Colour Studies (OUGD404)

OUGD404

STUDIES OF COLOUR

10 INVESTIGATIONS.

1. CONTRAST OF TEMPERATURE - 1ST.

Formed by juxtaposition that can be considered through whether a colour is warm or cool. (warm = red/orange - cool = blue) When block of colour similar to each other are placed next to each other in an order, but are separated the colours appear as a block. When they are placed directly next to each other they appear to have their own gradient. 

 The red back ground is very warm colour when considered through temperature. when the Light blue pen is placed on this background, the red appears to become bolder and warmer in temperature. The pen appears to become cooler and also it seem that the green in the blue starts to become more present.

When this slightly darker and a lot bolder blue is placed on the red background, due to the brightness of the blue, both colours seemed to fight against each other. I feel that between the light blue of the pen and the bolder blue of the book, the red appears warmer when paired with the pen. I think this is because the pen is slightly paler and more saturated, this causes the red behind it to radiate more in temperature. Therefore there is a slightly higher contrast with the pen.

 I placed the lid of an orange high-lighter on the red background. This causes both the object and background to glow at a higher temperature. I think this is because they are next to each other on the colour wheel and are both known as colours with a high temperature. I also feel that because the pen lid is a very luminous colour, this also contributes to the warmth of temperature. Therefor there is a very low contrast between this object and the background.

 When a light orange pencil is placed on the red background, both colours again give off a high level of warmth like the study above. however because the colour of the pencil is more saturated and not as strong, the contrast between the colours seems a bit higher.

 I placed a pair of yellow handled scissors on the red background the red became warmer in temperature. The yellow scissors also became cooler creating quite a high temperature contrast.

 I used a bold blue background and placed the light orange pencil on it. The orange of the pencil appears a lot warmer as the red in this colour becomes more present. The blue is a very cool colour therefore causing a high contrast.

 The luminous orange pen lid seems to become warmer in temperature also and you can vey much see the red radiating from this colour. This is also a very high contrast in colour.

When the blue pen is placed on this background the pen appears to saturate slightly. the blu background appears to warm slightly and the pen appears the cooler of the two. There is a very low contrast between these very close colours.

I place a red pen on to the blue background which resulted in quite a high contrast in temperatures. This is because the blue causes the red to appear warmer were as the pen has the opposite effect on the background. 

When the yellow scissors are placed on the blue background the yellow becomes warmer as the blue forces out the orange from the scissors. The blue also appears cooler and due to the lightness of the yellow there is a high temperature contrast between this object and the background.

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2. CONTRAST OF TEMPERATURE - 2ND.

I decided to try contrasting temperatures while using desaturated background colours. Here I placed the luminous highlight lid on a light yellow background. i feel that the yellow causes the pen lid to appear warmer and i think that this reaction also causes the background yellow to become warmer to. Because of this I feel that the is a low to medium temperature contrast.

I tried using an object that leaned towards a blue red to see what effect this would have on the yellow background. I found it hard to decide on what reaction was taking place. 

I think that even with a hint of blue in the red, this is still the warmer colour as the yellow is still further away on the colour wheel. i think that the red appears to cool the background yellow giving a medium temperature contrast.

I placed a light blue pen on the yellow background and I could see that this caused the background to warm were as the blue pen appeared to cool. Due to this there is a high level of temperature based contrast.

I used a stronger colour of blue over the yellow background. I feel that this had the same effect as the above study are the object appeared colour and the background appeared warmer.

Placing the yellow scissors on the background showed that the scissors became slightly warmer but i think this is due to the saturated background. Because the colours are so similar there is a low amount on temperature contrast.

I started to experiment with a saturated blue colour. When added the a strong orange colour on this background, the orange looked a lot warmer were as the back ground cooled further. there is a high temperature contrast between this object and the background colour.

When i placed a red pen over the light blue the same effect occurred were the background looked cooler and the pen appeared warmer. This means there is a high contrast of temperatures here.

I then placed a blue pen onto the background material. Even though the pen is a stronger blue, there is very little or no contrast in temperature between these two.

I added an even stronger colour of blue, however the result remained the same. this is because the colours are to similar.

When placing the yellow scissor on the desaturated background the yellow appeared warmer in colour, even looking more orange, were as the background remained cold. Due to this there is a high contrast here.

Placing a vibrant red over the light blue had the same effect as the experiment above. the background appears very cool which, in turn, makes the object look very warm. there is also a very high contrast in temperature here, higher than the previous test.

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3. CONTRAST OF COMPLIMENTARY

Formed by juxtaposition between extremes. Opposites on the colour wheel are the extremes against each other. De-saturating complimentary colours does not affect this extreme contrast but makes it worse. This is because the strength of the colour is lacking and recedes into the background.

