to warm and cool colors.

3. This perhaps was the least useful of the studies (sorry Kelly), as I had already STRUGGLED with this in painting. It became a consuming passion to not only consider this, but use it to my advantage. this study was good practice and has (and will considering my obsession with it, I've bookmarked all the studies for further practice reference) refined my eye in terms of color relationships.

Color Harmonies

Warm Color Groups - Consisting of colors in the yellow-green to red-violet range, warm colors produce vibrant emotional and energetic color relationships, and tend to project as a "foreground" color scheme

Cool Color Groups - These do the exact opposite of Warm colors and reside on the opposite side of color wheels....Violet to Green.  They recede on a composition making "background" colors.

Tones, Tints, and Shades - I included these in the same category, because they pretty much follow the same principles by using value to create color relationships.  The main difference is what is mixed into the colors: tones use grey, tints use white, and shades use black. As I found out in the color exercises mentioned above, the presence of other colors alters the perception of this relationship considerably.

Complementary Colors - Think Christmas! Complimentary colors are exact opposites on the color wheel, and share unique properties because of this.  They are the furthest away from each other and the lack of similarity makes it impossible to focus on both colors at the same time. Instead, the eye moves back and forth between the colors, making them more intense and interesting.  Unfortunately, this also creates an headache if used too liberally.  If used on an accent only basis, this is a very useful attention grabber.

Analogous Colors - This group brings a sense of togetherness, by using an even more exclusive grouping of colors then warm or cool.  It could be a group of greens, blues, purples, etc. but it stays in that grouping.  Its essentially the same color with only subtle variation.

Triadic Colors - This group follows an exact triangle on the color wheel (EXACT being a key word).  The result is a very intense group that doesn't quite create the same eyestrain that complementary do. That being said, its still jarring if not done correctly, It is best to use it with a dominant/accent relationship.


Split Complementary - By splitting up one half of a complementary relationship and preserving the others purity, it creates a middle ground between the jarring complimentary relationship and triadic disparity.  It difficult to mess up.

Tetradic Colors - A rectangle on the color wheel (tetra = 4, also a way to distinguish that it isn't NECESSARILY a square ) .  Very rich, but at least in my opinion, resembles the type of color scheme on toys. It is very playful...with work it can be tweaked many different ways.

Square Colors: Very similar to tetradic, except that it is vital for the colors to be a perfect square on the wheel.  The very same type of considerations must be taken as tetradic for tweaking of the colors