Types of color harmonies. What is color harmony

Lecture 5. Types of color harmonies. Color color

Target:

theoretical acquaintance with the variety of color harmonies and features of color color for the subsequent implementation of practical work

4.1. Color harmony. Types of color harmony

The problem of color harmony belongs to the most difficult problems of aesthetics, because a person's attitude to color is formed under the influence of many different factors. There is also a scientific theory of color harmony. The term "harmony" as an aesthetic category originated in Ancient Greece. This category is associated with such concepts as connectedness, the unity of opposites, measure and proportionality, scale with a person.

The harmony of colors implies a combination of common and different, taken in certain respects. Over the course of a large amount of time, due to changes in trends, styles, and the influence of individuals in art, the system of aesthetic categories has been radically rethought, and this comprehension is taking place at the present time. The concept of color harmony is also undergoing qualitative changes.

For artists, designers, whose professional activity is directly related to color, with the need to think through harmonious color combinations, knowledge of the basic principles of creating color harmonies helps to solve the issues of designing a color environment, coloring any thing intended for a person, his color preferences.

Color harmony in design is the consistency of colors among themselves as a result of the found proportionality of the areas of colors, their balance and consonance, based on finding a unique shade of each color. It should evoke certain positive feelings and sensations in a person.

There is a close relationship between the individual color spots of the work: each individual color balances or reveals the other, and two colors taken together affect the third. A change in any one color leads to a violation of this connection and the destruction of harmony. . Regularity is the main sign of harmony. It is assumed that due to harmony, we perceive an ordered combination of colors as an aesthetically positive wholeness. All attempts to formulate the laws of color harmony based on the alternation of balance, similarity, position in the color wheel, etc. follow from this premise. But, nevertheless, it happens that color combinations built according to all the rules are evaluated by the viewer as inharmonious. The combination of colors in itself, considered separately, can be both harmonious and inharmonious, but this may not be noticed in the general structure of a work of art.

The theory of color harmony, in the final analysis, cannot be reduced only to the solution of the question of which color is in harmony with which. The general principles of color harmony cannot be determined without taking into account content, composition, space, form and texture.

Color harmony - a combination of colors that is pleasing to the eye, suggesting a certain consistency between them; proportionality and proportionality.

F. Hodler writes about color: “The effectiveness and meaning of colors depend on their intensity, the place they occupy on the canvas, and on their position among others that strengthen or weaken them, depending on their greater or lesser proximity to white and black. The color of objects depends on the color of the lighting. It is known that it is color that often quarrels the artist with the public. For a long time she could not understand that a pink face in the air with a blue sky could turn purple; if it is illuminated by the rays of the setting sun, then even orange and bright red. Due to lack of observation, mainly due to lack of experience, these nuances of the artist are incomprehensible to the eye, they seem terrible exaggerations. The beauty of colors lies, first of all, in their chords, in the repetition of nuances of the same color.

The first theories of harmonic color combinations.

1. The theory of Rudolf Adams. In 1865, R. Adams invented a chromatic spectrum, consisting of a circle with 24 sectors, and its 6 degrees of lightness.

2. The theory of Albert Munsell. Munsell saw the basic law of harmonization in the related proximity of colors: “A simple and practically unmistakable series of color harmonies can be obtained within the same color tone. So, we can associate the low lightness of any color tone with increased lightness, or weak saturation with stronger saturation. He identified 3 types of harmonic combinations: monochromatic harmonies based on the same color tone of different lightness; harmonies of related colors of the color wheel (red and orange); harmonies of complementary colors (yellow and purple, orange and blue).

3. Classification of color harmonies by the German physiologist Brücke:

a) isochromia- a composition made in one color spot, tone (for example, on the basis of red);

b) homeochromia– composition within a small color interval (for example, yellow, orange and yellow-orange);

in) merochromia- a composition where colors are subordinate to one main one (for example, orange, purple and violet are subordinate to red);

G) poikilochromia- a method of complete crushing of color masses, a large variety of colors, where there is no main one and all colors are equally significant. Experience is needed to use this harmony.

4. Bezold's theory. Bezold built theories of color harmonies within the intervals of the color wheel. In a 12-step color wheel, colors are four tones apart, i.e. between them there should be an interval of 3 tones.

5. Theory of B. F. Ostwald. Ostwald believed that all colors containing an equal admixture of white and black are harmonious. And of the saturated ones, those that are spaced from each other at an equal number of intervals are harmonious.

6. Classification of color harmonies according to B. M. Teplov:

a) monophonic, built on one main color or a group of closely related colors (yellow, orange-yellow, orange - they contain yellow in different quantities);

b) polar, built on complementary colors (red with green, orange with blue);

c) tricolor, built on the opposition of three primary colors (yellow, red, blue);

d) multicolor, in which, with a wide variety of colors, it is impossible to single out the main one (difficult to use).

7. Theory of V. M. Shugaev based on the research of Munsell and Bezold. It is based on the color wheel, which is based on 4 primary colors 3 - yellow, red, blue, green. The author offers 4 types of color combinations:

a) a combination of related colors (yellow, orange-yellow, orange);

b) a combination of related-contrasting colors (from yellow to purple in the spectrum);

c) a combination of contrasting (mutually complementary) colors (blue - orange, red - green);

a combination of colors that are neutral in relation to kinship and contrast: yellow, blue, red (meaning pure colors without whites and blackouts).

