author of the text: Buklina Vera for the Osinka.ru portal
Have you noticed how often we use the word "contrast", especially when we compare objects that are very different in some way. And in fashion and style, most often we are talking about color contrasts. Our today's material tells about what they are, what pluses and minuses they carry and how to use them profitably in clothes.
You can break up a pure color with white. The character of the color evolves towards cold. Red carmine mixed with white takes on a bluish appearance and its color character is greatly altered. With white, yellow becomes a little colder, but blue does not change. The violation is very sensitive to white: if the dark and intense rape seems threatening, the disturbed rinsing of white, purple, gives the impression of joy.
You can split the pure color with black. Yellow mixed with black loses its radiant and clear expression and becomes painful and poisonous. Loses its brightness automatically. With black, rape increases his natural darkness even further and inadvertently falls into nothing. If red carmine is mixed with black, it takes on a tonality that tends to be disturbed.
Coloristics: types of contrasts
The word "contrast" is constantly present in our life. We use it when we compare two things that have different meanings on one basis, and the further these values are, the stronger the contrast. Now I want to talk about color contrast - what it is and why should I know it.
There are 7 types of contrast in color:
Similarly, black gives cinnabar red burnt, brownish red, with appearance colors. Blue only supports a few degrees to black, and its luminosity fades quickly. Green color much less sensitive to modulations than to disturbed or blue ones. In general, black removes the colors of its brightness; keeps them out of the light and kills them more or less quickly.
We can also break down a color that is saturated with a mixture of black and white, that is, gray. Once this mixture is made, tones with the same degree of clarity or darkness are obtained, but no matter which tones are always cloudy than the corresponding pure color. Colors mixed with gray become more or less neutral and blind.
Contrast in color,
- contrast of complementary colors,
- contrast of light and dark,
- saturation contrast,
- temperature contrast,
- contrast of areas,
- simultaneous contrast.
Let's see what each of them represents.
Color contrast
The simplest of all contrasts, it is a combination of the pure colors of the spectrum. The strongest contrast is created by the basic colors: blue, red and yellow. Color contrast can be enhanced by adding achromatic white or black. The use of contrast in color in clothing gives it brightness and decorativeness.
We can also "dress" the pure color by mixing it with a complementary color. If mixed with yellow and broken, some tones are achieved between light yellow and dark purple. The greens and reds are not far apart, but when mixed together give a very dark grayish mixture. Various tonal changes that result from complementary colors can lead to strange and unexpected results with a little bit of white.
When the mixture comes from three primary colors, the final tone is intermittent. Depending on the quantitative ratios of the three colors, the mixture will be gray, more or less yellow, red, blue or black. All brands can be achieved using primary colors. This also applies to secondary colors and any combination of colors if the mixture contains yellow, red and blue.
To understand the essence of this contrast, you need to introduce the concept of a color wheel. Isaac Newton decomposed back in the 17th century sunny color on 12 shades of the spectrum and placed them on the circle. In addition to the 7 primary colors of the rainbow, this circle also includes transition colors.
Complementary color contrast is based on a combination of colors that are diametrically opposed on a circle. Being next to each other, these colors emphasize, reinforce each other, thereby creating a beautiful contrast.
The contrast effect of light output is relative. Any color may appear bright next to a dull color, or have a dull symbol next to bright color... Contrast: while the contrast of quality is reflected over the saturation of colors, in terms of their brightness, the contrast of quantity does according to the size of the field in terms of quantity. There are two factors that determine the luminous emanation of colors.
Its luminosity or brightness, the size of the field. ... Taking the target as the maximum luminous intensity and black as the minimum luminous intensity, the numerical scale of the luminosity of the colors gives the following results. Don't confuse black-and-white or light-dark luminosity with luminance. In the first case, we are talking about light effects, in the second, from its own light emanating from the composition.
Lightness contrast
The strongest contrast in lightness is formed by white and black, when comparing shades of gray, the contrast decreases. But not only achromatic (black, white and gray) colors can be contrasting in lightness. And here the color wheel comes in handy again. If we translate chromatic colors into black and white, then we will see different shades of gray - from almost white (yellow) to almost black (purple). The weakest contrast is created by red and green, since in black and white they correspond to approximately the same shade of gray.
