I don't wish to undermine any of the paint producing companies out there. They do work really hard, bringing us all their colours, very neatly presented, on handsome gate-folded cards.
Some of these charts & cards are so well produced, so desirable, that they are coveted by painters, designers & customers alike.
We guard them, less they go missing somehow.
And all that is great, it creates an image, a recognisable brand, but do they really work?
By the statement above I mean - do we really choose a colour from the card alone?
Basically no we don't.
There is a whole lot of pre-processing going on before we even look at the cards. We already have our own highly ordered set of colours buried deep in our psyche, a language built culturally and stored emotionally in our highly developed brains. A visual library if you like, it's a store we've developed from childhood and continue adding to, reinforced & enhanced by our moods and feelings about ourselves, and perhaps surprisingly, how we want to feel too.
Remember, colour and the way we see it is a perception, a play of light, an illusion.
So with all that going on:- how do we make use of it; how do we tap into this and bring it into our conscious mind; how do we actually make sense of it?
Some choices are simple and instinctive, try this exercise:
The juiciest apple is green or red? *see answer below But how do we know that? Because we've been taught early on. Oh, and a banana is definitely yellow, right? Except when it's green.
We've a mental image of a banana in yellow, because this is the ideal colour, it's ripe, delicious and ready to eat. We've attached an emotion to it, we even say Banana Yellow to describe a colour.
Horizon: Do you see colours the same as me? a BBC programme illustrates this beautifully. Watch it if you can, it's a real eye opener.
In Part II of the article i'll go further into the methods i've been working with based on all this. It helps to expand our visual colour skills & i'll show you how i've personally tapped into this resource. With a little practice nearly anyone can develop awareness & confidence and it's the confidence that allows us to make better and informed choices.
For now....
Mark
The juicy apple question has no right or wrong answer.
Though it does show you've selected a colour & attached a positive emotion to that choice.