Types of color harmony. The three main characteristics of color - hue, lightness and saturation - can act among themselves in various relationships, forming various harmonious combinations:

1) similarity in color tone, but difference in lightness and saturation (what Mansell wrote about);

2) similarity in lightness, but difference in hue and saturation;

3) similarity in saturation, but difference in hue and lightness;

4) similarity in hue and lightness, but difference in saturation;

5) similarity in lightness and saturation, but difference in color tone;

6) a combination in which colors differ in all three parameters (this is the most difficult case).

From the enumeration of these combinations, often used in design practice, it is clear how arbitrary the standards from the field of color harmony are, taking into account only the color tone.

When talking about color harmony, they evaluate the impressions of the interaction of two or more colors. Despite the apparent subjectivity of such an assessment, the harmony of colors has its own objective patterns.

On the basis of experiments, it was found that the main colors of subtractive mixing: yellow, red and blue represent a common color summation. Moreover, each of these colors cannot be obtained by mixing other colors. Therefore, the color wheel is built precisely on these colors (the main triad) (Fig. 8).

By mixing the primary colors, a secondary triad is obtained (Fig. 9). The circle (Fig. 10) is an image obtained by overlaying the image of the main and secondary triad. If you pad the spaces intermediate colors, we get a 12-step color wheel (Fig. 7) which, in turn, can be increased to a 24-part (Fig. 11).

1. "Monochromatic" or single tone color harmony built on the basis of one color tone; created by combining one color tone with its dark and light shades. As a result, it is possible to achieve, on the one hand, a strong tonal contrast, and on the other, subtle color relationships (Fig. 12).

2. "Opposite" (additional) color harmony, built on the basis of two color tones; created by using any two color tones that are exactly opposite each other on the color wheel (Fig. 13). This technique is usually used to create accents, because. Opposite colors are very contrasting with respect to each other. This allows one color to complement another in such a way that one of them attracts attention and the other is the background.

In the case of introducing into various harmonious color combinations achromatic colors, the contrast obtained by combining them is enhanced. Especially - with the introduction of white or black. The combination of red and white, for example, is so intense that it's no wonder how often these colors are used without pastel colors for formal occasions to tie them together. To be absolutely precise, a harmonious tricolor combination looks like this because of the contrasting red and green colors with achromatic black or white.

The combination of a "double" color (for example, red-orange) and an achromatic is a harmonious three-color combination, where black or white will play the role of a lighting factor. At the same time, black or dark gray color makes the colors glow, and white color seems to illuminate the composition. This combination is quite common. The play of colors becomes richer, and, consciously executed, the color composition is more pronounced. Of course, this is not so easy in practical application, since when creating a harmonious combination, it is necessary to find suitable color nuances.

Tricolor harmony - "triad" created by using three colors that lie at equal distances from each other in a circle. She also shows distinct and strong color combinations, however, being the most difficult in terms of correct creation.

3. "Similar" color harmony built on the basis of three colors - achieved through the use of any three colors that are nearby (in one of the four sectors of the circle). Due to the proximity of the location, these colors are easily combined. This harmony has depth, it is distinguished by a rich originality, an elegant look (Fig. 14).

Creation of color harmonies with the help of models of geometric shapes. « Harmony of an isosceles triangle» is achieved by using any color and colors adjacent to its complementary color (the top is one of the primary colors, and the base connects the adjacent colors to its complementary color) (Fig. 15). The combination of such colors looks softer than the combination of just two complementary colors.

"Harmony of a Right Triangle" is achieved by using any color located at the top of a right-angled triangle and the colors located in the corners at its base (Fig. 16). The combination of these colors is quite expressive, and at the same time - well balanced.

A quadrilateral can be inscribed in a circle, the sides of which are parallel to the diameters of the circle. It can be a square or a rectangle. The sides of the rectangles in this case are connected by two related-contrasting colors, and complementary colors are placed diagonally.

In the process of searching for color harmonies, you need to remember:

bright colors go well with muted colors;

warm colors with cold;

dark colors with light colors;

the introduction of achromatic colors enhances the contrast (warm colors are best combined with black, cold colors with white or gray);

highlighting the main (dominant) color contributes to accentuation, strengthening the overall ideological content of the composition, its streamlining;

the use of variable shades of pure colors helps to remove sharpness and find softer color combinations.

Based on the generalization of data from various studies, the following types of color harmonies can be named:

1. monochromatic or single color, sustained in the same color tone with a difference in lightness and saturation: used for strong tone contrast, for subtle color relationships.

2. bicolor(opposite or additional) contrast (contrast of two primary colors or two groups of colors): used to create accents, to complement one color with another;

3. tricolor(triad): used to create depth and elegance and for distinct color combinations;

4. four-color;

5. six-color;

6. gamut limited by the limits of a small interval in the color wheel;

7. gamut, the colors in which are subordinate to one primary color;

8. achromatic harmony

9. combination of achromatic and chromatic scale

In order to quantitatively and qualitatively balance the colors that harmonize with each other and create an artistic image using the selected color combinations, it is necessary to develop a coloristic flair and intuition.

We begin a series of lectures on the harmony of color, without which it is impossible to achieve the unity of the color of a person and the color of clothing. Before presenting the material, I’ll immediately add on my own behalf that our task, as researchers and practitioners of the color type, is complicated by the fact that we need to know the laws of harmony in general, see the harmony of a person’s color and be able to reduce the color of a coat of arms, if I can say so about it, and the color of a person into a single, coloristically and stylistically harmonious whole.

Many will object that harmony is subjective. Nevertheless, the laws of color harmony have been known since antiquity, they exist as an objective reality within the framework of subjective human perception, they are well studied and tested in practice. And even if we mentally disagree with some particular case of harmony, our eyes will still demand a balance of power.

