“In visual perception, a color is almost never seen as it really is — as it physically is. This fact makes color the most relative medium in art.” — Josef Albers.

“在视觉上，几乎从不看过颜色，而是从外观上看。 这一事实使色彩成为艺术中最相关的媒介。” —约瑟夫·阿尔伯斯。

At the end of February of 2020, I took a “Color Workshop: Life Beyond Black, White & Red” at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. The purpose of this article is to share what I learned during an all-day workshop with a great teacher Richard Mehl, a designer, photographer and writer. I hope that this is useful to anyone who is curious and/or wants to learn more about the colors beyond black, white and red.

2020年2月底，我在纽约市视觉艺术学院参加了“色彩研讨会：超越黑，白，红的生活”。 本文的目的是与一位伟大的设计师，摄影师，作家Richard Mehl分享我在一整天的研讨会中学到的东西。 我希望这对好奇和/或想了解更多有关黑色，白色和红色以外的颜色的人有用。

Let me start with why I took this workshop. I have recently changed careers to become a User Experience and Interface Designer. I do not have a background in graphic design or art. When I work on visual design projects, I have a hard time matching colors and it’s sometimes so overwhelming that I spend hours searching for the right match. There are a lot of materials and books about color theory out there, but I was looking for something special, something that could help me better understand the use of color, to be more aware of it and to be more confident choosing risky palettes.

让我从为什么参加这次研讨会开始。 我最近改变了职业，成为一名用户体验和界面设计师。 我没有平面设计或艺术背景。 当我从事视觉设计项目时，我很难匹配颜色，有时会变得不知所措，以至于我花了数小时来寻找合适的匹配项。 那里有很多有关颜色理论的材料和书籍，但我一直在寻找一些特别的东西，可以帮助我更好地理解颜色的使用，使其更加了解颜色，并更有信心选择有风险的调色板。

That’s why I decided to sign up for the color workshop at the SVA. It is an all- day workshop from 10 am to 6 pm. I think they offer it every semester, but I am not sure. The cost is $150 plus you have to buy materials: color-aid paper, Bristol pad, rubber cement and scissors.

这就是为什么我决定在SVA报名参加色彩工作室的原因。 这是一个从上午10点到下午6点的全天工作坊。 我认为他们每学期提供一次，但我不确定。 费用为150美元，另外您还必须购买材料：彩色辅助纸，布里斯托尔护垫，橡胶水泥和剪刀。

色彩对比 (Color contrast)

Johannes Itten was an accomplished German painter and one of the first to define and identify strategies for successful color combinations. He developed seven methodologies for coordinating colors that focuses on hue contrasts.

约翰内斯·伊滕 ( Johannes Itten)是一位经验丰富的德国画家，也是最早定义和识别成功配色策略的人之一。 他开发了七种方法来协调色彩，重点是色相的对比。

These color contrasts are:

这些颜色对比是：

1. Hue. The greater the distance between hues on a color wheel, the greater the contrast.

1.色相。 色轮上的色相之间的距离越大，对比度越大。

2. Light-Dark. This could be a monochromatic composition.

2.浅暗。 这可能是单色的成分。

3. Cold-Warm. The contrast is formed by the juxtaposition (contrasting effect) of hues considered ‘warm’ or ‘cool.’

3.冷暖。 对比度是由“温暖”或“凉爽”的色调的并置(对比效果)形成的。

4. Complementary. The contrast is formed by the juxtaposition of color wheel or perceptual opposites.

4.互补。 对比度是由色轮或感知相反的并列形成的。

5. Simultaneous. The contrast is formed when the boundaries between colors perceptually vibrate. Some interesting illusions are accomplished with this contrast.

5.同时进行。 当颜色之间的边界感知振动时，就会形成对比度。 通过这种对比可以实现一些有趣的错觉。

6. Saturation. The contrast is formed by the juxtaposition of light and dark values and their relative saturation.

6.饱和度。 对比度是由明暗值的并置及其相对饱和度形成的。

7. Extension, also known as the contrast of proportion. The contrast is formed by assigning proportional field sizes in relation to the visual weight of a color.

