Even in ancient India, there were peculiar ideas about the close relationship between music and color. In particular, the Hindus believed that each person has its own melody and color. The brilliant Aristotle argued in the treatise "On the Soul" that the ratio of colors is like musical harmonies.
The Pythagoreans preferred white as the dominant color in the universe, and the colors of the spectrum in their view corresponded to the seven musical tones. Colors and sounds in the cosmogony of the Greeks are active creative forces.
In the 18th century, the monk-scientist L. Castel decided to design a “color harpsichord”. Pressing a key would present to the listener's eye a bright spot of color in a special window above the instrument in the form of a colored moving ribbon, flags shining with different colors of precious stones, illuminated by torches or candles to enhance the effect.
The composers Rameau, Telemann and Grétry paid close attention to Castel's ideas. At the same time, he was sharply criticized by encyclopedists, who considered the analogy "seven sounds of the scale - seven colors of the spectrum" untenable.
The phenomenon of color vision of music was discovered by some prominent musical figures. The brilliant Russian composer N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, famous Soviet musicians B.V. Asafiev, S.S. Skrebkov, A.A. Kenel and others saw all major and minor keys painted in certain colors. Austrian composer of the 20th century A. Schoenberg compared colors with musical timbres of symphony orchestra instruments. Each of these outstanding masters saw their own colors in the sounds of music.
But there were also surprising coincidences.
It is worth noting that all the named musicians possessed.
Works by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov is often called "sound painting" by musicologists. Such a definition is associated with the marvelous visualization of the composer's music. Operas and symphonic compositions by Rimsky-Korsakov are full of musical landscapes. The choice of the tonal plan of nature paintings is by no means accidental.
Seen in blue tones in E major and E flat major, in the operas The Tale of Tsar Saltan, Sadko, The Golden Cockerel, they were used to create pictures of the sea, the starry night sky. Sunrise in the same operas is written in A major - the key is spring, pink.
In the opera The Snow Maiden, the ice girl first appears on stage in the “blue” E major, and her mother, Spring-Red, in the “spring, pink” A major. The manifestation of lyrical feelings is conveyed by the composer in a “warm” D-flat major - these are the scenes of the melting of the Snow Maiden, who received the great gift of love.
The French impressionist composer C. Debussy did not leave precise statements about his vision of music in color. But his piano preludes – “Terrace Haunted by Moonlight”, in which sound reflections shimmer, “Girl with Flaxen Hair”, written in subtle watercolors, suggest that the composer had clear intentions to combine sound, light and color.
C. Debussy “Girl with Flaxen Hair”
Debussy's symphonic work "Nocturnes" allows you to clearly feel this unique "light-color-sound". The first part - “Clouds” draws silver-gray clouds slowly moving and fading away in the distance. The second nocturne of "Celebration" depicts light bursts of the atmosphere, its fantastic dance. In the third nocturne, on the waves of the sea, sparkling in the night air, magical siren maidens sway and sing their bewitching song.
C. Debussy “Nocturnes”
Speaking about music and color, it is impossible not to touch on the work of the brilliant A.N. Scriabin. For example, he clearly felt the thick red color of F major, the golden color of D major, the blue solemn color gave F sharp major. Scriabin did not associate all tonality with any color. The composer created an artificial sound-color system ( C major is red, G major is orange, and D major is yellow and further - along the circle of fifths and the color spectrum). The composer's ideas about the combination of music, light and color were most clearly embodied in the symphonic poem "Prometheus".
Scientists, musicians and artists still argue about the possibility of combining color and music. There are studies that the periods of oscillations of sound and light waves do not coincide and “color sound” is just a phenomenon of perception. But there are definitions among musicians: "tonal color", "timbre colors" . And if sound and color are combined in the creative mind of the composer, then the grandiose "Prometheus" by A. Scriabin and the majestic sounding landscapes of I. Levitan, N. Roerich are born. In Polenov...
Color is of great importance not only in art, but also in everyday life. Few people think about how much different combinations of shades affect human perception, mood and even thinking. This is a kind of phenomenon that operates according to its own seemingly ghostly, but clear laws. Therefore, it is not so difficult to subordinate it to your will so that it works for the good: you just have to figure out how it works.