Numerical scale of luminosity. This explains why yellow and violet produce contrast in light and shade and brightness in red and green. With this numerical scale, two factors - luminosity and magnitude - can be synthesized in a table, which shows that the dimensions of the field change the proportions of the luminosity so that the same colors in different quantities produce the same luminosities.
In synthesis, we now have two scales together. Numerical scale of quantity and numerical scale of luminosity. We see how the contrast obtained using equal amounts different colors, can be neutralized by harmonic measures that can change values. On the other hand, the contrast of quantity can obviously change or exalt all other contrasts, for this we only need to change the relative extent of some colors with effects of greater width and depth.
Contrast in lightness in clothes allows you to play with proportions and visually correct figure flaws, and contrast in lightness in appearance determines the peculiarities of the color scheme of your wardrobe.
Saturation contrast
The saturation of a hue is determined by the presence of a pure chromatic color in it. Adding achromatic white, black, or other chromatic color reduces saturation. Thus, a contrast in saturation occurs between a pure and a muted hue.
Charles Shayler, San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf. Each of them corresponds to an area well calculated in accordance with the place that it occupies in the plane and neighboring or distant colors. The result is a well-structured set of color planes, each of which depends on a set. In the example of Charles Shayler, the contrast of quantity is applied to the figurative reconstruction of the San Francisco landscape with the same meticulousness as in the case of Mondrian, the artist places each color tone according to its visual weight and place that corresponds to it throughout the work.
It is important to distinguish contrast in saturation from contrast in lightness: the contrast of light and dark within the same tone is not necessarily a contrast in saturation. The contrast in saturation in clothing allows you to create a soft, beautiful color range.
Contrast of areas
This kind of contrast is based on the perception of objects in the form of spots of color, occupying a different area. Contrast of areas usually enhances another kind of contrast. Perception features say that light looks larger in comparison with dark, equal in area. Thus, by changing the ratio of areas, you can achieve a sense of balance in clothes, or, on the contrary, draw attention to a certain detail with a strong contrast.
Quantitative contrast refers to the size ratios of two or three colors. Thus, it is a contrast between "very small" or "large-small" contrast. We can create flower compositions with all spot sizes. But we can also ask: what is the quantitative relationship between two or more colors that is balanced and where none of the colors used is more important than the others? Two factors determine the strength of color expression. Firstly, its luminosity and, secondly, the size of the color spot.
To estimate the luminosity of a color or its luminous value, it is enough to compare it with the average gray. We will notice that the intensity and degree of brightness of the colors differ. For these luminous values, Goethe invented very simple numerical relationships that are of great interest to us. These figures are approximate. How can you determine the exact values if the colors that are sold commercially with the same nomenclature offer huge differences depending on the factories from which they come?
Temperature contrast
Let's turn to color wheel... At first glance, it seems that at one pole there are "hot" shades - red, yellow and orange, and at the opposite - "cold": blue, purple, green. But this feeling is true when it comes to comparing the pure colors of the spectrum with each other. Objectively, the color is neutral in temperature, and its shades are warm or cold, due to the admixture of yellow or blue pigment, respectively. Temperature nuances are often not even perceptible to the untrained eye.
Finally, a personal feeling is one that can decide. On the other hand, the colored surfaces of the image are often crowded out and complicated: it is very difficult to establish simple and measurable numerical ratios. The eye perceives values with such great security that we can trust it, provided that it has been sensitized in the relevant area.
The meanings of light established by Goethe are as follows. Complementary color values. If these light values become colored spots with harmonious dimensions, the numbers that denote the light values must be changed accordingly. Yellow, which is three times brighter than the disturbed one, should take up three times less space than its complementary color.
In practice, temperature contrast can be used if you really want to wear shades that are not suitable for the temperature characteristics of your appearance, to soften the transition.
Simultaneous contrast
Physically, this kind of contrast does not exist, this contrast is only a feature of the color perception of the human eye and brain. Its essence is that a chromatic or achromatic color, placed on a colored background, acquires a shade that is complementary to the background (opposite on the circle) color.
The dimensions of the harmonious surfaces of the primary and secondary colors are as follows. On this model, you can establish all possible relationships between colors. The picture above shows a circle of quantitative harmonies between primary and secondary colors. It was built in the following way.
