The art of color

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1. krickFeb 2014
   If you are pretty good at drawing already I'd suggest to practice at color drawing for some short time using your intuition and your eyes, and then move on to the serious stuff. I mean color theory. You might find useful Gnomon Workshop tutorials on color theory and Johannes Itten's "The Art of Color". Also, here you inevitably will need guidance in proper usage of your instruments, so find yourself a manual for the technique you use (some book and I find youtube videos on topic pretty useful ofttimes).
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2. hsmyersJul 2013
   The Design of Everyday Things: Donald A. Norman

   The Elements of Typographic Style, by Robert Bringhurst

   Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte, Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte

   Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative by Edward R. Tufte

   Beautiful Evidence by Edward R. Tufte

   Small Is Beautiful by E. F. Schumache

   The Art of Color by Johannes Itten

   Were I to teach a course, that would be the list of text books required (so you would own them after). First and only assignment---read them. Final and only exam---what did you learn and understand. Supply proof.

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3. d5tryrFeb 2012
   Johannes Itten, of the Bauhaus, is the go to guy for colour theory, both these books are fantastic:

   The Art of Color: The Subjective Experience and Objective Rationale of Color

   http://www.amazon.com/Art-Color-Subjective-Experience-Object...

   The Elements of Color: A Treatise on the Color System of Johannes Itten Based on His Book the Art of Color

   http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Color-Treatise-System-Johanne...

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4. ankeshkSep 2009
   A single colour rarely has much of an impact on your mood. Its contrast that matters.

   (Read: http://www.psy.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/shikisai2005.html)

   So when an article lists all the colours along with the emotions they represent and says things like that red is associated with excitement, strength, sex, passion, speed, danger - it raises my BS signal.

   It means they're copying some pseudo science article they read in a fun coffee table magazine once.

   If you're really interested in colours and colour psychology, let me recommend:

   Website: Color Matters http://www.colormatters.com/entercolormatters.html

   Book: The Art of Color by Johannes Itten http://www.amazon.com/Art-Color-Subjective-Experience-Object...

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5. mynneMay 2009
   Firstly, read about design theory. Designers would love to convince you that what they do is magic, but if you read or even browse through books like "The Art of Color" by Johannes Itten or "The Elements of Typographic Style" you'll have a better understanding for the mechanics of establishing a visual style/rhythm, and to me that's the majority of design...establishing a balanced, consistent rhythm.
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6. DaubJun 2025
   > especially since there’s no real science or theory behind it (that I know of).

   The literature on hue harmony is fuzzy, but there are a few gems.

   Check out Matsuda [1] who tracked the colors of what his female students were wearing, and tried to identify any principles informing their color choice. My criticism of him is that he plotted hue distribution on the RGB color wheel. The RYB wheel would have been a far better choice. His paper is in Japanese, but is summarized in multiple places. Below [2] is a link to 2 pages from a lecture I gave which summarizes his findings.

   I'm sure you also know of Kuehni's classic tome on color spaces [3]. A fun and informative read.

   There has been no research on hue antagonism (which is the idea that underpins complementary pairs). This is crazy, as it would be a very easy subject to investigate. To me it is obvious that there is a special relationship between antagonistic pairs above the fact that they mix to neutral. Supporting this is the fact that Leondro DaVinci documented this relationship even before hue circle was invented [4]!

   As for the mystical dimension of color harmony... this has been assumed since the dawn of color science. Newton himself believed that there was seven colors in his hue circle for no other reason than this was a spiritually significant value [5]. Itten [6], Goethe [7] and Kandinsky [8] all absolutely believed in the spiritual dimension of color. Personally, I believe that their work has had nothing but a destructive impact on how artists and designers use color. It is wildly inconsistent, vague and often plain wrong.

   [1] Matsuda: Color Design. Asakura Shoten (in Japanese). (1995)

   [2] https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/4ac93etjyg0z5y2ouq5ge/matsuda...

   [3] Kuehni, R.: Color Space and its Divisions: Color Order from Antiquity to the Present. Wiley-Interscience, Hoboken (2003)

   [4] Leonardo da Vinci, Trans. J. F. Rigaud, A Treatise on Painting (London: J.B. Nichols & Son, 1835).

   [5] Matt Chamings “Why are there seven colours in a rainbow?” New Scientist, Last Word, 2021.

   [6] Johannes Itten, The Art of Color: The Subjective Experience and Objective Rationale of Color (New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1961).

   [7] J. W. v. Goethe, Goethe's Colour Theory, Trans. C. L. Eastlake (London: John Murray, 1840).

   [8] Wassily Kandinsky, Trans. Michael Sadler, Concerning the spiritual in art (Penguin UK, 2024), p. 59.

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