

Color and Emotion, how we related to hues via value as a human and artist

Color and Emotion, how we related to color as a human and artist.

Just found some cool food for thought on color that might interested you guys as an artist. I believe it could perhaps help you find your own favorite palette and personal choice of colors. 

Color is an aspect of life from which we cannot escape, and influences each person’s actions and emotions, however subtle.

* Oceans, plants, rocks and animals radiate color in nature.
* Chefs pay special attention to color arrangements at gourmet restaurants.
* Marketers give products a certain image through the colors used on their packaging and in advertisements.
* In the morning, many people glance in the mirror to make sure they match (or don’t match) to give others an impression of who they are.
* Women wear makeup, finding themselves more attractive when their cheeks are rosy and their eyes are colored.
* American culture has even coined phrases relaying their emotions through color: i.e., green with envy, feeling the blues.

Some Fact: Love, Sex & color.
"Your eyes evolved to see rosy cheeks."
The eyes in humans and their closest relatives in the primate world are geared to detect subtle changes in skin tone caused by blood oxygen levels, according to a new study from Caltech.
The spectral sensitivity of color cones in humans and chimps are somewhat unusual. Bees have four color cones that are evenly spread across the visible color spectrum. Birds have three color cones. By contrast, humans have three types of cones that are sensitive to a limited range of wavelengths. The closeness, however, allows for the detection of subtle tone changes. When someone blushes, the skin becomes red from elevated oxygen levels. If you're exhausted, you become pale from the lack of oxygen. When a primate is ready to mate, oxygen levels rise again leading to blushing. The human and chimp eye can capture these different color levels, which can be signals of fitness or heartiness.


Additional info:
From the time of early infancy, the human mind begins associating colors with certain emotions and experiences, and individuals retain those throughout their life. Childhood memories are so involved with color that, like engravings etched in stone, they stay in our memory forever, whether or not we notice a conscious effect on our actions. “The tape recorders in our heads are never turned off, and into adulthood, we continue to respond to specific colors in a positive or negative way (Eiseman 14).”

Some experts believe that humans also carry an “ancient wisdom,” a sort of hereditary recollection of nature’s meaning behind each color. (They also believe humans have, through evolution, acquired this memory for space, form and patterns.) (Eiseman 15).

This theory is perhaps confirmed in the warnings that nature gives us. For instance, the red gobbler on the rooster that flames to attract females or ward off enemies serve both purposes well. Bright yellow fish and yellow diamonds on snakes many times signals to predators the animal is poisonous. Over time, we begin to recognize these colors as signs, and adhere to their message.

The emotional and psychological effects of colors on each individual and their culture has received contributions both from personal experiences and the evolutionary, instinctive nature of our beings. Each color has distinctive ideas and emotions attached to them, most ideas which have their root in history.

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Chris said…
I'm red/green colourblind and tend to worry alot about the colours I use in drawings and stuff (often getting someone to help me pick them lol), and I don't often use colour in sculpture work.

I can still see red and green, but in certain situations I can completely miss a shade, or blues and purples look the same etc.. and finding ripe apples and bananas can be hard! haha.

Anyway if you're interested in colour and emotion, you might be also interested in colour synesthesia. Wikipedia will probably have something on it.
XIA said…
Chris> Lot of great artists are also color blind. As long as you get the value right...color came second in my book and most people, (unless you want to be like Monet and his crowd-they focus on the vibrant of colors)
But I hear you man! It gotta be difficult for you sometimes.
Value rules!