This talks a lot about Partitive mixing.

Partitive mixing is different from actually mixing together pigments in order to create a new color. Partitive mixing is when you use two different shapes (dots or lines) and carefully put them next to each other, making it look like it formed a new color.  This kind of partitive mixing is called a Pseudoadditive; eye is mixing the light reflected off the pigments.

Michel Chevreul  also confirmed the effects that a color can have when put on top of a different colored background. An example of this is Red on white and black.

The Red on White seems to be more fuller since the white is already bright to the eye. However, the Red on black makes the red look brighter and “hotter” because black is already a dark color.  This is called iridescence.

Learning about the upbringing of the color wheel was pretty interesting (probably because I never really thought about it before). Johannes Itten was the backbone of the color wheel process; using the circle in order to depict value, saturation, and brightness. They also talked about how they use the color, gray, to balance out the colors from each other.

His pupil, Josef Albers, incorporated mathematics into the different saturations and brightness of the colors as well so they would be more balanced and in unity.

We also learn about Albert Munsell’s color tree. His is the most current one artists/designers use. The difference in his tree and the color wheel is that the tree is much more distinguishable and easier to recognize when trying to find which color you need. Color wheels tend to be hard because of the colors being next to each other.

The differences between the pigment color wheel and artist color wheel is shown; subtracting or adding the colors. They also introduced 2 more color wheels: The process wheel and the light wheel.  Throughout these new color wheels, primary  colors are added to the wheels; The artist color wheel adds green to one of their primaries. The process wheel had violet as one of their primary colors, etc. How we all differentiate each color wheel is confusing but very beneficial because they all work different under different circumstances; printing, painting, typing, etc.

Color Properties

Relearning subtractive and additive mixing of colors was very interesting. Subtractive; meaning that you take away a specific color so that the other that was mixed with it is shown more vividly. Additive mixing is mixing two colors in order to create a brand new one.

There were 2 questions that popped in my head before I started reading: “Why do we use RBG (Red, Blue, and green) for light and screens, but use RYB (Red, Yellow, and Blue) for artists?” As well as “How do we fully distinguish the difference between saturation and brightness?”

From the book, it says that we use RYB because of what we see on the surface. Color is technically a form of light with different wavelengths, so we can’t really see how the light “mingle” with each other in order to create the color necessary. RGB is what we use in order to create all the colors in the color spectrum, however, when forming colors on the surface with media like paint and color pencils, the pigments of those colors actually stack unto each other, forming a darker and duller color. This means that when we mix green and red together with paint, it wouldn’t create the color yellow since the pigments in the color form something duller; meaning that Red + green forms a brownish color. This is not saying that Red and green can’t form the color yellow (since RGB forms all the colors in the spectrum) but it’s because using RYB seems more natural and easier to use in order to form colors.

Fully understanding saturation and brightness was annoying to me too because they both are pretty similar. Hue is different because it shows different parts of the light spectrum, but saturation and brightness both go off of similar terms: lighter, darker, whiter, blacker, duller, and brighter. Looking back on the diagram (DCM P. 8) I figured out the difference. Saturation is the addition of both black and white pigments unto the color, which makes the color either duller or lighter. Brightness is the addition of black OR white, which will either make the color darker or stronger.
These 2 are the things that I probably learned the most.

Due to these things though, it’s important to understand the colors and their harmonies with each other. It’s important for designers especially to know how colors interact with each other due to their influence on making mood and attraction; complementary, Monochromatic, Analogous and triadic scheme colors.

Fun thing I learned: Not everyone has the same specific hue that people would depict the primary colors ought to be. In fact, we don’t actually know whether the colors we see is different from other’s view on the color. However, it’s generally accepted that hue is the same among those who aren’t color blinded or have problems with seeing with light.