Overwhelming Colors
Color Theory and Color Science are Complicated to Me
I have a confession to make.
I don’t really understand Color Theory.
I mean, theoretically, I do? but whenever I try to really think about it, it hurts my brain.
Part of the problem, I think, is that there are different color spaces and models and wheels.
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So like, in the RGB model, red’s opposite complementary color is cyan, while in the RYB model, red’s opposite is green. There’s no real ‘definitive’ opposite. It makes it hard for me to know what colors really complement each other well.
From what I understand, the RGB model is related to digital screens and printing while the RYB model is more related to physical paints and pigments. I also know there’s additive and subtractive and that RGB being additive is what makes it relevant for digital monitors and RYB being subtractive is what makes it relevant for physical pigments but admittedly my brain starts to hurt when I venture this far. It’s probably actually a simple thing and artists are shaking their heads at my wimpish ignorance. It’s true I have not taken any actual courses for these things; the closest to self-study is Googling and reading Wikipedia before quickly getting overwhelmed and giving up. The overload of information I experience may potentially be mitigated by actually studying it seriously, taking my time and notes instead of just diving in all at once.
Honestly, my problem might be that I’m thinking too much about it. The ‘color science’ aspect of it is what really gets to me, I think. Of course, if I was seriously pursuing to be a visual/image artist, I’d probably need to suck that up and get a decent enough understanding of it. It’s something I should work on anyway if I intend on dabbling in website development.
Honestly? It reminds me a little of how my first attempt at learning JavaScript went. When I first tried to tackle learning, I was immediately overwhelmed by everything. I thought it was impossible for me. But when I tried a more ‘hands-on’ approach, trying to make something and figuring out how to accomplish my goal and then building on that — it was so much easier. The same could be for all this color stuff, too. Trying to understand it all just by diving in to all the information and reading may be overwhelming and make it seem impossible for me to ever really understand, but if I tried a similar method as I did with JavaScript, it’s possible that one day I could actually find it all so simple. Or at least relatively simple.
At the very least, I understand warm/cool colors decently enough, which is probably a good base to have.
But for now, color theory to me will have to be based on vibes. What seems to look good together, even if I can’t always properly explain it.
Hey, we all have to start somewhere.
