Fundamentals of color and color. Color circle

Secrets of color have long worried people. Even in ancient times, it got its symbolic meaning. Color has become the basis of many scientific discoveries. He not only influenced physics or chemistry, but also became important for philosophy and art. Over time, knowledge of color became wider. Scientists who are studying this phenomenon began to appear.

Concepts

The first thing to mention is the basics of color science. This is the science of color, which contains systematic information from various studies: physics, physiology, psychology. These spheres study the phenomenon of shades, combining the results obtained with data on philosophy, aesthetics, history, and literature. Scientists from a long time explored color as a cultural phenomenon.

But coloring is a more in-depth study of color, its theory and application of man in various fields of activity.

Historical Background

No wonder that these sciences have long worried people. Of course, then there were no such concepts as "color science" and "coloristics". Nevertheless, color was given great importance in the culture and development of peoples.

History can tell us a huge layer of knowledge about this. Therefore, scientists are divided all this time into two stages: the period up to the 17th century and the time from the 17th century to the present day.

Becoming

Starting the journey on the history of color, you need to return to the Ancient East. At that time, there were 5 primary colors. They symbolized the four sides of the world and the center of the earth. China stood out with its special brightness, naturalness and multicolor. Later everything changed, and in the culture of this country monochrome and achromatic painting began to be observed.

Even more developed in this regard were India and Egypt. Two systems were observed here: the ternary system, which contained the main colors at the time (red, black and white); And also Vedic, was based on the Vedas. The last system was deepened into philosophy, so there is a red symbolizing the eastern rays of the Sun, white - the rays of the South, black - the rays of the West, very black - the rays of the North and the invisible - the center.

In India, great importance was given to the design of palaces. Traveling around the world, and now you can see that often used white, red and gold. Over time, these shades were added to yellow and blue.

Religion in color

Western Europe in the Middle Ages looked at the basics of color science on the part of religion. At that time, other shades began to appear, which had not previously been accepted as basic ones. White began to symbolize Christ, God, angels, black - the underworld and the Antichrist. Yellow meant enlightenment and deeds of the Holy Spirit, and red means the blood of Christ, fire and sun. Blue symbolized the sky and the inhabitants of God, and green symbolized the food, vegetation and the earthly path of Christ.

At this time in the Middle and Middle East with the coloring is the same. Here influence is received by Islam. Basically, the color value remains unchanged. The only thing, the green becomes the main one and symbolizes the Garden of Eden.

Rebirth

Color science and color are again transformed. Before the second stage comes the Renaissance. At this time, Leonardo da Vinci proclaims his system of colors. It consists of 6 options: white and black, red and blue, yellow and green. Thus, science is gradually approaching the modern concept of color.

Newton's breakthrough

The 17th century is the beginning of a new stage in the classification. Newton uses a spectrum of white color, where he discovers all chromatic colors. In science there is a completely different vision in this regard. There always remains red, to which orange is added, there is also a green and blue, but together with them blue and violet are found.

New theories

The 19th century in Europe leads us to naturalism and impressionism. The first style proclaims full correspondence of colors, shades and tones, and the second is based only on the transfer of images. At this time, painting appears with the basics of color science.

After that there is the theory of Philip Otto Runge, who distributes the system on the principle of the globe. On the equator of the "globe" there are clean basic colors. The upper pole is white, the lower pole is black. The rest of the place is occupied by mixtures and shades.

The Runge system is very calculated and has a place to be. Each square on the globe has its own "address" (longitude and latitude), so it can be determined by calculating. In the footsteps of this scientist, others have also gone who tried to improve the system and create a more convenient option: Shevrel, Golts, and Bezold.

The truth is near

In the modern era, scientists were able to approach the truth and create a modern color model. This was facilitated by the peculiarities of the style of the time itself. Creators create their masterpieces, paying great attention to color. It is thanks to him that you can express your vision of art. The color begins to unite with the music. He gets a huge amount of shades, even in the case of a limited palette. People have learned to distinguish not only the basic colors, but also the tone, darkening, muffling, etc.

Modern performance

Fundamentals of color science led a person to the fact that he simplified the previous attempts of scientists. After the Runge globe, Ostwald's theory existed, in which he used a circle with 24 colors. Now this circle has remained, but it has shrunk by half.

Scientist Ethan was able to develop an ideal system. Its circle consists of 12 colors. At first glance, the system is quite complicated, although you can deal with it. The main colors here are still three: red, yellow and blue. There are compound colors of the second order, which can be obtained by mixing the three main ones: orange, green and violet. Also included here are composite colors of the third order, which can be obtained by mixing the primary color with second-order compounds.