Color is a subjective characteristic of electromagnetic radiation in the optical range, which is determined on the basis of the emerging visual impression. The latter depends on many physiological and psychological reasons. Its understanding can be equally influenced by its spectral composition and the personality of the perceiving person.
To put it simply, color is the impression that a person receives when a beam of light rays penetrates the retina. A beam of light with the same spectral composition can cause different sensations in different people due to the distinctive features of the sensitivity of the eye, so for each person the shade can be perceived differently.
The color vision that appears in the human mind includes semantic content. Hue is produced by the absorption of light waves: for example, a blue ball looks like this only because the material from which it is made absorbs all shades of the light beam, except for the blue, which it reflects. Therefore, when we talk about a blue ball, we only mean that the molecular composition of its surface is able to absorb all the colors of the spectrum, except for blue. The ball itself has no tone, like any object on the planet. Color is born only in the process of lighting, in the process of perception of waves by the eye and processing of this information by the brain.
A clear difference in hue and its basic characteristics can be achieved by comparison between the eyes and the brain. Therefore, values can only be determined by comparing the color with another achromatic hue, such as black, white and grey. The brain is also able to compare the hue with other chromatic tones in the spectrum by analyzing the tone. Perception refers to the psychophysiological factor.
Psychophysiological reality is, in fact, a color effect. The hue and its effect may coincide when using harmonic semitones - in other situations, the color may change.
It is important to know the basic characteristics of colors. This concept includes not only its actual perception, but also the influence of various factors on it.
Mixing certain pairs of colors can give the impression of white. Complementary are opposite tones that, when mixed, give gray. The RGB triad is named after the main colors of the spectrum - red, green and blue. Additional in this case will be cyan, magenta and yellow. On the color wheel, these shades are located in opposition, opposite each other so that the values of the two triplets of colors alternate.
The main physical characteristics of color include the following items:
Each characteristic can be measured quantitatively. The fundamental difference between the main characteristics of color is that brightness implies lightness or darkness. This is the content of the light or dark component in it, black or white, while the contrast provides information about the content of the gray tone: the smaller it is, the higher the contrast.
Also, any shade can be set by three peculiar coordinates, representing the main characteristics of the color:
These three indicators are able to determine a specific shade, starting from the main tone. The main characteristics of color and their fundamental differences are described by the science of coloristics, which is a deep study of the properties of this phenomenon and its influence on art and life.
The color characteristic is responsible for the location of the shade in the spectrum. Chromatic tone is one way or another attributed to one or another part of the spectrum. Thus, shades that are in the same part of the spectrum (but differ, for example, in brightness) will belong to the same tone. When you change the position of a hue along the spectrum, its color characteristic changes. For example, shifting blue towards green changes the hue to cyan. Moving in the opposite direction, blue will tend to red, taking on a purple hue.
Often, a change in tone is associated with the warmth and coldness of the color. Red, red and yellow shades are classified as warm, associating them with fiery, “warming” colors. They are associated with the corresponding psychophysical reactions in human perception. Blue, purple, blue symbolize water and ice, referring to cold shades. The perception of "warmth" is associated with both physical and psychological factors of an individual personality: preferences, the mood of the observer, his psycho-emotional state, adaptation to environmental conditions, and much more. Red is considered the warmest, blue is considered the coldest.
It is also necessary to highlight the physical characteristics of the sources. Color temperature is largely associated with the subjective feeling of warmth of a particular shade. For example, the tone of a thermal study as the temperature rises through the "warm" tones of the spectrum from scarlet to yellow and finally white. However, cyan has the highest color temperature, which is nevertheless considered a cold shade.
Among the main characteristics within the hue factor is also activity. Red is the most active, while green is the most passive. This characteristic can also be somewhat modified under the influence of the subjective view of different people.
Shades of the same hue and saturation can refer to different degrees of lightness. Consider this characteristic in the light of blue. With the maximum value of this characteristic, it will be closer to white, having a soft bluish tint, and as the value drops, the blue will become more and more like black.
Any tone with a decrease in lightness will turn into black, and with an absolute increase - white.