First, the whole circle is divided into three parts, and then it is divided into three parts in accordance with the quantitative relations established between the two complementary colors. When these divisions are established, a circle of the same size is rounded and measurements are taken in the order of the chromatic circle, that is, yellow, orange, red, blue and green. These harmonious quantities create soothing static effects. Quantitative contrast is neutralized by the intervention of harmonious amounts.
In life, simultaneous contrast is used to enhance the natural colors of the exterior, such as eye color.
Also, simultaneous contrast is insidious in that it creates undesirable effects: it gives a greenish tint to light brown hair if it is next to a large area of red, or makes a blonde a cheap yellow in the vicinity of purple clothes and accessories.
The ratios used here are only valid when the colors used are very bright. If the brightness of the colors changes, the aspect ratios will be changed in equal proportions. Therefore, it is obvious that the two factors, luminosity and surface are closely related.
The picture below shows the harmonious relationship established between red and green. When the composition uses different quantitative ratios than harmonious relationships, that is, when color dominates, an expressive effect is obtained. Theme, artistic meaning, or personal taste are those that determine the quantitative character to be used in an expressive composition.
Color theory is not just abstract knowledge, it is the world around us. Understanding the essence of contrasts allows you to competently emphasize your merits, shade flaws, attract the attention of others and collect compliments in your address.
Color contrast
The contrast in color makes it possible to add decorativeness, theatricality to clothes, and creates a sense of celebration. The contrast of rich chromatic colors looks harmonious on a girl with a contrasting, bright appearance. At the same time, the cut of the clothes itself should be laconic - in this case, all attention is devoted to color. But owners of a soft appearance with low contrast can wear similar combinations - in their case, the color saturation should simply be reduced to such a level that the natural colors of the face do not clog. Stylistically, color contrast is associated with a sporty image, sometimes a dramatic one. The color contrast is also good when playing on ethnic, folklore motives (example of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo).
When the quantitative contrast is very pronounced, a new effect is achieved. In the picture below, red is poorly represented. But, since green, in relation to this red, is very abundant, it evokes a luminous presence of additional red in the viewer's eyes.
In the chapter on simultaneous contrast, we explained that the eye always requires a complementary color for a given color. But we still don't know why. We are probably subject to the general will of balance and individual affirmation. This tendency must have its own special effect of quantitative contrast. The color of the minority, which, so to speak, is in danger, is protected in its own way and becomes relatively lighter than when its presence is in a harmonious relationship, as in the drawing of the squares of green and red.
Contrast of complementary colors.
This contrast is most effective when shades of complementary colors are as close as possible to their originals on the color wheel. Therefore, speaking about who can wear such combinations, we will talk mainly about bright young ladies. This range is perfect for a vacation wardrobe, and tanned skin will complement your outfit. But you can also fit it into ordinary, daily casual, using additional colors for shoes and accessories.
Biologists and gardeners are well aware of this phenomenon. When a plant, animal or man is exposed to particularly difficult living conditions, the reaction possibilities are reactivated: in certain cases, the results are obtained both in humans and in animals or plants, which leads to unexpected results. If, through prolonged contemplation, the color of the eye gets a little idea, it will be observed to grow in intensity and strength.
Using two contrasting symbols that reinforce each other can lead to very bright and vibrant expressions. We indicate here a feature of quantitative contrast: it is able to change or enhance the influence of other contrasts. In the study of dark-dark contrast, we have already presented the problem of proportions. Quantitative contrast is really a contrast of proportions. When, in a light-dark composition, a small transparent surface contrasts with a wide dark expansion, the picture can take on a deeper and broader meaning precisely because of this quantitative contrast.
Contrast of light and dark
The classic combination of white and black, alas, does not suit everyone. If you are not the owner of a contrasting appearance, and black on your face makes you look older, and white turns into a moth, a variety of muted shades have been created for you. Just find "your" white (unbleached, ivory, cream) and your black (dark blue, dark gray, brown). In addition, the contrast in lightness allows for a slight correction of the figure: a light shade visually gives volume, and a dark one conceals volume.
The attention that must be paid to matching color coloration and size is a composition at least as important as the same selection of colors. Therefore, the color composition should always be based on the ratios of color spots. The shape, size and boundaries of color spots should be determined by the nature and intensity of colors and should not be fixed in advance by a drawing.