I will try to quote as much useful material as possible in these chapters, without skimping on length, because it is very important, and it is better to assimilate the postulates of harmony slowly but surely. We will figure it out together, including myself, relying on the works of authoritative experts.

Today I'll start with a large amount of lyrics for the seed, there will be few pictures today, read the text carefully.

Below I quote the work of Valentin Zheleznyakov, already mentioned in the previous chapters on contrast, "Color and Contrast"

In the era of Greco-Roman antiquity, color became the subject of attention and reflection of philosophers, but the views of florist philosophers can be called artistic rather than scientific, because aesthetic and even ethical prerequisites were at the heart of their worldview. Ancient philosophers considered it necessary to classify colors - to single out the main and derivatives, but they approached this mainly from mythological positions. In their opinion, the main colors should correspond to the main elements (air, fire, earth and water - white, red, black and yellow). Nevertheless, Aristotle was already aware of the phenomenon of color induction, simultaneous and successive color contrast, and many other phenomena, which later formed the basis of physiological optics. But the most important thing is the doctrine of color harmony.

Antique color aesthetics became the same foundation for all European art of the Renaissance, as ancient philosophy for the science of the Enlightenment. Harmony was considered a universal principle of the universe and was applied to a wide variety of phenomena: to the structure of the Cosmos, to the social structure, to architecture, to the relationship of colors and numbers, to music, to the human soul, and so on. In its most general form, harmony meant the principle of a higher, “divine” order, instituted not by man, but by higher forces, but, despite this, such an order should be quite accessible to human understanding, since it is based on reason. This, by the way, is the difference between the Western concept of harmony and the Eastern one, in which there are always elements of mysticism and unknowability.

Here are some provisions of ancient harmony in relation to color:

1. Communication, a combination of individual elements of the system with each other. Harmony is a connecting principle. This is expressed in color. unity of color When all colors are brought together as if by a common bloom, each paint is either whitened (in the background), or blackened, or softened by mixing in another paint. Apelles, according to Pliny, after finishing the picture, covered it with something like a grayish varnish in order to bind all the colors into a harmonious unity.

2. The unity of opposites, when there are certain opposite principles, called contrasts. In monochrome, this is the contrast of light and dark, chromatic and colorless (for example, purple with white, red with black), saturated colors with low saturation. Or are these contrasts in color tone - a comparison of red and green, yellow and blue, etc., i.e. connection of additional, complementary colors.

3. Harmonious can only be related to the measure, and the measure is human sensations and feelings. According to Aristotle, every sensation is a definition of correlations. The brightness and strength of the color should be neither too strong nor too weak. Bright color, sharp contrasts were considered barbarism, worthy of "some Persians" (the original enemies of Hellas). The civilized Greek appreciates beauty more than riches, the subtlety of art pleases him more than the high cost of material.

4. The concept of measure is relative, it means the ratio of the measured quantity to the unit of measurement, therefore it includes such definitions as proportionality, proportion, relationship. Aristotle believed that in "beautiful" colors the proportions in which the primary colors are taken are not accidental: "Those colors in which the most correct proportion is observed, like sound harmonies, seem to be the most pleasant. These are dark red and purple ... and some others of the same kind, which are few for the reason that musical harmonic consonances are also few.

The whole practice of ancient applied art proceeds from the principle that in color mixedness is more valued than purity.

5. The harmonic system is stable because it is balanced. The Universe is eternal because it is harmoniously arranged, the opposing forces in it cancel each other out mutually, creating a stable balance. If the figures in the picture are dressed in bright cloaks, then these relatively saturated spots occupy no more than one-fifth or one-sixth of the entire picture in area. The rest of the colors are undersaturated. Light to dark is taken in approximately the same ratio. Thanks to this proportional system, an overall balance of the color composition is achieved: strong, but short pulses of bright and pure colors are balanced by longer, but weak fields of dark and mixed colors.

6. A sign of harmony is its clarity, the evidence of the law of its construction, simplicity and consistency both in general and in parts. The classical color composition does not set difficult tasks for the viewer, juxtapositions of close or opposite colors are preferred in it and are almost never used as a color dominant of juxtaposition in the middle interval, since they have neither an obvious connection nor opposition (more on this will be discussed in the example of color circle).

7. Harmony always reflects the sublime. According to Aristotle, "mimesis" is a reflection of reality in the forms of reality itself, art only imitates nature, but does not reproduce the ugly and ugly - this is not part of the task of art.

8. Harmony is conformity and expediency, as well as order. In this principle, in the most general form, the attitude of ancient aesthetics to the world is expressed: the goal of human cultural activity is the transformation of a formless and ugly world of chaos into a beautiful and orderly cosmos. Any harmonious color composition is so organized and ordered that it is easily comprehended by the human mind and lends itself to logical interpretation.

From this enumeration of the main features of ancient color harmony, it is clear that many of them have not lost their significance to this day.

The German poet Wolfgang Goethe wrote: “Everything that I have done as a poet does not at all fill me with special pride. Excellent poets lived at the same time as me, even better ones lived before me and, of course, will live after me. But what am I in my age? the only one who knows the truth about the difficult science of colors - I cannot but attach importance to this, it gives me the consciousness of superiority over many.

Goethe fundamentally, ideologically diverged from the position of Newton and believed that he must fight against his "delusions". He was looking for the principle of color harmonization not in physical laws, but in the laws of color vision, and we must give him his due, he was right in many ways; No wonder he is considered the founder of physiological optics and the science of the psychological effects of color.