It should be noted that this indicator, like all other basic physical characteristics of color, can largely depend on the subjective conditions associated with the psychology of human perception.
By the way, shades of different tones, even with a similar actual lightness and saturation, are perceived by a person in different ways. Yellow is in fact the lightest, while blue is the darkest shade of the chromatic spectrum.
With a high characteristic, yellow is distinguished from white even less than blue is distinguishable from black. It turns out that the yellow tone has even a greater own lightness than “darkness” is characteristic of blue.
Saturation is the level of difference between a chromatic hue and an achromatic hue equal to it in lightness. In essence, saturation is a measure of the depth, or purity, of a color. Two shades of the same tone can have different levels of fading. By lowering the saturation, any color will become closer to gray.
Another of the general characteristics of color, which describes a person's impressions of a combination of several shades. Each person has their own preferences and tastes. Therefore, people have different ideas about the harmony and disharmony of different types of colors (with color characteristics that are characteristic of them). Harmonious combinations are called similar in tone or shades from different intervals of the spectrum, but with a similar lightness. As a rule, harmonious combinations do not have high contrast.
As for the rationale for this phenomenon, this concept should be considered in isolation from subjective opinions and personal tastes. The impression of harmony arises under the conditions of the implementation of the law of complementary colors: the equilibrium state corresponds to a gray tone of medium lightness. It is obtained not only by mixing black and white, but also a couple of additional shades, if they contain the main colors of the spectrum in a certain proportion. All combinations that do not give gray when mixed are considered disharmonious.
Contrast is the difference between two shades, ascertained by comparing them. Studying the main characteristics of color and their fundamental differences, seven types of contrast manifestations can be identified:
Color has properties that can affect depth perception through contrasts between dark and light, as well as changes in saturation. For example, all light tones against a dark background will visually protrude forward.
As for warm and cold shades, warm tones will come to the fore, and cold tones will go deep.
With saturation contrast, bright colors stand out against a background of muted hues.
Propagation contrast, also called color plane magnitude contrast, plays a huge role in creating the illusion of depth.
Color is an amazing phenomenon of this world. He is able to influence perception, deceive the eye and brain. But if you understand how this phenomenon works, you can not only maintain clarity of perception, but also make color become a faithful assistant in life and art.
Saturation- a color characteristic that characterizes the content of pure chromatic color in a mixed color. Saturation depends on the purity of the color, the more pure it is, the more saturated it is. Gray color gives coldness to the color, but makes it less saturated. The most saturated colors are spectral (pure).
Lightness- This is a color characteristic that determines the proximity of chromatic and achromatic colors to white. This is the only color characteristic that is shared by both chromatic and achromatic colors.
Each chromatic color of maximum saturation has its own lightness and cannot be obtained in the same saturation in a lighter or darker version. With regard to hair color, rich purple can be obtained at a tone depth of 4, blue at 5, red at 7, orange at 9, etc.
Brightness- a characteristic of color, which is often confused with lightness, but this is an objective concept that depends on the amount of light entering the observer's eye from an object that emits, transmits or reflects it. The objectivity of this characteristic is ensured by the fact that the brightness is measured by special devices, and not by eye.
The brightest achromatic color is white, and the darkest is black. When the brightness is reduced, any color becomes black.
The closer the colors in the composition are in terms of brightness, the more calm the composition is. The more contrasting colors, the brighter and more expressive the composition will be.
Color tone- the main characteristic of chromatic colors, which determines the similarity of a color with one of the colors of the spectrum.
Often, colors are additionally divided into cold and warm. In a simplified artistic interpretation, cold colors are: blue, purple, green, and warm: red, orange, yellow. This interpretation corresponds to the psychological and vegetative perception of color. However, colors are usually characterized only on the basis of comparing colors with each other. Therefore, all colors can be more subtly decomposed into warm and cold shades, which allows you to choose cool reds or warm greens. This phenomenon is widely used in the theory of color types in the selection of colors for hair, clothing and makeup.
For a convenient systematization of various color characteristics and the selection of harmonious color combinations, systems of color wheels, as well as color volumetric bodies (balls, cylinders, etc.), were developed. In practice, color wheels are usually used in various gradation variations, since volumetric bodies are difficult to use, although they contain more detailed color characteristics.