Consideration of this rule is especially important when determining the amount of color to use. The boundaries fixed by the drawing can in no way determine the true size of the spots, since they are the result of differences in intensity between colors. Also this intensity is suggested by the nature of the colors, their light value and the effects that come from the contrasts.
Saturation contrast
This is an elegant trick for creating a soft palette of colors. In addition, the technique is universal: a contrast in saturation can be used not only in romantic outfits and casual sets, but even in a business wardrobe with a moderately strict dress code. Competently playing with this contrast, you can perform different tasks: to emphasize the face with a bright detail, while leaving the rest of the outfit calm and muted, with a delicate, pastel appearance, afford a bright thing, combining it with familiar shades, etc.
Contrast of areas
It is used in the form of all kinds of accessories - scarves, brooches, belts - placed on the main background, as well as decorative cut details, appliques, and other details. Focuses attention on a smaller object and distracts from a larger one. Allows you to emphasize the winning places of your figure. For example, a dark belt on a light dress will highlight a thin waist, and a bright scarf, a collar on a dress in a neutral color, will distract from a problem waist.
Temperature contrast
A complex kind of contrast that requires a color flair. If you confidently combine warm and cold shades in one set, and you get a harmonious color combination- I shake your hand, I personally take it with caution. The need to create a temperature contrast may arise if you really liked a color that you absolutely do not pull in terms of the temperature of the exterior paints (as a rule, these are people with light, cold skin). Then you can create a layer between desired color and you with a shade of familiar temperature. The easiest way to find a good contrast between warm and cold is to use ready-made designer prints.
Simultaneous contrast
The so-called intensifier colors will help to draw out a pure color from an indistinctly muffled one: for example, a successful lilac-purple shade of shadows will make swamp-green eyes emerald, and ordinary brown will sparkle with flashes of amber, if shaded with a scarf of a certain shade of blue. Everything is simple here: analyze the colors of your appearance, and emphasize them with additional colors - and everyone around you will note the depth and saturation of your eyes, the freshness of your skin and how this shade of hair suits you.
As I wrote in the first part, the simultaneous contrast is insidious: be careful not to create an unfortunate additional contrast between your skin, hair and clothes. Blondes should be more careful with purple, and fair-haired brown-haired women with red. Lipstick with a plum undertone will make your teeth visually yellow, and a green scarf will draw attention to redness and sore spots on the face.
Today, when clothes and accessories have become affordable and diverse, when there is no strict fashion dictate, we have an exceptional opportunity to express our inner world and our individuality through an amazing range of colors. So why is it that most of us are habitually dressed in dull black? Is this really our inner world?
Don't be afraid to experiment! Look into your closet with new eyes - for sure, you will find that you have something to work with and discover new, interesting combinations based on contrast.
Color is an amazing and complex thing that magically affects us, which is as primordial and necessary as itself sunlight... Many scientists and naturalists tried to study the color and systematize the knowledge about it. Among them were Sir Isaac Newton, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Johannes Itten and many others. Entire volumes of books are devoted to color science, but we will go "to the top" in order to learn what you need to know about color for the first acquaintance.
So, Sir Isaac Newton in 1676 passed a sunbeam through a prism and received a color spectrum, which he conventionally divided into 7 colors (there is a version that he tried to draw an analogy with 7 musical tones).
In fact, we see that objects have one color or another, only because white light falls on them, and part of its waves is absorbed by the material of this object, and the other part is reflected and falls on the retina of our eye. The color of an object visible to us can vary depending on the color of the lighting, the distance of the object, and even the color of the surrounding objects.
This leads to another useful observation related to the activity of the left and right hemispheres. One side, I know that the foliage of the trees is green and the sky is blue. This tells me my left brain is responsible for simplifying and organizing. On the other hand, switching to the "right-brain" mode, I see that in the landscape around me the foliage can have completely arbitrary colors - from crimson to blue and black, and the sky can be lemon or greenish, and I have no right to ignore this fact. In our children's drawings, the grass is always green and the sky is always blue. But now we are learning to observe and track all the natural variety of flowers.
Warm and cold colors
The ability to observe, see and convey in painting all the natural variety of colors is important because color in painting has an expressive function, that is, along with form, composition, etc. serves to express our intention. Agree, for example, that a painting in warm, red-orange tones gives us one impression, while a painting in cold, blue-green tones is a completely different one.