Goethe worked on his "Teaching about Color" from 1790 to 1810, i.e. twenty years, and the main value of this work lies in the formulation of subtle psychological states associated with the perception of contrasting color combinations. Goethe describes in his book the phenomena of color induction - luminance, chromatic, simultaneous and successive - and proves that the colors that appear in successive or simultaneous contrast are not accidental. All these colors seem to be embedded in our organ of vision. The contrasting color arises as the opposite of the inducing one, i.e. to the imposed eye, just as inhalation alternates with exhalation, and any contraction entails expansion. This manifests the universal law of the integrity of psychological being, the unity of opposites and unity in diversity.

Each pair of contrasting colors already contains the entire color wheel, since their sum - white - can be decomposed into all conceivable colors and, as it were, contains them in potency. From this follows the most important law of the activity of the organ of vision - the law of the necessary change of impressions. "When the eye is offered the dark, it demands the light; it demands the dark when the light is presented to it, and it manifests its vitality, its right to grasp the object by generating from itself something opposite to the object."

Goethe's experiments with colored shadows showed that diametrically opposite (complementary) colors are precisely those that mutually evoke each other in the mind of the viewer. Yellow calls for blue-violet, orange calls for cyan, and magenta calls for green, and vice versa. Goethe also built a color wheel (Fig. 13), but the sequence of colors in it is not a closed spectrum, like Newton's, but a round dance of three pairs of colors. And these pairs are additional, i.e. half generated by the human eye and only half independent of man. The most harmonious colors are those that are located opposite, at the ends of the diameters of the color wheel, it is they who evoke each other and together form integrity and completeness, similar to the fullness of the color wheel. Harmony, according to Goethe, is not an objective reality, but a product of human consciousness.

According to Goethe, in addition to harmonic combinations, there are "characteristic" and "characterless". The former include pairs of colors located in the color wheel through one color, and the latter - pairs of adjacent colors. Harmonic color, according to Goethe, occurs when "when all neighboring colors are brought into balance with each other." But harmony, Goethe believes, despite all its perfection, should not be the ultimate goal of the artist, because the harmonious always has "something universal and complete, and in this sense devoid of character." This unusually subtle remark echoes what Arnheim later said about the entropic nature of the image perception process and that images that are harmonized in all respects often lack expressiveness and expression.

Goethe's book contains several very subtle definitions of color. For example, in painting there is a method of shifting all colors to any one color, as if the picture were viewed through colored glass, for example, yellow. Goethe calls such coloring false. "This false tone arose from instinct, from a lack of understanding of what to do, so that instead of integrity, they created uniformity." Such color glazing, which is often considered a sign of good taste in color cinema, does not at all deserve such a respectful attitude, and that there are other, more perfect ways of obtaining color harmony, which, however, require more work and a higher visual culture.

Harmony is a philosophical and aesthetic category, meaning integrity, unity, regular connection of all parts and elements of the form, i.e. this is a high level of orderliness of diversity and the correspondence of parts as part of a whole that meets the aesthetic criteria of perfection and beauty.

Color harmony is a combination of individual colors or color sets that form an organic whole and evoke an aesthetic experience.

Color harmony in design is a certain combination of colors, taking into account all their main characteristics, such as

color tone;

Lightness;

saturation;

The dimensions occupied by these colors on the plane, their mutual arrangement in space, which leads to color unity and most favorably aesthetically affects a person.

Signs of color harmony:

1) Communication and smoothness. The connecting factor can be: monochrome, achromaticity, unifying submixtures or raids (mixture of white, gray, black), shift to any color tone, gamma.

2) Unity of opposites, or contrast. Types of contrast: by brightness (dark-light, black-white, etc.), by saturation (pure and mixed), by color tone (additional or contrast combinations).

3) Measure. Those. in a composition brought to harmony there is nothing to add and take away.

4) Proportionality, or the ratio of parts (objects or phenomena) to each other and the whole. In gamma, it is a similarity to the ratios of brightness, saturation, and color tones. Consider the ratio of the areas of color spots:

1 part of the light field - 3-4 parts of the dark field;

1 part pure color - 4-5 parts muted;

1 part chromatic - 3-4 parts achromatic.

5) Equilibrium. The colors in the composition should be balanced.

6) Clarity and ease of perception.

7) Beautiful, the pursuit of beauty. Psychologically negative colors, dissonances are unacceptable.

8) Sublime, i.e. perfect color combination.

9) Organization, order and rationality.

Picture for variety and reflection from the same site:

So, today we also mentioned the concept of color, but we will consider colors and scales in more detail later. In the next lecture, we will consider the general provisions of Itten's theory of harmony, and then, first briefly, and then in detail for 1 lecture on the type of harmony, we will consider how color harmony relationships are practically solved on the color wheel.

Homework will be philosophical, I ask you to speak in the comments: what is color harmony for you, on what grounds do you conclude what is harmonious and what is not, and what is beautiful for you and what is not?

Each of us has “comfortable” colors in clothes and personal items, everyone noticed that it is pleasant for him to be in one room, and uncomfortable and depressing in another. Scientists have long proven the effect of color on heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure and muscle tension.

According to emotional associations, the impact of color is divided into positive, negative and neutral. Exciting colors include red, orange and yellow. To oppressive - purple, dark gray and black. To soothing - green and blue. No less important are the physical associations of colors: weight (light, heavy), spatial (protruding, deep), acoustic (quiet, loud) and texture (soft, hard, smooth).