7.扩展，也称为比例对比。 通过分配与颜色的视觉权重相关的比例字段大小来形成对比度。

Josef Albers was one of the most influential artist-educators of the twentieth century. He was mostly known for his style and use of colors. His book, “Interaction of Color”, represents unique ideas about color experimentation. One of the most interesting facts about his teachings was the way he taught his students. He didn’t follow the academic conception of theory and practice. He actually placed practice over theory. He didn’t want to tell his students the right answer he wanted them to find the answers themselves.

约瑟夫·阿尔伯斯 ( Josef Albers)是20世纪最有影响力的艺术家教育者之一。 他以风格和色彩运用而著称。 他的著作《 色彩的相互作用 》代表了有关色彩实验的独特想法。 关于他的教义最有趣的事实之一就是他教学生的方式。 他没有遵循理论和实践的学术观念。 他实际上将实践置于理论之上。 他不想告诉学生正确的答案，而是希望他们自己找到答案。

According to Albers, color is the most relative medium in art. He differentiated factual and actual colors. Factual is what the color is in isolation and actual is how the color appears when in context. Albers was the one who systematically demonstrated color’s elasticity.

根据阿尔伯斯(Albers)的说法，色彩是艺术中最相关的媒介。 他区分了事实和实际的颜色。 事实是颜色是孤立的，而实际是颜色在上下文中的显示方式。 阿尔伯斯是系统地证明颜色弹性的人 。

色彩实验 (Color experiments)

We were given problems to solves in class that required us to experiment with colors. The first problem was to try identifying colors, their hue, value and saturation. For those who are not familiar, these terms might be confusing. Hue is the term used in the world of color to refer to the pure spectrum colors (ex. red, blue, orange, etc.). Value is the lightness or darkness of the hue (ex. light or dark red). Saturation is the intensity (purity) of the hue.

我们在课堂上遇到需要解决的问题，需要我们尝试颜色。 第一个问题是尝试识别颜色，其色相，值和饱和度。 对于不熟悉的人，这些术语可能会造成混淆。 色相是在色彩世界中使用的术语，指的是纯光谱色(例如红色，蓝色，橙色等)。 值是色调的明暗程度(例如浅色或深红色)。 饱和度是色调的强度(纯度)。

使3种颜色看起来像2 (Making 3 colors look like 2)

Then, we were asked to make 3 colors look like 2. We had to find a color which on 2 different grounds loses its identity. On the image below (A) there are 2 different monochromatic colors of grey and 1 color for each center square in the figure. On the darker and lighter grounds, the center squares look like the opposing ground, but they are the same color. So, the true color of the 2 central squares becomes unrecognizable, it loses its identity. There is another example below with blue hue (B).

然后，我们被要求使3种颜色看起来像2种颜色。我们必须找到一种基于2种不同理由失去其标识的颜色。 在下图(A)上，图中的每个中心正方形都有2种不同的灰色单色和1种颜色。 在较暗和较亮的地面上，中心正方形看起来像对面的地面，但它们是相同的颜色。 因此，两个中央正方形的真实颜色变得无法识别，失去了其标识。 下面还有一个带有蓝色(B)的示例。

Here is another example of reversed grounds but using different hues. The longer we observe the lines, the more we compare them, the more we see that each repeats the color of the opposite.

这是颠倒的地面的另一个示例，但是使用了不同的色调。 我们观察线条的时间越长，我们就越会比较它们，我们越会看到每条重复相反颜色的颜色。

“We study this first, not as a surprising or entertaining illusion but to make eyes and mind aware of wonders of color interaction; second, to learn to utilize color deception in creative color performance.” (Interaction of Color, Chapter VI, p.88)

“我们首先进行研究，不是使人惊讶或有趣，而是让眼睛和心灵意识到色彩相互作用的奇妙之处；” 第二，学习在创意色彩表现中运用色彩欺骗。” (色彩的相互作用，第六章，第88页)

减色 (Subtraction of color)

The task here is to find 2 colors that look the same on 2 different grounds. This is called subtraction of color. It means that the ground colors appear to subtract themselves from the color of the small overlapping rectangles. It’s only through trial and error one can find the best match. The background colors can be the same hue with dark and light variations or different hues.

