8. Colour

8 - 03 Colour Qulaities (Physical and Psychological):

Two qualities of colours may be singled out as being of significant importance in the use and understanding of colours. These are described as physical and psychological qualities. The physical qualities are more immediately appreciated; they appeal, directly or indirectly, to the sense of touch - indirectly by virtue of that quality of touch that seems to carry over into memory and sight. Psycho-optical qualities, on the other hand, tend to be more deceptive and need sustained examination.

The eye, the optic tract and centres of vision in the brain translate electromagnetic energy i.e., the light into electrochemical energy via the rods and cones, which are the photoreceptors in the retina, where the cones are the receptors for colour. These complex processes may be simplistically explained as 'encoded impulses' being received by the sight centres of the brain. These subtle facilities also transform a multitude of stimuli into meaningful unities or precepts. It is this - the ordering, abstracting and translating of optical data - that commands special attention; for it and the reservoir of experience and memory, underlie all image making.

The psychological qualities of colours are of a more subjective nature and hence do not have absolute values; however, there is a universal acceptance about light and dark colours, or strong and weak colours. We describe some as warm and others as cool colours, some as earth colours and some as aquatic colours; some as heavy, others as light (in weight); some as moist, others as dry. Some colours tend to advance, while others tend to recede; some appear opaque, while others appear transparent.

These fundamentals enable us to form mental images of colours and colour schemes, but one has to really look at colours, mix them and arrange them to assess how greatly they affect one another.