As already mentioned, to warm colors are the colors of the red and yellow gamut, to cold- colors of blue and green. But thermal coldness is not an absolute characteristic, but a relative one. If you compare red and orange, the red will be warmer. If you compare yellow-orange and lemon, yellow-orange will be warmer. Reddish violet is warmer than pure violet (due to the red undertone), and turquoise is warmer than pure blue (it has a yellow undertone, it gives warmth).
Here we come to the relationship between the colors of the spectrum and what we can do with this knowledge.
As you know, there is 3 primary colors, which cannot be obtained by mixing other colors, but which are themselves components of more complex colors. it Red, yellow, blue... Based on this knowledge, the Swiss scientist, artist and educator Johannes Itten has developed a 12-part color circle... In the center of the circle we see a triangle, at the vertices of which there are three primary colors, and around the circle are the results of their mixing with each other in one proportion or another ( yellow→ yellow-orange → orange → red-orange → Red etc).
Related and contrasting colors
So, colors located exactly opposite each other on a circle are called opposite or additional... Complementary colors (red vs. green; yellow vs. purple; blue vs. orange) create between themselves maximum color contrast... In principle, all colors that include components of complementary colors contrast to one degree or another (for example, yellow-green and blue-violet, blue- green and red orange, etc.), but in the case of complementary colors, the contrast reaches its peak. So when we use contrasting colors in our composition, their interaction gives maximum expression.
If contrasting are colors that are diametrically opposite in the color wheel, then the colors that are nearby are called related(say, the entire gamut from yellow to red-orange, not reaching red; or the entire gamut from yellow-green to blue-green, not reaching blue). Unlike the combination contrasting colors, combination of related colors can create the effect of calmness, stability, restraint, monotony. These are some of the basic principles of using color in painting.
Why is it so important to understand the relationship between colors? Because one of the basic principles of painting is relationship work... Against the background of the blue sky, the yellowish architecture will light up especially brightly, and against the background of the yellowish-gray sky, it will "go out". Scarlet strawberries will expressively play against the background of greenery, but on a blue tablecloth there will be no such effect. Light looks light when dark appears nearby... Exactly the same complementary colors enhance each other's action.
Important: using additional colors in the composition (red and green, blue and yellow ...), remember that if one of the colors sounds in full force, then the second must "give way", that is, from pure to become more complex (with an admixture of another color), or become lighter (as if we had added white to it) or darker.
Let me explain with an example: the combination of the brightest pure red and the brightest pure green gives an undoubted "eyeball" effect, while pure green with a muted (more complex!) And darkened shade of red (= red-brown) looks quite noble.
Color ball
When we talk about working with contrasting and related colors to achieve our creative goals, we are certainly not suggesting that colors should be used in their most saturated and vibrant variations (as shown in the example with red and green in the previous paragraph). Any color can vary in three scales: BRIGHTNESS, LIGHTNESS, SATURATION.
1. Brightness- This is an indicator of the purity of the color tone, the lower the brightness, the more impurities of other tones. Spectral (i.e., as in a spectrum emerging from a prism, or as in a rainbow) blue color of maximum brightness at the top of the scale, at the bottom of the scale blue is mixed with it.
2. Lightness Is a measure of the movement of a tone towards white or black. As if we mixed white or black paint to the pure spectral color.
3. Saturation Is a measure of the hue content relative to gray... The lower the saturation, the more the color shifts towards neutral gray.
Since all these variations cannot be reflected within the color wheel, Philip Otto Runge proposed an "extended version", namely color ball... Here it is shown in unfolded. Imagine that you cut this star out of paper and glued it along the cut lines. The color ball allows you to show how colors move along the lightness scale: whitened colors are shown at the "north" pole, darkened ones at the "south" pole.
Accordingly, if we want to use in the composition related colors of a particular color tone (yellow and orange, red, blue and blue-green, etc.), we have at our disposal all the richness of colors in this segment: lighter and darker variations(see 4 figures below), and more and less bright(closer to or further from spectral pure color) and more and less saturated(closer to pure color and closer to neutral gray).
In order to understand in practice how contrasting and related colors behave side by side, what vibration they create when interacting, what impression the same composition can create in different color solutions, try to draw something first using contrasting colors(diametrically opposite in the color wheel), and then - using related... The variety of color options and nuances is endless here.