| Knowledge on mixing colors and using contrast is | | | | with it to explore the features of every single color. |
| commonly spread. But there are other color effects, | | | | She also found out, that colors don't have to mix as |
| that can't be explained by most color theory and color | | | | matter at all. She could bring out a radiant magenta, by |
| wheel info. | | | | using only blue and yellow paint. The magenta was |
| Even when I didn't use color yet, I noticed that a white | | | | there for everyone to see. Even if it was only light, it |
| painted on black gets a different look than a black | | | | appeared as if actually painted on. And we all know, |
| painted on white. When you paint a semi-transparant | | | | you don't get magenta, when you mix yellow and blue |
| white over black, it gets a cold, bluish tone. And when | | | | paint - you get green, when you mix yellow and blue. |
| you paint a semi-transparent black over white, it gets a | | | | After my watercolor-lessons, I took this knowledge into |
| warm, brownish tone. Years later I found, that this | | | | oil painting and found it works exactly the same way in |
| phenomenon can be explained by Goethes theory of | | | | oils painting. When you paint a yellow ochre |
| color. | | | | background, and over that a hiding blue (mixed with |
| Goethe doesn't juggle with wavelengths, atoms or | | | | white), magenta tones are appearing. And if you paint |
| breaking indexes - instead he consciously uses only | | | | transparant blue over yellow ochre, it will blend into a |
| his own perception. He found that for color to appear | | | | green. |
| (in for example the atmosphere), you need light, | | | | The interval-effect is fortified by photographic |
| darkness and a transparent form of matter (like air, | | | | reproduction. I worked a lot with graphic programs, and |
| water, glass etc.). Warm colors (yellow-orange-red) | | | | found that the interval-phenomenon is even stronger |
| appear when you see darkness before light, and you | | | | when such a picture is reproduced on an LCD-screen, |
| see blues when, seen from your standpoint, you see | | | | and sometimes extra fortified when you print the |
| light before darkness. In a prisma, it works about the | | | | picture. Most of the time it occurs as an inexplicable |
| same way. Check here for more on color theory | | | | magenta (pink) hue. When you make a picture in black |
| Of course, atoms and wavelengths have a truth of | | | | and white, and have very well-balanced tonal values |
| their own. But it's a machine-truth. We don't see atoms | | | | (light and darkness), stripes of green and magenta |
| or wavelengths. Newtons theory of color is good for | | | | appear. When they touch, you get blue. This also |
| building color-tv's, but for art it was a disaster. More | | | | happens, when you color-copy a black and white |
| than once, I heard my colleague-painters declare color | | | | picture, with the lid open. |
| actually doesn't exist, that it's a purely subjective | | | | The effect of the interval is not about color mixing as |
| phenomenon, an illusion created by the brain. That's not | | | | light. It has to do with the effect of darkness or |
| something an artist can work with. Goethes theory for | | | | shadow as well. I have spoken about it with a |
| me was a solution. It actually helped me understand | | | | goethean science teacher, he doesn't understand it yet |
| color. With Goethes theory of color you can't build | | | | either. But I'm sure it will be understood some day. |
| color tv's, because it describes the ideal part of | | | | There is still a lot to explore, when it comes to color |
| nature itself. But Goethes theory of color is great for | | | | effects. This is really a kind of science, even if it's not |
| artists and graphic designers. | | | | about machines, and we all know science is a very |
| I took some lessons of two watercolorists. They were | | | | slow process. But at least now I know, why reds look |
| experts in a method developed by a unique | | | | great when painted on white semi-transparant, and |
| watercolorist (Liane Collot-d'Herbois) who took | | | | blues look ugly when you paint them that way. |
| Goethes knowledge as a basis, and experimented | | | | |