Introduction was wonderful. I even read it (and translated) to my Dad who works with designers and knows too well situations like one described. Often his clients don't know how to describe a certain color, so they end up with saying "...send me some - many - patterns of the exact shade". And the search begins. I also loved example about child's experience and struggles with colors. The most important part, of course, is about tri-dimensional nature of color, which was perfectly illustrated with an orange example. This "experience" was easy to follow and visualise. The article certainly does a great job in providing clear descriptions and explanations about hue, value and chroma. Illustrating mistakes, which people often make in connection to these three dimensions of color, was also helping (mistakes were recognisable, I have to confess).
Now I'm coming to points with which I don't agree or have a hard time to understand. First of all, apart from example with orange, descriptions of color schemes and systems are very hard to follow. Yes, English is not my native language, but I suppose even native speakers struggled to understand and visualise. So confusion and lots of questions were left. Second point is, if I understood correctly, author is not very keen on using musical terms in color theory. For me, though, it is extremely helpful. Aside from having better understanding in musical terms, I am a person who has associative way of thinking. So I tend to "connect" certain color with particular song or even sound. Hence, using "instruments" from music theory is very understandable to me. Third point is about color naming. Maybe it's because Color Theory course is only several weeks young and I'm only starting to think about color technically, but I don't agree that popular color names are "incongruous, irrational, and often ludicrous". For me, "olive green" has very clear meaning and I easily visualize the color. I also have to say, that I struggled to keep up with disciplinary information. And question "Does such scientific scheme leave any outlet for feeling and personal expression of beauty?" came just in time. When I reflect on color, the last thing I consider is scientific approach to naming and complex color schemes. I do think about artist's freedom of color interpretation, which is very subjective and therefore can't be schemed. I can't imagine Van Gogh starring at his sketches, trying to implement correctly named colors from available systems. Yet, as I progressed with reading (and with Color Theory and Fashion Design: Photoshop courses), I do see the ratio in building unified color schemes and being precise with color naming.
Quotes are taken from "A Color Notation" by A. H. Munsell, Geo. H. Ellis Co., Boston, 1907.
Now I'm coming to points with which I don't agree or have a hard time to understand. First of all, apart from example with orange, descriptions of color schemes and systems are very hard to follow. Yes, English is not my native language, but I suppose even native speakers struggled to understand and visualise. So confusion and lots of questions were left. Second point is, if I understood correctly, author is not very keen on using musical terms in color theory. For me, though, it is extremely helpful. Aside from having better understanding in musical terms, I am a person who has associative way of thinking. So I tend to "connect" certain color with particular song or even sound. Hence, using "instruments" from music theory is very understandable to me. Third point is about color naming. Maybe it's because Color Theory course is only several weeks young and I'm only starting to think about color technically, but I don't agree that popular color names are "incongruous, irrational, and often ludicrous". For me, "olive green" has very clear meaning and I easily visualize the color. I also have to say, that I struggled to keep up with disciplinary information. And question "Does such scientific scheme leave any outlet for feeling and personal expression of beauty?" came just in time. When I reflect on color, the last thing I consider is scientific approach to naming and complex color schemes. I do think about artist's freedom of color interpretation, which is very subjective and therefore can't be schemed. I can't imagine Van Gogh starring at his sketches, trying to implement correctly named colors from available systems. Yet, as I progressed with reading (and with Color Theory and Fashion Design: Photoshop courses), I do see the ratio in building unified color schemes and being precise with color naming.
Quotes are taken from "A Color Notation" by A. H. Munsell, Geo. H. Ellis Co., Boston, 1907.
2 comments:
You know, for as much as I like the scientific explanations behind color, I too am usually not too bothered by 'lemon yellow' or 'olive green'. They conjure up specific colors for me, but most likely they will have a slightly different visual reference for someone else.
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