Get to know your colours

Sunlight passing through a prism generating all the existing colours of the sunlight.  

So here's what I've understood of this lesson.

Sunlight passing through a prism of pure crystal separates the colours that the human eye cannot separate on its own.

The sum of these seven colours (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and purple) seen through the human eye is what gives us the impression of white light. 

Umm... so wait a minute - does that mean if it wasn't for our eyes then the world would be rainbow coloured ALL the time? Damn you eyeballs, damn you!


So yea, moving on.

Light is principally composed of three colours: red, yellow and blue.

These dominating colours are referred to as the primary colours. 

All objects that have light reflected upon them, absorb a certain amount of light radiations and diffuse the rest, which is the colour our eyes will perceive:

A red object, will absorb the yellow and blue radiations and diffuse the red, which is why it will appear to us as red. 

A blue object, will absorb the yellow and red radiations and diffuse the blue, making it appear to us as blue. 

A yellow object, (and i'm sure you've figured it out by now, but i'll continue (no, not to annoy you) but for consistency's sake) will absorb the red and blue radiations and diffuse the yellow, which will make it appear to us as purple :D just checking if you were paying attention, you guessed it - as yellow.

So where do the colours white, black and grey fit into all of this? Apparently, they simply, don't.

They're called: the "non colours" due to them not reacting to light in the same way the others do. 

Here's how they DO react:

White: The colour white has the distinction of not absorbing any light radiation.

Instead, this bad boy rejects all the colours, and by doing so, sends off the colour white (the sum of all the colours resulting in white, eyeballs ripping us off, remember?)

Black:  The colour black, being the opposite of white, will do just that - the opposite.

It will absorb all the light and reject none of it. This is where the absence of colour happens.

That's why they say not to wear black in summer. It absorbs all the light hence the heat making it even hotter. A white t-shirt however, will absorb no light, thus no added heat.  

Grey: Wanting to be fair, grey will go in 50/50. Meaning it will take in half the light and reject the other half, making it appear as grey. 

So far, i'm liking the white but it's not gonna make me look any thinner. :/




Colour in the form of light vs. colour in the form of substance.


To resume, simply know this: if you were to mix three beams of colour each reflecting one of the primary colours (red, yellow and blue) it will indeed result as a beam of white but if you did so by using a tangible substance such as paint, it will result in a greyish/brownish/taupe-ish colour, or as my teacher puts it: caca brown. :)




I don't want to overwhelm you with info (read: bore you to death) so "to be continued" tomorrow with the Chromatic Circle. Yay! right? ;)

Blog to you soon, 

Sahar