IMPACT OF COLOR: There is no comrade for the taste and color
This proverb, like nothing, reflects the reality of the impact of color. It was found that different psychotypes prefer certain ranges of colors, as shown in the figure below.

For example, we can recall the colors of the youth movement "emo", based on experiences, emotions and suffering in creativity, music and style. Their main colors are depressing black combined with pink, giving a melancholy state.

It has also been found that the same colors can be associated differently by people. The purer and brighter the color, the more intense and stable the reaction. Complex, low-saturated, medium-light colors cause different (unstable) and relatively weak reactions. The most unambiguous are temperature, weight, and acoustic associations.


Yellow and green colors cause the greatest variety of associations, and hence the different effects of color. This is because in this spectrum the eye distinguishes the largest number of shades. These colors are the richest in nature. Each of the shades of yellow or green is associated in consciousness with a certain object, phenomenon, taste, hence the richness of associations. Also, ambiguity causes purple, due to its duality.

IMPACT OF COLOR: Harmony of color
It's no secret that some color combinations seem harmonious to us, while others, on the contrary, are ridiculous. To create a harmony of colors in the interior is the key to the success of a harmonious life in the house.

The figure on the left shows simple patterns of color combinations in the form of four harmonious colors. To build harmonies to other colors, you need to rotate these figures with a vertex in the desired color.

The principle of color harmony is built on diametrically distant pairs and triads, so you can find not only four harmonious colors, but also less and more using halftones. For example, if you do not take into account the purple color, then a classic triad is formed in the upper figure, and a contrasting one in the middle one.

Do not apply colors in equal amounts. Harmony of colors is achieved through the main color (the background is usually less saturated) and accents. Contrast, brightness and saturation do not affect the rule of color harmony, the principle remains the same.

COLOR HARMONIES.

In nature, there are a large number of colors and their shades.
The human eye is able to distinguish up to 360 shades. An ordinary person distinguishes fewer shades. It depends on the visual acuity, the age of the person, the illumination of the space, the mood of the person and the state of his health.

Colors are divided into two large groups: chromatic and achromatic. Chromatic - "colored". Achromatic - white, gray, black.
The chromatic colors that make up white daylight are distributed in a certain order, depending on the wavelength.

Primary colors: yellow, red, blue. Composite colors: orange, purple, green.
Composite colors are obtained by mixing two primary colors:
■ Orange = red + yellow.
■ Purple = red + blue.
■ Green = yellow + blue.
All other colors consist of mixing these colors in different proportions. Plus the difference in saturation and lightness.

Colors are conventionally divided into warm and cold.
Warm colors are colors that contain yellow and red. Cool colors are colors located from the violet to green zone of the color wheel.
Warm colors are more dynamic, prominent and voluminous than cool colors. Cool colors seem to recede as the tone increases.

Color has three characteristics: hue, lightness and saturation.

Hue - the presence of a primary color in a complex color, which determines its place in the color wheel.
The color tone is determined by the name of the color: scarlet, crimson.

Saturation is the difference between a chromatic color and a gray color equal to it in lightness.

Contrasts in clothing are of great importance. Ornamental and rhythmic compositions are built on the contrast.
Colors that are on opposite diameters of the color wheel make up a great contrast: red-green, orange-blue.
Low contrast - colors that are at an angle of 90 degrees to each other.

Harmony is the basis of beauty. Color harmony = color balance.

10. Harmonies of combinations of chromatic colors of different hue, saturation and lightness (pure, whitened or blackened), with different achromatic ones.

11. Harmonies of mixtures and combinations of saturated chromatic color with achromatic colors of different lightness.

Color harmony

When people talk about color harmony, they are evaluating the impression of two or more colors interacting. Painting and observations of the subjective color preferences of various people speak of ambiguous ideas about harmony and disharmony. As a rule, the assessment of harmony or dissonance is caused by a feeling of pleasant-unpleasant or attractive-unattractive. Such judgments are based on personal opinion and are not objective.

The concept of color harmony should be withdrawn from the realm of subjective feelings and transferred to the realm of objective laws.

Harmony is balance, symmetry of forces.

The physiologist Ewald Hering owns the following remark: “The average or neutral gray color corresponds to the state of the optical substance in which dissimilation - the expenditure of forces expended on the perception of color, and assimilation - their restoration - are balanced. This means that the average gray color creates a state of equilibrium in the eyes. Hering proved that the eye and the brain need a medium gray, otherwise, in its absence, they lose their calm.

The processes that take place in visual perception cause corresponding mental sensations. In this case, the harmony in our visual apparatus testifies to the psychophysical state of equilibrium, in which the dissimilation and assimilation of the visual substance are the same. Neutral gray corresponds to this condition.

Two or more colors are harmonious if their mixture is a neutral gray.

All other color combinations that do not give us gray become expressive or disharmonious in nature. In painting, there are many works with one-sided expressive intonation, and their color composition, from the point of view of the above, is not harmonious. These works are irritating and too exciting with their emphatically insistent use of any one predominant color. There is no need to argue that color compositions must necessarily be harmonious, and when Seurat says that art is harmony, he confuses the artistic means and the goals of art.

The basic principle of harmony comes from the physiological law of complementary colors. In his work on color, Goethe wrote about harmony and integrity as follows: “When the eye contemplates a color, it immediately comes into an active state and, by its nature, inevitably and unconsciously immediately creates another color, which, in combination with a given color, contains the entire color wheel. . Each individual color, due to the specificity of perception, makes the eye strive for universality. And then, in order to achieve this, the eye, for the purpose of self-satisfaction, searches next to each color for some colorless-empty space on which it could produce the missing color. This is the basic rule of color harmony.”

