Exercise 1 – Colour Perception

The yellow square in the centre of each of the samples looks very similar at first glance.  However, after standing the sheet up and looking from a distance differences emerge.  On both the red and black backgrounds it looks fresh, bright, sharp edged and standing forward, whilst on the pink and purple it looks less defined and fuzzy.  The bright turquoise blue seems to swallow it and it looks smaller than in the other squares and the blue comes forward.  The yellow on green looks more balanced, harmonious and restful with neither colour really dominating the other in the proportions used.

I then took the three primary colours and put them into black, white and their complimentary colour.

Interesting.  I think the small squares look very similar on the black and complimentary colour but less vibrant on the white.  Not quite what I expected.  I thought they would jump out against the white.  Somehow they just don’t look as dynamic.

Random pairings

I then picked completely random coloured papers from my collection and tried a few different centres.

The small turquoise blue squares are extremely dominant and, looking through my Value Finder, I can see them almost as black showing how saturated and powerful they are against all the backgrounds I’ve used.

The green squares show more variety.  The square looks very balanced on the yellow, fuzzy and fading to the back on the purple and, well… plain horrible on the pink.

The small purple squares are my favourite.  It looks like something and nothing on the top very pale green but I love the effects on both the red and blue.  Both are exciting and my eyes are stimulated with the colours  fighting for attention, especially the bottom sample.

Overall, extremely interesting with some results I wouldn’t have expected.  Glad I’ve done it and it’s made me more aware of my colour choices when trying to expand out of my normal colour comfort zone.