Friday, August 25, 2023

Goethe's Color Chart

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "Theory of Colours" (Zur Farbenlehre) is a book that presents his views on the nature of colors and how they are perceived by humans
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This chart is based on his personal observations and theories about color vision. In his book, Goethe proposed a different approach to color than the objective scientific principles of Sir Isaac Newton. According to Goethe, color arises from the interaction between light and darkness. He believed that darkness is not the absence of light but its rival or counterpart. He categorized colors into two main groups: blue and yellow. Goethe considered blue to be a lightening of black and yellow to be a darkening of white. All other colors, including green, red, and magenta, were grouped between these two opposing colors. Goethe's color chart is not focused on the scientific analysis of color, but rather on the psychological, moral, and spiritual aspects of color perception. His ideas about color pairings, particularly the opposition of blue and yellow, have influenced modern theories of color vision, such as the opponent process theory, which states that our perception of color arises from interactions between pairs of color receptors. 

2 comments:

thesleepyknitter said...

I LOVE your artwork, videos, and blog! I own your Color and Light book and Imaginative Realism book and have bought your first two Dinotopia books for my son's birthday (but secretly they might actually be for me......). My question today is not actually about today's helpful blog post, Goethe's Color Chart (my apologies!), but about why an artist would choose casein over gouache OR gouache over casein in an individual painting scenario. If I were you and preparing my plein air kit for the day, what would make me choose the casein kit over the gouache kit, or vice versa? Would you be willing to answer that question in an upcoming blog post? Thank you for listening to my newbie questions--I'm debating whether to upgrade my student gouache kit to a professional one or instead to buy a professional casein kit. Even five or six tubes can be expensive.

James Gurney said...

Good question. I'll answer it soon.