Color theory and color wheels
greentooth
Ok, i'm really confused about all this.
in school, they thought us about the Red, Yellow, Blue color wheel. In that, if you look complementary colors, you get pairs like Red<->Green, or Orange<->Blue.
And then we use this in painting...ok so we want to make logo with complementary colors, so we choose red and green.
Thats all fine and dandy until you get to learn about Red, Green, Blue color wheel.
Here, all of sudden, complementary colors are red and cyan, blue and yelow.
So if i was to make the same logo, i would have to choose Red and Cyan.
Now i'm not not really what is the correct one, and as i understand, it's got to do with how you are mixing the colors.
BUt still, if i am to make a logo, people still use red and green, even if by RGB color wheel, i shouldn't really use those too, if i am to really use complementary colors.
So lets say that i use painter's RGB wheel, aand am making logo, or maybe some painting, where i want to either use complementary colors, or something similar.
Wich color wheel do i choose for choice of colors? Red-green, or red cyan? RGB or RYB?
Another example is, i'm making lighting in 3d map, say,udk.
I have sun that has nice yellow color. Then i want to choose complementary color for the shadows. Do i choose blue or purple?
in school, they thought us about the Red, Yellow, Blue color wheel. In that, if you look complementary colors, you get pairs like Red<->Green, or Orange<->Blue.
And then we use this in painting...ok so we want to make logo with complementary colors, so we choose red and green.
Thats all fine and dandy until you get to learn about Red, Green, Blue color wheel.
Here, all of sudden, complementary colors are red and cyan, blue and yelow.
So if i was to make the same logo, i would have to choose Red and Cyan.
Now i'm not not really what is the correct one, and as i understand, it's got to do with how you are mixing the colors.
BUt still, if i am to make a logo, people still use red and green, even if by RGB color wheel, i shouldn't really use those too, if i am to really use complementary colors.
So lets say that i use painter's RGB wheel, aand am making logo, or maybe some painting, where i want to either use complementary colors, or something similar.
Wich color wheel do i choose for choice of colors? Red-green, or red cyan? RGB or RYB?
Another example is, i'm making lighting in 3d map, say,udk.
I have sun that has nice yellow color. Then i want to choose complementary color for the shadows. Do i choose blue or purple?
Replies
I don't think it will make a huge difference either way... People like to offset complementary colors a bit anyways..but...
I'm guessing the RGB wheel is the way to go. Since all colors are going to be additively mixed anyways, you might as well stick with that. Plus, if you take your shadow example...that shadow will be mixing with the surfaces it rests on, and those colors will be mixed additively...so if you use purple, the color of the surface wont be correct.
http://colorschemedesigner.com/
But the idea of complementary colours and analogous colours is all based around the paint subtractive colour system with red, yellow and blue.
RGB is a different colour space and you'll notice if you check out an RGB hue slider that the colours don't look evenly spaced. Most people can tell as much difference between the colours between red and yellow (all the oranges) as the difference between the colours between yellow and cyan (a much bigger block that includes all the limes and greens).
RGB isn't weighted to be aesthetic, so don't worry about not treating it like it's mathematically superior. Different people and races have varying sensitivities to different wavelengths of light (meaning some people can tell differences between lots of greens where others just see them all as the same) so there really isn't any way to be maths exact here.
The notion of a complementary color, and even a color wheel, is a purely psychological thing. There isn't a physically correct model for it. I suppose arguably the complements, both in the pigment model, and in the light model, correspond to relatively even jumps in wavelength, which is likely why they tend to be psychologically pleasing, similar to a musical chord, but still.
The precise model doesn't tend to matter that much.
If you're wanting to be a stickler about it, remember that there are warm and cool versions of the tones in the RYB model, and the complement effect is different if you pair a cool blue with a warm orange (ultramarine blue and cadmium orange), vs a cool blue with a cool orange.. which tends to be closer to brown anyway.
Well, it's just that i'm not very confident with colors, and i never really gave a lot of thinking to it.But as i started to see other peoples digital pantings, i started to noticed a lot of them actually do use color wheels as sort of a guidelines (But not rules), so when i went into this, i learn about several color wheels.
in elementary school, they though us red and green are good because they are contrasted (for certain scenarios)....now i learn that actually are not...
Ofcourse, at the end of a day, you choose those that looks to you the best, and i'd hardly eve choose cyan and red...
Well, tnx all, i guess it's not all that simple, hehe. I guess at the end of the day, you choose the colors that our eyes are used to see in real world, nature and such.
Out eyes have 3 types of color receptors with peak responses cued to the wavelengths corresponding to red green and blue. So red next to green stimulates two distinct sets of cells with just a bit of potential overlap. So we perceive a distinct contrast and complement.
Red and cyan are complementing colors in a different way. They are "opposite" in that when you mix them you get white.