BLUE & ORANGE

Because these two colours are opposite on the colour wheel they have a very high complimentary contrast. Because of this very high and vibrant contrast. pairing these colours together tires the eye.

 I also tried this same complimentary contrast on a desaturated blue background. Even though this allows one of the colours (orange) to stand out more, the complimentary contrast between the blue and orange is still very much present.

GREEN & RED

These very vibrant complimentary colours really fight against each other when placed together. you can see this when you look at the borders of each colour. because of the strain this puts on the eye its would be hard to ever use these colours together.

 I also tried pairing the red object with a more desaturated version on the green colour (picture shows it lighter than it actually is) however you can see, even with the even lighter green that has come out on the photograph, these to colours just do not go well together.

I put a very vibrant green cup on a desaturated red background. These to colours had a vey high contact with each other. I think that the saturated red makes the green look even more vibrant and luminous and thats what generates the high contrast.

I also tried placing a dark green pen on a dark red background (colours on the photograph are not very good). I feel this lessened the contrast slightly as there was no vibrancy fighting with each other.


VIOLET & YELLOW

Violet and yellow are complimentary colours and naturally have a high contrast. Because this is already known I tried pairing various saturation of these colours.

When I used a darker purple on a desaturated yellow background  I feel that the contrast lessened slightly

When paired with the desaturated violet colour I feel the contrast becomes higher again as these two colours have been balanced and are similar in saturation.

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4. CONTRAST OF TONE
Formed by the juxtaposition of light and dark values. This could be monochromatic (the rods in your eyes differentiate tone). The extremes are black and white, they have the higher contrast. 

 I started with as strong royal blue colour and a vibrant red. Because these colours are both very strong in tone I feel that the contrast of these tones is quite low. However because the blue is slightly darker this offers a slight contrast between the two.

 I then paired the same blue with quite a vibrant yellow colour (photograph does not give the yellow justice). Even though both colours are strong, the tone of the blue is darker were as the yellow is lighter.  The blue also starts to bring out violet in the yellow therefor there is a high tonal contrast.

Placing a slightly desaturated blue next to the royal blue displayed a low tonal contrast. This is because the tones of each blue are very similar.

 I took the vibrant red and placed it next to a desaturated blue. Because the blue is pale, this means i lacks tonal value. So when paired with a strong red colour this creates a high tonal contrast.

 Pairing the vibrant red with an equally vibrant green makes the contrast quite low. This is because both colours are strong with high tonal qualities.  Red is a mid-tone, this means that the green is slightly lighter. i think these two colour have a medium to low tonal contrast.

 Pairing the vibrant yellow colour with a saturated red/pink. Because of the lightness on the yellow tone, the saturated red is the darker of the two colours. These to colours have a medium tonal contrast when placed together.

I also paired the pale red with a pale green. Because these colours are complimentary and opposite on the colour wheel originally they would have a low tonal contrast. However because of the green is close to yellow on the colour wheel it is low in tone and having this colour saturated only enhances this. I believe that these colours have a medium tonal contrast.

 When the desaturated green in placed next to a vibrant green only creates a low tonal contrast, this is because to ally they are very similar.

 This is also the case when a desaturated green and a vibrant yellow are placed together. Even though one colour is strong and one is pale, because they are close to each other on the colour wheel, they have a low tonal contrast.

Here i paired a desaturated blue and desaturated green together (colours on photograph are a bit off). Because the green is close to yellow, it is tonally quite weak. The blue is the darker of the two colours but only just as it is saturated. due to this there is a medium to high tonal contrast.

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5. CONTRAST OF SATURATION - 1ST
Formed by the juxtaposition of of light and dark values and there relative saturations. a de-saturated is a light/pale colour. when put next to a colour which is more saturated colour is placed next to it this new colour is the strongest. this comparison between these colours helps you perceive the strongest.

First I paired a duller desaturated green with a lighter desaturated green. I feel that the dark colours desaturated the lighter object even more.

I paired a vibrant green with the dull desaturated background. I feel that the strength of the tone in the object desaturated the background more than usual and makes it look nearly grey.

When placing the dull desaturated been on a dark high tonal green, I feel that the darker green get even more saturated looks even darker.

The light green colour here saturates the background more making it look darker like above. However, i think that the darker green also slightly saturates the lighter green as well (Not so present in the photograph).

I used a different de-saturated green for the background that is not a dull as the last. I added a bright green object over this and it caused the background to saturate further. The object also appeared to gain a higher saturation.

