Introduction to Colors

Do we always really see what we see? If we can determine the roughness of the surface by eye, then may be we can find out its color by touch? Sounds confusing, isn't it? These and many other questions were on people's mind for centuries. The interest to color perception by a human eye is not an exception. First of all let's try to find the best definition of color.

In fact, you can find plenty, and here is one of them: "Light, being caught by the eye, is transformed into the signals of the neurons located there, and is then sent out to the brain, using the optical nerve as a transmitter". Brrr... Too scientific, I would say. May be this one is better? "Color is a visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect". Here is my favorite from Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color): "Color (American English) or color (Commonwealth English) is a sensation which (in humans) derives from the ability of the fine structure of the eye to distinguish three differently filtered analysis of a view. The perception of color is influenced by long-term history (nurture) of the observer and also by short-term effects such as the colors nearby. The term color is also used for the property of objects or light sources that can be distinguished by differences in the receptors of the eye". All these definitions are correct, and, In fact, all of them have one point in common -color is light. Human eye can react to three primary colors - red, green and blue (RGB). The brain recognizes any color tone as a combination of these three primary ones.

The dictionary of any language contains a large number of color names (usually from 100 to 150). In reality, a human eye can distinguish significantly more colors and tones, but its owner is not always able to translate the feelings into words.

Every person can see and recognize colors in a different way, and not only physiologically (for example, some people suffer from color blindness, when an individual is unable to distinguish specific colors), but psychologically as well. One person likes the blue, another is crazy about yellow, and someone else loves black. The color can be described by various people as warm, cold, heavy, light, soft, hard, relaxing, bright or dark. Visual color perception depends on many factors - person's culture, age, gender, social position and previous experience. It is not uncommon, when different people describe the same color differently. The people have noticed all these individual features long ago, during early times. Most of you probably know that colors played a very important role in various tribe rituals all over the ancient world. American first nations are a good illustration of this. Different colors were used in different ceremonies. The warriors used war paint to scare off the enemy, and it is obvious, that those colors were different from the ones used during harvest or hunting. For example, white paint was used in those magic rituals, where people wanted to appeal to the spirits of life to help them in some important task, such as hunting. On the contrary, black paint was used during the ceremonies, related to death, spirits of evil, and other unpleasant experiences. We will explain the meaning of different colors in the ancient world, as well as during other periods of mankind evolution, in my following articles.

And now let's get back to our present life; let's see how the colors are perceived by modern people, and how they affect our day-today life.

What do we observe around us during day and night? Interior at home and at work, houses on the street, advertising in public transport, skies, flowers, trees, water and many, many other things. All of them have specific colors and their images are processed by human brain in a certain way. While being ay home, most people want to relax and to get some rest after their working hours; therefore they choose interior colors, which can help them doing it. When deciding which tone of the palette to use, the individual will most likely consciously or subconsciously choose the colors, he or she feels more comfortable with. If the interior design and its colors are in harmony with the owners' style and character, it will positively affect their mood and psychological balance. All of you, probably, had at least one experience in your life, when while getting back from somebody's house, you thought to yourself: "I would have never painted my family room in such an awful color!" It does not mean though, that the colors you saw in that house are not good enough. It is only an indication, that your color preferences are unlike your friends' and that you house probably is decorated in different way. On one of our websites http://stores.ebay.com/Felicity-Art you can find several examples of how abstract paintings fit into different interiors with various color palettes.

Hundreds, if not thousands, years ago people noticed that different colors affect human mentality. But they also discovered that color tones may have physiological effect over human body. The science of using colors for healing is called Color Therapy or Chromotherapy. It is based on the fact, that electromagnetic waves of different wavelength affect our body differently. Our eyes are sensitive to light, which lies in a very small region of the electromagnetic spectrum labeled "visible light". This "visible light" corresponds to a wavelength range of 400 - 700 nanometers (nm) and a color range of violet through red. The human eye is not capable of "seeing" radiation with wavelengths outside the visible spectrum. The visible colors from shortest to longest wavelength are: violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. Since colored light is electromagnetic in nature, it interacts with vital human body structures, boosting or suppressing its vibrations. On the other hand, colors affect the eye iris by stimulating various receptors, while the iris is linked with all internal organs and brain by nerves. As a result, different colors may affect the human body as a whole.

Let me touch briefly one more aspect. Sex is one of the irreplaceable and important components of human life, and in the future issues we will definitely try to explain to you, how various colors affect sexuality (you probably heard an expression "sexy color").

In our subsequent articles we will cover in more details the following topics: the history of color, color perception, how to use various colors in the interior design and how colors affect our health, sexuality, emotions and moods.

Enjoy!

Bibliography:
Color and psychology. B Bazyma.
Some Facts and Research on Using Color and Light for Healing. Dietrich K.Klinghardt, MD, PhD