The color theorist Wilhelm Ostwald also touched upon the issues of color harmony. In his book on the basics of color, he wrote: “Experience teaches that some combinations of some colors are pleasant, others are unpleasant or do not evoke emotions. The question arises, what determines this impression? To this we can answer that those colors are pleasant, between which there is a regular connection, that is, order. Combinations of colors, the impression of which we are pleased, we call harmonious. So the basic law could be formulated as follows: Harmony = Order.

It can be generally concluded that all pairs of complementary colors, all combinations of three colors in the twelve-part color wheel, which are connected to each other through equilateral or isosceles triangles, squares and rectangles, are harmonious.

Yellow-red-blue form here the main harmonic triad. If these colors in the system of the twelve-part color wheel are combined with each other, then we will get an equilateral triangle. In this triad, each color is presented with extreme force and intensity, and each of them appears here in its typical generic qualities, that is, yellow acts on the viewer as yellow, red as red and blue as blue. The eye does not require additional additional colors, and their mixture gives a dark black-gray color.

Yellow, red-violet and blue-violet colors are united by the figure of an isosceles triangle. Harmonious consonance of yellow, red-orange, violet and blue-green are united by a square. The rectangle gives a harmonized combination of yellow-orange, red-violet, blue-violet and yellow-green.

A bunch of geometric shapes, consisting of an equilateral and isosceles triangle, square and rectangle, can be placed at any point on the color wheel. These figures can be rotated within a circle, thus replacing the triangle of yellow, red and blue with a triangle of yellow-orange, red-violet and blue-green or red-orange, blue-violet and yellow-green.

The same experiment can be carried out with other geometric shapes. Further development of this topic can be found in the section on the harmony of color consonances.

Types of color harmonies and principles of their construction

Harmony from the Greek harmonia, which means consonance, harmony, the opposite of chaos. Harmonization methods can also be used in a color composition, there are many theories with which they tried to achieve harmonious color combinations, many scientists worked on this problem, and not only and not so much scientists studying the physics of color and light worked, but as a rule, those minds who tried to comprehend how color affects the human psyche, trying to achieve a certain perception by means of a combination of colors. Rudolph Adams and Albert Munsell can be named among the first who made significant steps in this direction. After them there were many I will name some who, in my opinion, are currently the most relevant B. M. Teplov in his theory was based on a circle with three primary colors yellow, blue, red. Shugaeva V. M. and Kozlova V. N. these authors relied on a circle with four primary colors. Accordingly, we will consider harmonies based on the indicated color circles, and do not forget to mention color combinations where one color shade is used, that is, a color wheel is not needed.

Harmonious combinations of achromatic colors.

As we have already found out, achromatic we call shades of gray, which range from white to black. How can you achieve a harmonious combination between these colors. Here it is appropriate to divide the process into harmonization of the colors themselves, that is, building a certain series of colors that are combined according to one or another principle, which will be used in the composition, and the ratio of the areas on which these colors will be located.

To harmonize achromatic colors, a stepped gray scale is used, or if the composition is monochrome, then a scale of shades of a certain tone. There can be a different number of steps in the scale; it is important that the steps divide the segment from black to white into equal parts, that is, the scale must be equally stepped.

Further, the required number of shades is selected from this scale, that is, the composition can consist of two, three or more shades of gray. Compositions of three shades are considered the most harmonious. At what it is necessary to understand that even when the composition consists of a large number of shades, often at the stage of a sketch and compositional searches, they try to reduce it to three shades, for example, the landscape is often divided into three spots, the front middle and distant plans, which they try to harmoniously connect with each other through tonal relations. And then, inside these spots, develop more subtle gradations while trying not to violate the integrity of the three main spots and the relationships between them.

Hues for a grayscale composition are chosen either to include black, white and one or more grays, or only black and white, such a harmonic scheme is called complete.

If white and light shades of gray are chosen, then such a scheme is called light gray.

Black and dark shades of gray dark gray.

When shades are taken from the middle of the scale, then this medium gray harmonic scheme.

Of course, all these schemes are rather arbitrary, for example, the combination of colors can be medium gray, but at the same time be quite dark. And the statement that the composition, divided into three tones, is the most harmonious is also not indisputable, there are different opinions on this matter.

Sometimes the gray scale is composed in such a way that it can be divided into dark shades and light ones, for example, if there are ten steps, for example, then you can clearly draw the line between dark and light.

It is believed that if you choose shades located on the gray scale at regular intervals, then such a scheme is the most harmonious, that is, it is perceived as the most calm. If the intervals between the selected shades are not equal, then a more expressive harmony is obtained.

If it is necessary in practice to use a gray or monochrome scale for harmonization, then it is desirable to have a sufficiently large scale with as many steps as possible in order to have more room for maneuver.

For example, in etching there is such a tool as an etching scale, this is a type of gray scale that is used to obtain certain shades when etching an etching board. So, the etchers try to make more shades on the etching scale than they will use when etching, and this is done in order to be able to more flexibly and widely adjust the etching process, that is, lightness ratios.

As for the ratio of the distribution of selected shades in the composition, there can also be different approaches.

For example, in a composition of three shades, you can go this way by dividing the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe composition, so one shade takes 50%, the second 32%, the last 18%. We get a ratio close to the golden ratio, which will be perceived as a very calm composition.

Or another example, when it is proposed to divide a composition of four tones, thus, 1/6 white, 1/6 black, 2/6 the first gray, 2/6 the second gray, such a distribution allows you to get a fairly calm balanced composition.