Color can be admired endlessly, but discussing the topic of color is sometimes difficult. The fact is that the words we use to describe color are too imprecise and often lead to mutual misunderstanding. The confusion occurs not only with such technical terms as "brightness", "saturation" and "chroma", but even with such simple words as "light", "clear", "bright" and "dim". Even specialists have been arguing this way so far and have not approved the standard definitions of concepts.
Color is a phenomenon of light caused by our eyes' ability to detect different amounts of reflected and projected light. Science and technology has helped us understand how the human eye perceives physiologically light, measure the wavelengths of light, and find out the amount of energy they carry. And now we understand how complicated the concept of “color” is. Below we talk about how we define color properties.
We have tried to compile a glossary of terms and concepts. While we do not claim to be the sole authority on color theory, the definitions you find here are supported by other mathematical and scientific arguments. Please let us know if there are any words or concepts in this dictionary that you would like to know about.
Other translations: color, paint, shade, tone.
This is the word we mean when we ask the question "What color is this?". We are interested in a color property called Hue. For example, when we talk about red, yellow, green, and blue, we mean "hue". Different tones are created by light with different wavelengths. Thus, this aspect of color is usually quite easy to recognize.
The contrast of tones is clearly different tones.
Tone contrast - different shades, the same tone (blue).
The term "tone" describes the main color characteristic that distinguishes red from yellow and blue. Color is largely dependent on the wavelength of light emitted or reflected by an object. For example, the range of visible light is between infrared (wavelength ~700nm) and ultraviolet (wavelength ~400nm).
The diagram shows the color spectrum that reflects these boundaries of visible light, as well as two color groups (red and blue), which are called "tone families". Any color taken from the spectrum can be mixed with white, black and gray, and get the colors of the corresponding tone family. Note that the tone family contains colors of varying brightness, chroma, and saturation.
We talk about chromaticity when we talk about the “purity” of a color. This property of a color tells us how pure it is. This means that if there are no impurities of white, black or gray in the color, the color has a high purity. These colors look vibrant and pure.
The concept of "chromaticity" is associated with saturation. And it is often confused with saturation. However, we will continue to use these terms separately, because in our opinion they refer to different situations, which will be discussed a little later.
High chromaticity - very radiant, vibrant colors.
Low chromaticity - achromatic, colorless colors.
The chromaticity is the same - the average level. The same liveliness of colors despite the different tone; the purity is less than that of the samples above.
Highly chromatic colors contain the maximum of the actual color with little or no white, black, or grey. In other words, the degree of absence of impurities of other colors in a particular color characterizes its chromaticity.
Chromaticity, often referred to as "juiciness," is the amount of hue in a color. Color without color (hue) is achromatic or monochromatic, and is seen as gray. For most colors, as brightness increases, so does chroma, except for very light colors.
In relation to chroma, saturation tells us how a color looks in different lighting conditions. For example, a room painted in one color will look different at night than during the day. During the day, despite the fact that the color will not change, its saturation will change. Saturation has nothing to do with the words "dark", "light". Instead, use the words "pale", "weak" and "clear", "strong".
Saturation is the same - same intensity, different tones.
Saturation contrast - different levels of saturation, the tone is the same.
Saturation, also called "color intensity" (intensity), describes the strength of a color relative to its brightness (value) or lightness (luminance / lightness). In other words, color saturation refers to its difference from gray at a certain brightness of lighting. For example, colors close to gray are desaturated compared to lighter colors.
In a color, the property "lively" or "full" is nothing more than the absence of an admixture of gray or its shades. It is important to note that saturation is measured along lines of equal brightness.
When we say that a color is "dark" or "light", we mean its brightness. This property tells us how light or dark the light is, in the sense that it is close to white. For example, canary yellow is considered lighter than navy blue, which is itself lighter than black. Thus, the value of canary yellow is higher than that of navy blue and black.
Low brightness, constant - the same brightness level.
Luminance contrast - gray = achromatic.
Luminance contrast is the total difference in brightness.