 I placed another object over the desaturated background which was more of a yellowy green. When paired with the background this object also appeared more saturated.

 I tried adding an object that what also desaturated like the background. However because the green is stronger than the background it appears more saturated but there is still a very low contrast here.

When placing the light desaturated object over this background the background appears to become more saturated. This is because the object is a lighter green than the one in the background. There is a very low contrast between saturations here.

 I put together both the saturated objects. Because the left item is a yellowy green, it appears lighter when placed next to the rich object. However because they are both highly saturated colours, there is very little contrast between them

When I added the desaturated object over the very saturated object, the top item appeared to become more saturated. Because of this I think there is a low/medium contrast in saturation.

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6. CONTRAST OF SATURATION - 2ND

 I placed a darker yet desaturated blue over a lighter desaturated blue. The darker blue caused a further desaturation on the lighter blue.

 I added a very saturated blue to the above combination. I feel like this addition saturated the darker blue more while the lighter blue remained desaturated.

 I placed a pale yet saturated blue over the desaturated background. I feel that because they are both pale, this causes the object to hold more saturation and in turn desaturates the background.

 I placed a luminous blue over the desaturated background. i feel because this blue is more vibrant it desaturates the background more.

I put the desaturated blue over another desaturated blue, however this colour leaned more toward a greeny blue. I feel that because these blue lean toward opposite colours this contributes to a further desaturation on the top object.

Placing the vibrant blue on light green blue background causes the background to desaturate and the object to saturate.

Placing a strong yet pale blue on the same background I think saturates the background more. i feel that this is because the object also leans to a greeny blue similar to the back ground.

Putting the pale blue object on to a dark more saturated background cases the object to become more desaturated.

 I decided to test these different blue based colours together. placing the paler objects over the desaturated background shows that the bottle has a higher saturation were as the other colour seem further desaturated.

When the same objects are placed on to a dark background, I feel that the strap and the bottle become more saturated like the background, however the paled material desaturates.

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7. CONTRAST OF SIMULTANEOUS.
Formed when boundaries between colours perpetually vibrate. Yellow and green stripes, the yellow starts to blur and develops an orange hue. this is because the absent colour is red. as the two colours blur the blue in the green forces out the complimentary orange in the yellow.

I decided to use a computer program to create these colour studies.

 I started by using complimentary colours as they are complete opposite. Becase these colours are so vibrant and the contrast is so high, your eyes tier very quickly when looking at them and it can be uncomfortable to look at.

As you can see, the green circle is trying to impose its-self onto the red and the red is trying to impose its self on to the green. However, because they are complimentary they cannot do so, this is why they are fighting against one another.

 This is also the case when the colours are reversed in proportions. 

However, when i lessened the saturation of the red, you can see that this cause the pale red to impose a lighter rim of green onto the square around it. The green box also imposes the original vibrant red on to the circle and creates a bright rim around it.

 I then took the red and got rid go the red and replaced it with grey. When you look at the circle for a while you can see that it takes on a red hue especially around the edge. It is easy to forget that the grey circle in the middle has no colour with in it.

The same also occurs when you place the neutral grey circle over the red square. After looking at the circle you start to see green tinges and these have been imposed by the red to bring out its complimentary colour.

Instead of using colours opposite on the colour wheel i experimented using colours that are closer together. Here I could not make out whether a reaction was taking place. Because of this I decided to cut up the background colour.

 Because these colours are closer on the colour wheel, where each block of colour meets start to blur into one another. In-between the blue bars appears to darken slightly.

 I moved the background colour even closer through the colour wheel to the blue. The causes the bars to blur further into the surrounding colour.

I changed the colour again to the closest purple to blue i could. here you can see that the blue bars start to show a lighter purple in-between and around them. This is because they are fighting to keep themselves present against the close background.

I saturated the background colour to see what effect this would have. Because the background colour has been lessened the blue bars suddenly appear blue again as previously they seemed to have turned purple. This blue also starts to impose its complimentary colour onto the weaker colour and you can see and orange hue after looking at the shapes for a while.

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8. CONTRAST OF HUE - 1ST

Formed by the juxtaposition of different hue's. the greater the distance between hue's on the colour wheel the greater the contrast (between red, yellow and blue on a white background, the blue stands out more because there is ore contrast. When these colours are on a black background the yellow stands out more.

 The royal blue paired with a dark red shows a medium contrast in hues. This is because they are not completely opposite on the colour wheel however there is a substantial amount of space between them.

 I then placed an orange pencil over the same blue. These two objects have a higher contrast in hue than the red object above because orange is further around the colour wheel. This pencil colour also leans further towards a yellow which increases the contrast.