In principle, in this case, you can use any harmonious combinations of numbers that both mathematics and geometry offer, which we will probably talk about someday in more detail in the corresponding article.

I would also like to say that in fact, the harmonization of shades of gray is the first stage in the harmonization of chromatic colors, that is, artists, before proceeding to create a color composition, often create a black and white sketch. Many photographers also cannot do without a sketch, and often there is more than one sketch. There is a whole technology of step-by-step solution of all possible artistic tasks, from compositional searches, including harmonization, to a detailed study of the entire composition in monochrome or achromatic form, and then proceed to the creation of a color composition as the final stage of work. Moreover, similar approaches in many respects exist both in traditional artistic technologies and in digital ones, and photography also does not shun such approaches and uses them effectively, especially in retouching and collage.

Harmonious combinations of chromatic colors.

The bottom line is that there are a great many different schemes for combining chromatic colors; they are built on different theories and using all possible color circles.

Here, we will first of all look at some of the most used schemes based on the twelve particular color wheel, where the main colors are yellow, red, blue, although these schemes can be more or less successfully used on any other color wheel.

First of all, it must be said that any harmonious combinations are divided into two categories, contrasting and nuanced combinations. Accordingly, any combinations where a clear contrast of colors or shades is used are contrasting. And close, combinations, as a rule, located side by side on a circle that do not form an obvious contrast, are nuanced.

And so the schemes of harmonic combinations.

Single color (monochromatic); monochrome color harmonies - the use of several shades of the same color. This combination is analogous to the combinations of achromatic colors described above. Such combinations consist of at least two colors. Only instead of shades of gray, shades are used here, whichever of the spectral colors. And a color wheel is not needed to build this harmony, but a monochrome scale is needed, passing from white to black through the required spectral color. Harmony can be contrasting or nuanced depending on the chosen shades.

Harmony of similar colors or related triad; This color scheme uses adjacent colors on the color wheel and blends them. This harmony is most often used as nuanced, but contrast is also possible here. White or black can be used as an additional color.

Harmony of complementary colors (complementary); A complementary color scheme uses colors that are opposite. In this case, the contrast is on the face, and compositions built on the basis of this harmony can be very contrasting, perceived as dynamic, expressive, even flashy. It is very easy to put accents here.

Broken extra; This is again a complementary scheme. But at one end it is divided in two, breaking into two related colors complementary to the third. The combination is even more complex than the previous one and also contrasting.

The colors lie at the vertices of an isosceles triangle at an equal distance from each other. The combination is quite spectacular, even if pastel colors are used. Moreover, this scheme can be built both on primary colors and on secondary, and even tertiary ones.

The proposed color combinations are used quite often in all areas of fine art, not only in painting and graphics, but also in photography, design, architecture, and even make-up artists and hairdressers work with harmonious combinations.

But there is an opinion that there are not three primary colors, but four; such a point of view is substantiated by a number of arguments, for example, it is argued and not without reason that a mixture of blue and yellow does not give pure green. A color researcher such as Michael Wilcox even called the book Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green.

So color circles based on the four primary colors are also used to harmonize the color composition.

Let's consider ways of harmonization using this circle.

To begin with, let's describe the color wheel, using the example of the circle proposed by Shugaev.

The color wheel, in which the four main colors are blue, yellow, red, green.

Between the primary colors, there are four groups of intermediate ones:

• yellow-red;
• blue-red;
• blue-green;
• yellow-green.

Based on this circle, a system of color harmonization has developed.

Four groups of harmonic combinations have been identified:

• monotone harmonies;
• harmony of related colors;
• harmony of related-contrasting colors;
• harmony of contrasting colors.

Monochromatic harmonic color combinations; everything that has been said about single-color (monochromatic) combinations described in previous models, about combinations of achromatic colors, fully applies to this group, in fact, this is the same group, only the names in different models and different authors differ.

Harmonious combinations of related colors; Related colors are located in one quarter of the color wheel, between the two primary colors. Shugaev has four groups of related colors: yellow-red (orange), red-blue (violet), blue-green, yellow-green.

Thus, nuanced color combinations are obtained, calm and restrained, although a certain contrast and emotionality can be introduced into them if a light scale is added.

Harmonious combinations of related-contrasting colors; Related-contrasting colors are located in adjacent quarters of the color wheel, and not all combinations of these colors are harmonious. There are several schemes, using which you can choose the desired harmony:

• Horizontal or vertical chords are drawn through the circle, the ends of the chords are located on colors equally distant from the common main color and from the contrasting main colors.

• An obtuse-angled triangle is placed on the circle, the long side of which is the chord described above, and the vertex of the opposite obtuse angle is the main color in this combination, the other two located on the other two vertices, respectively, are subordinate to the main color.

• Colors located at the vertices of a right triangle, the hypotenuse of which is the diameter of the color wheel, and the legs, vertical and horizontal chords.

• The colors at the vertices of an equilateral triangle in which one of the vertices is the main color and the opposite side is a vertical or horizontal chord.

• Four colors located at the corners of a square or rectangle, all sides of which are horizontal or vertical chords.

As a rule, if necessary, a light scale is added to these combinations.

Harmonious combinations of contrasting colors; Contrasting colors are those located in opposite quarters of the color wheel.

The two colors most distant from each other and respectively located at the ends of the diameter are contrast-complementary. This type of harmony, the most contrasting, potentially very emotional and expressive, in general, has the same properties as the "Harmony of Complementary Colors (Complementary)" described above. As in other schemes, it can be supplemented with a light scale.