The essence of the system

The main thing that it is necessary to know about the circle of Itten is that this system was created not just to correctly classify all colors, but also to harmoniously combine them. The main three colors, yellow, blue and red, are located in a triangle. This figure is inscribed in the circle, on the basis of which the scientist received a hexagon. Now we have in front of us isosceles triangles, which contain composite colors of the second order.

To get the right shade, you need to keep equal proportions. To get green, you need to combine yellow, blue. To get orange, you need to take a red, yellow. To make the violet, mix red and blue.

As mentioned earlier, it is not easy to understand the basics of color science. The color wheel is formed according to the following principle. A circle is around our hexagon. We divide it into 12 equal sectors. Now you need to fill cells with primary colors and background colors. They will be indicated by the vertices of the triangles. Empty spaces need to be filled with shades of the third order. They, as already mentioned earlier, are obtained by mixing basic and secondary colors.

For example, yellow and orange will create a yellow-orange. Blue with purple - blue-violet, etc.

Harmony

It is worth noting that the circle of Itten not only helps to create colors, but it is also beneficial to combine them. This is necessary not only for artists, but also for designers, fashion designers, make-up artists, illustrators, photographers, etc.

The combination of colors can be harmonious, characteristic and uncharacteristic. If you take the opposite shades, they will look harmonious. If you select colors that occupy the sector through one, then the characteristic combinations are obtained. And if you choose related colors, which are located in a circle one after another, you will get uncharacteristic connections. This theory refers to a sector of seven colors.

In the circle of Itten, this principle also works, but somewhat differently, since it is worth considering that the shades here are 12. Therefore, in order to obtain a two-tone harmony, one should take the tones that are facing one another. Three-color harmony is obtained in the case when an equilateral triangle is inserted into the circle , rectangular harmony is obtained by the same method, but inside we enter a rectangle. If you put a square in the circle, you get a four-color harmony. The hexagon is responsible for the six-color combination. In addition to these options, there is analog harmony, which is formed if we take the chromatic colors of the yellow hue. For example, so we can get yellow, yellow-orange, orange and red-orange.

Properties

It is necessary to understand that there are incompatible colors. Although this concept is rather controversial. The thing is that if you take a bright red and the same green, the symbiosis will look very provocative. Each of them tries to dominate the other, because of what dissonance is obtained. Although such an example does not mean that it is impossible to harmoniously combine red and green. To do this, you need to understand the color properties.

Color tone is a collection of hues that refer to the same color spectrum. Saturation is the degree of fainting. Lightness is the approach of a shade to white and vice versa. Brightness is the degree of closeness of a shade to black.

Chromatic and achromatic colors are also shared. The second ones are white, black and shades of gray. To the first - all the rest. All these properties can affect the compatibility and harmony of shades. If you make the green less bright and a little pale, and make the red calmer, due to the increase in lightness, these two supposedly incongruous shades can harmoniously unite.

Children's view

Fundamentals of color education for children should be built in a playful form, as, in principle, and all training. Therefore, it is worth remembering the famous phrase about spectral colors: "Every Hunter Wants to Know Where the Pheasant Sits". For those adults who are unfamiliar with this baby lyfhak, you need to clarify that the first letter of each word in this sentence indicates the name of the tones in the spectrum. That is, at the head we have red, then orange, yellow, green, blue, blue and purple. These are the colors that go into the rainbow in the same sequence. Therefore, first draw a rainbow with the child.

When the baby is very small and, of course, does not know what the basis of color science is, it is better to buy him coloring examples. This is done so that the child does not paint the sky in brown, and the grass in red. A little later you will see that the baby will be able to determine the colors on his own, but it's better to agree with him on possible options.

Emotions

For a very long time scientists have been able to understand that any shade of the base color can affect the human emotions. For the first time Goethe spoke of this in 1810. Later, scientists found out that the human psyche is connected with external reality, which means that the perception of color can also affect emotions.

The next step in this study was the discovery that a certain emotion is fixed behind each tone. And this theory manifests itself almost from birth. It also became clear that there is a certain color code that is attributed to a number of emotions. For example, sadness, fear, fatigue, everything can be described in black or gray. But joy, interest, shame or love is usually associated with a red tint.

In addition to psychological influence, color was studied under clinical supervision. It turned out that red excites, yellow invigorates, green reduces pressure, and blue calms. Also, everything depends on the shade property. If it is a calm red, then it can symbolize joy and love, if dark and bright - then blood and aggression.

Fundamentals of color and color are very complex sciences. They are difficult to fully understand, since everything here is relatively relative and subjective. For one person, color can influence in different ways, some people are not at all in the shade. Some artist may seem a combination of violet and yellow very harmonious, the other - disgusting and contradictory.