Brightness (the term "value" or "brightness" is used) depends on the amount of light emitted by a color. The easiest way to remember this concept is to imagine a gray scale, with black to white, that contains all the possible variations of monochromatic gray. The more light in a color, the brighter it is. Thus magenta is less bright than sky blue because it emits less light.
This gray scale can be equated to a color scale using the same equation used in television (Gray Luminance = 0.30 Red + 0.59 Green + 0.11 Blue):
The interactive demo illustrates the change in brightness in a 2D layout:
Although words often use the word "brightness" instead, we prefer to use the word "lightness" (or "luminosity"). The concept of "lightness of color" is associated with many of the same variables as brightness in the sense of "value". But in this case, a different mathematical formula is used. In short, remember the color wheel. In it, the colors are arranged in a circle with the same lightness. Adding white increases lightness, adding black decreases it.
This color measurement refers to brightness (value), but differs in its mathematical definition. The lightness of a color measures the intensity of light flux per unit area of its source. It is calculated by calculating the average in a group of achromatic colors.
Suffice it to say that the lightness goes from very dark to very light (shine) and can be displayed using a color wheel that shows all colors (hue) with the same lightness. If we add a little light to the color wheel, we thereby increase the intensity of the light and thus increase the lightness of the colors. The opposite will happen if we reduce the light. Compare how lightness planes look with lightness planes (above).
These terms are often misused, but they describe a fairly simple concept in color. The main thing to remember is how different the color is from its initial tone (hue). When white is added to a color, this lighter variety of color is called a tint. If a color is made darker by adding black, the resulting color is called a shade. If gray is added, each gradation gives you a different tone.
Shades (add white to pure color).
Shadows (add black to pure color).
Tonalities (adding gray to a pure color).
When two or more colors "match each other", they are called complementary, complementary colors. This sign is absolutely subjective, and we are ready to discuss it and listen to other opinions. A more precise definition would be "if two colors, when mixed together, give a neutral gray (dye / pigment) or white (light) color, they are called complementary, complementary."
The definition of primary colors depends on how we are going to reproduce the color. The colors seen when sunlight is split by a prism are sometimes called spectral colors. These are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, blue and purple. This combination of KOZHZGSF is often reduced to three colors: red, green and blue-violet, which are the primary colors of the additive color system (light). The primary colors of the subtractive color system (paint, pigment) are cyan, magenta and yellow. Remember, the combination "red, yellow blue" is not a combination of primary colors!
In different cases, depending on how the color is reproduced, different color systems are used. If we use light sources - the dominant system is RGB (from "red / green / blue" - "red / green / blue").
For colors that are obtained by mixing paints, pigments or inks on fabric, paper, linen or other material, the CMY system (from “cyan / magenta / yellow” - “cyan / magenta / yellow”) is used as a color model. Due to the fact that pure pigments are very expensive, not an equal mixture of CMY is used to obtain black, but simply black paint.
Another popular color system is HSL (from hue/saturation/lightness). This system has several options, where instead of saturation, chroma (chroma), lightness (luminance) together with brightness (value) (HSV / HLV) is used. It is this system that corresponds to how the human eye sees color.
Light, refracted and transformed by awareness (emotions, feelings and consciousness) into color, appears to us in the form of our inner content, an introverted component. In the external environment, it is designated by another concept - TON (color tone, because, in fact, there are no others). In the external environment, light interacts with the objects of the environment according to certain laws, designates the environment and reveals it for our visual perception. This interaction is determined by such principles as reflection, absorption, promotion and influence. As laws for these principles, we can recall diffraction, interference, and others, but at the moment, a slightly different quality of our perception of tone is important to us - ILLUSION. For it is the illusion that shows us the outside world in the form of visual images in our perception of any environment.
Everything we see visually is an illusion. We see not the object itself, but the light reflected and refracted by it. If an object is not illuminated, it does not exist for subjective perception, although we can determine its presence and some of its properties with other senses. Moreover, even if we visually observe an object, this does not mean at all that we "see" it. How often do you have to look for a teapot, although it is usually always under your very nose?
Often, even the environment itself gives us additional perception distortions in the form of fog, haze, or illumination of objects with additional light sources. Basically, these are reflexes, illumination of an object by light reflected from other objects.