And here it should be noted that the circles are different, and the schemes that are applied to them are similar in many respects, not in details, but in the main points there is undoubtedly a similarity, which is what I'm talking about. In fact, there are much more harmonization schemes, and many of them can work on any color wheel. It still won’t work out to the end, you still have to turn on your flair and compare the colors obtained with the help of schemes with your own taste, and correct what you get and the result can be very different from the one that was obtained using all possible schemes.

Get creative with combing.

By the way, the schemes proposed in this article are simply the most popular.

For example, V. M. Shugaev, mentioned here, on the 16th private circle, revealed 120 harmonious color combinations.

But in some areas of fine arts, for example, in design, masters have to work with color literally by numbers in the catalog, that is, within a very narrow framework in which a free search for color combinations, such as in painting, is simply not acceptable. For example, when creating a corporate identity, you need to very clearly link the corporate colors to the colors available in the catalog. And here sometimes there are simply no options but to strictly follow the harmonic patterns.

When using these schemes, you need to understand that by themselves, apart from other principles and laws that are used in the composition, these schemes will not work properly, that is, the basic laws of composition - integrity, subordination, expediency - must be observed. No matter how many colors there are in the composition, one is always somehow the main one, all the others are subordinate to it, the whole color system is built from it. Yes, there are compositions in which several different colors can act as the main one, for example, in an ornament, but then this composition is divided into several others where in each individual one color is always the main one.

And so we looked at several ways to harmonize with different color wheels, and different harmonization schemes. The bottom line is that nature does not formulate laws as formally as a person does, but they undoubtedly exist, and nature exists in accordance with these laws, and in order to observe them, sometimes it is not necessary to use such rigid schemes.

The fact is that in practice and very often artists or photographers do not use the color wheel, and not because it is a bad tool, but because with experience comes the habit of keeping the circle in your head and building color combinations almost unconsciously. Moreover, many generations of artists had no idea about the color wheel, they simply were not taught this, but they still managed to make their works harmonious, how did they manage to do it.

Even before the invention of the color wheel, there were methods of harmonization that did not require the use of a color wheel, and they are still used today. The very nature with which they wrote or painted suggested the necessary combinations of colors, for example, on a sunny day, all objects, the entire environment is saturated with sunlight, with its inherent color, which creates a certain environment in which everything is immersed around even deep shadows are still in this environment . And although the shadows are usually colder than the sunlit places, but the environment in which they are immersed still makes them warmer. Or indoors, when everything is lit by an incandescent lamp and the environment is even warmer, but the window as part of the composition in which we see the night scene will still not be so cold as to fall out of the overall composition, it will still be immersed in the environment that it creates lamp.

This means that the environment, that is, any particular shade, can work as a harmonizer.

So in Painting and graphics, as well as in photography, there are a number of techniques that allow you to imitate this effect. Let's start with painting, although such methods also work in graphics, firstly, often, when artists paint a scene and select the palette that they will paint, they know in advance what color system they will keep. Will this composition be cold or warm and, accordingly, if, for example, the composition is warm, then even the coldest shades will be warm to a certain extent, this is called warming or cold.

Still often, according to an already painted picture, if it seems to fall apart in color, that is, there is no color harmony, then they can walk over it with a transparent layer of paint (glazing), thus subordinating the rest of the colors to the color that this glaze paint had.

Or, for example, a colored primer is made, and some composition is written on it with a separate stroke, so the primer shines through from under the paint between strokes and acts as a medium, subjugating the entire color system of the picture.

And by the way, there are many such methods, for example, watercolorists write on tinted paper, it shines through the paint and also plays the role of a harmonizer.

And what methods does the graphics offer, here you can use the contour as a harmonizer. For example, in easel graphics there is the concept of a drawing layer, often it is implemented in the form of a stroke (contour) around the main compositional elements, it can unite elements; the thicker it is, the more it subordinates all other elements to itself and, under certain conditions, it can work as a harmonizer , that is, penetrating the entire composition, it can play the role of a unifying element that aligns the color system in the right direction.

In photography, there are also similar techniques, for example, color filters, which, even at the shooting stage, already line up the color range and work as a harmonizer,

When processing a digital photo or when drawing in digital, there are also opportunities for similar techniques.

And another harmonization method is a frame and a passe-partout, which can also work as a harmonizer, it's no secret that the thicker the frame and passe-partout or just a color stroke around the picture, I mean the area ratio, that is, the thicker it is relative to the image that frames the stroke, the collects the picture more or, on the contrary, makes it freer, as a rule, if there is a darker and wider stroke around the image (frame, passe-partout), the more collected the composition seems. If the stroke is lighter, then the composition feels more free, to the point that the composition may even fall apart.

So the frame can work as a harmonizer if you skillfully choose a combination of color and lightness of the frame. Moreover, the frame can fit the composition into the interior, work as a unifying, harmonizing element between the image and the interior, in which the image is located.

And more about the color wheel, we have not touched on the topic of practical work with the wheel in this article, the fact is that there are color wheels not only as schemes, but there are, for example, mechanical dried apricots, or programs based on the color wheel that are specially designed for this. so that they can be used to select harmonious combinations of colors. I plan to write a separate article on this topic, and in it I promise to talk about such devices and programs.

Of course, the theme of color harmony does not end there, you can still say a lot on this topic, but it is not the task of this article to tell everything, but rather to identify some aspects and arouse interest in this topic.

Once again I will say, approach the process creatively, and it will be interesting!