Pairing the royal blue with a dark purple colour. These to colours are very close to each other, therefore there is a low contrast of hue.

 I placed another blue over the top of the royal blue. The top colour is lighter than the background, however because they are both very similar there is a very low contrast in hues.

This object on the royal but displays a high contrast of hues. this is because these to colours are very close to being opposite on the colour wheel.

 I used a bright yellow as the background (not justified in the photograph). I first added a bright orange object and even though both colours are bright there is only a low contrast in hues.

 This purple object place on the yellow background show a high contrast as these two colours are opposite on the colour wheel.

 There is a very low contrast of hues between these to yellow colours as they are both very similar to each other.

 Between this bright red and yellow background there is a medium contrast this is because there is space between them on the colour wheel.

When a green is placed on the yellow background the amount of contrast is the same as the study above. Because these colours are about a quarter around the colour wheel from each other.

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9. CONTRAST OF HUE - 2ND

I decided to experiment with colours that are in close proximity to each other on the colour wheel and see how theses effected each other when placed together.

Here the pleated material has a stronger hue against the paler blur background. I feel that the pleated material leans slightly towards green rather than purple on the colour wheel, however there is still little contrast of hue between these two colours.

I placed stronger, darker blue against the two previous colours. i feel that this pushed the pleated material further towards a green blue as this new colour leans more to a red.

 I then added to bluely, green hue to the mix it is like an aqua colour. Being next to the strong blue and pleated material, this colour looks very much more green than blue. The aqua colour and the strong blue of the book have a medium contrast in hue.

When I added a green next to this aqua colour, it appears that the material leaned to a blue. i feel that there is a medium contrast in hue here.

I then paired the aqua with a very dark green to see what effect this would have. i think that the dark green makes the bag appear even more blue than the study above. i think this is due to the contrast between the lightness of the aqua and the darkness of the material. because the material also leans towards yellow this also brings out the blue in the lighter colour. I feel that these two colours have a medium to high contrast of hue.

placing these to reedy colours together appears to make the object appear darker and lean towards a blue rather than an orange. this also makes the background colour appear more orange. There is a low contrast of hue between theses to colours.

 Adding this peachy orange colour pushes the background colour more toward a pink rather than a red. The object remains as a darker red.

Placing a very orange lid into this mix appears to push the background colour to a pink whilst making the peachy material appear more red (photograph does not give this justice). I feel that because of the closeness of these colours there is not much of a contrast between them. The greatest contest I think would be between the dark red object and the orange lid.

Here I paired a bright yellow with a yellowy brown envelope (picture does not justify the bright yellow). Even though the envelope is quite dull there is still a low contrast between the hues in these colours. 

 I then added in the orange lid and I feel that this forces the envelope to look more of a greeny fellow. However the hue contrast remain low.

I also added in the lid of the high lighter pen which has a very luminous hue. i feel the the strength of this orange makes the square lid look more yellow and the envelope more green. i believe that the highest contact is between the greeny yellow envelope and the bright high lighter lid but this only remains as a low to medium contrast of hues.

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10. CONTRAST OF EXTENSION.

Formed by assigning proportional field size is relation to the visual weight of colour. Also known as contrast of proportion. (the heavier colour between red, blue and yellow is the blue because it is darker. Different amounts of colour affect how we see things.

Here the orange is the lighter of the two colours yet over powers the darker blue done to its larger extension. The fact that the orange is surrounding the small blue square adds to the overpowering of the blue.

Even though the orange is still surrounding the blue it does not have the same effect as above. this is due to the larger extension of the blue. The amount of blue and orange in the 2 above examples is equal. However it depends on the layout of these colours to how they are perceived.

This example shows a 50/50 amount of colour. When they are proportioned in this form it tires the eye as they are complimentary colours.

By reducing the amount of bars the effect of the colour fighting against each other reduces however there is still a tendency.

Yellow is the brightest colour on the colour wheel were as blue is one of the darkest. Here there is a greater amount of yellow than there is blue, however due to the heavier weight of the blue the colours a perceive a equal in extension.

Because yellow is so bright it can come in as a useful highlight which is most effective when used in smaller proportions.

Here the image is quite balanced as the lighter colour breaks up the heavier colour in several places.

 Because the complimentary colours red and green are both similar in weight, this means that to have them in proportion they should be more or less equal in extension.

 Here i played with the layout of some shapes to until I thought they appeared equal.

With the complimentary colours violet and yellow, because the yellow is so bright it means that there is no need to have a great amount of it. Pairing the violet with the yellow only requires a small amount to appear balanced.