In relation to light-darkness, we can immediately identify positions important for understanding the principles and laws of light and tone. Light is a flow, an impact, darkness is a medium that is affected by light.
The concept of "tone" is closely related to the concept of "form", because the light, being reflected from different surfaces of the object in different ways, forms tonal relationships that we perceive as a visual illusion called "Shape of the object". Why illusion and not fact? What is the degree of reliability of the illusion? And why didn't we talk about "illusions" in color?
This is the whole difference between the concepts of tone and color, that color affects our feelings and emotions, and tone - on the mental part of our consciousness, on the mind. About inaccuracies in the perception of color, we can use the terms "dissolution", "uncertainty", but when perceiving tone, our terms are more accurate - "illusion", "visual deception - degree of certainty". The sensual part will react to any such measurements only by the number of "ohs" and "ahs", which are practically not subject to measurements. The mind, in its concepts, can build matrices and scales that are relatively accurate for a given environment, and therefore, it will constantly encounter the difference between the expected and the observed.
Creativity is subject to the same laws. And with the color component of our picture, we influence the emotions and feelings of the viewer, and with the tone part - on the mind and consciousness.
In this example, the division is very conditional, but quite clear. Which half do you like best? I think that you will immediately determine the "inferiority" of both. And the same color schemes from the last article are just as inferior without a tonal component, without mediation. And even in an abstract scheme, they can be given a certain indirect look by changing the tonal component.
Naturally, when the color tone changes, the perception of the color component also changes. At the same time, its change in the environment will have one form, and in our mind - another. For we tend to represent any, even a very flat environment, primarily as a spatial illusion, and only then reduce it to the state of a plane. Even in the examples above with a planar arrangement of objects, one can try to see the spatial movement of objects towards the viewer and in depth. Of course, this depends not only on the tone, but also on the color... And at some moments you will suddenly find how your object suddenly manages to form a "hole" in space, visually being placed "behind" its own background.
Two examples of the simplest tonal-spatial illusion. Although, I think, in the future, we should replace the term "illusion" with "impression", or even "perception". Firstly, because such illusions are considered the norm for us, and secondly, psychologists and artists understand the term "illusion" to be a slightly different type of perception of reality.
Color saturation should be understood as its maximum color component, the unmediated value of a particular color. It is clear that the environment and other light sources (and color reflectors) will change this value in one direction or another (darker, lighter, or obtaining additional shades).
In the familiar Photoshop palette, we immediately see the color scale, the spectrum. This is the line on the right. She retains the rules of the color hint KOZHZGSF. And any point on this scale determines our choice of color as a fact, on the left side of the table is determined by the upper right corner. This is the point of maximum color saturation, where its color (emotional-sensual) component is full to the maximum, and the influence of tone (environment) is practically absent. Of course, this point also has its own color tone, which is visually lighter for yellow and blue, and darker for blue and red. Of course, this is all conditional, illusory, as well as further concepts of saturation and brightness.
The amount of color in a certain area of the medium determines the saturation of the color, the brightness of the color determines an additional factor in the form of the interaction of a particular color with white or another, giving a white glow in total. As a good example - your monitor screen. Green, blue and red dots give us a set of light-color scale sufficient for our frames of perception. And few people ask where the white color comes from on the monitor, if there is no such screen point. And this is also an indirect illusion. Color dots of only four colors with visual-optical mixing give us a beautiful magazine picture. In theory, we can reason with the concepts of color and tone quite accurately, building measuring rulers with mathematical precision ... But as soon as it comes to practice, the environment immediately intervenes, and therefore our illusory perception.
How can an artist or designer deal with this illusion? How to make your perception of the plot "similar" at least a little with the perception of the viewer? The technique of using CO-relations helps the artist in this.
Any measurement always requires its own standard, against which work and measurements will be performed. One meter (100cm = 1000mm), a dozen (12 something), parrots (38 parrots = 1 boa constrictor). These are examples of external standards. Any art has its own internal standards "embedded in the result". In painting, for example, each picture has its own scale of tonal and color tones, called gamma, a general tone (for color in painting, such terms as "color" and "valor" are used).