这里的任务是找到2种在2种不同背景下看起来相同的颜色。 这称为颜色减法。 这意味着底色看上去是从重叠的小矩形的颜色中减去的。 只有通过反复试验才能找到最佳匹配。 背景颜色可以是相同的色相，具有深色和浅色变化或不同的色相。

For my experiment, I chose different hues (yellow green and green) with the same saturation level. The hues should be close to each other. Otherwise it will be impossible to make the two colors look the same. You can see that the small rectangles look the same when placed on yellow green and green backgrounds. The idea here is to find the closest match. It might not be perfect, but it should be close enough.

对于我的实验，我选择了具有相同饱和度的不同色相(黄绿色和绿色)。 色相应彼此接近。 否则，将不可能使两种颜色看起来相同。 您会看到，将小矩形放在黄绿色和绿色背景上时看起来相同。 这里的想法是找到最接近的匹配项。 它可能并不完美，但是应该足够接近。

透明的幻觉 (The illusion of transparency)

Two colors appear to overlap and create a third color. This experiment gave me an understanding of color mixing. The idea here is to pick two colors and then a third color that is in between. In the image below I demonstrate transparency with grey hues of different lightness and darkness. There are three colors here used to create a transparent effect. I chose two parent grey hues of differing dark and light values and created a composition in which two shapes partially overlap. I cut the shape from the mixture hue to fit the area of overlap and glued it into place.

两种颜色似乎重叠并创建了第三种颜色。 这个实验使我对混色有了一个了解。 这里的想法是选择两种颜色，然后选择介于两者之间的第三种颜色。 在下图中，我演示了具有不同明暗度的灰色调的透明度。 这里使用三种颜色来创建透明效果。 我选择了两种深色和浅色值的父灰色调，并创建了其中两个形状部分重叠的构图。 我从混合色调中切出形状以适合重叠区域，然后将其粘贴到位。

On the next images, I experimented with different hues to create transparency. In the left image I used black and yellow squares with a yellow green triangle to create the transparent effect. In the image on the right I used black and warm yellow, and the overlapping transparency was a dark yellow.

在接下来的图像中，我尝试了不同的色调来创建透明度。 在左图中，我使用带有黄绿色三角形的黑色和黄色正方形来创建透明效果。 在右图中，我使用黑色和暖黄色，重叠的透明色是深黄色。

In conclusion, I want to say that it was a great workshop with a great teacher, Richard Mehl. I learned a lot about how colors interact with one another. In the beginning it was challenging, but as the course went on my understanding grew. It’s only through trial and error that one can understand how the relationships between colors work.

最后，我想说的是，这是一个很棒的讲习班，有一位出色的老师Richard Mehl 。 我学到了很多关于颜色如何相互作用的知识。 刚开始时充满挑战，但是随着课程的进行，我的理解逐渐增强。 只有通过反复试验，才能了解颜色之间的关系。

I liked the workshop so much that I decided to buy Josef Alberts book and learn more about his color concepts. I keep experimenting, so that I can better understand the harmony and interaction of color. The class experiments that I have provided in this article might not be perfect, but I believe that experience is the best teacher.

我非常喜欢这个工作坊，因此决定购买Josef Alberts的书，并进一步了解他的色彩概念。 我不断进行实验，以便更好地理解色彩的和谐与互动。 我在本文中提供的课堂实验可能并不完美，但我认为经验是最好的老师。

There is also an iPad app, the Interaction of Color, developed by Yale. I have not tried it yet, but it seems like a great option to play with color. All of the images in this article were created by me.

耶鲁还开发了一个iPad应用程序“色彩的相互作用”。 我还没有尝试过，但这似乎是选择色彩的绝佳选择。 本文中的所有图像均由我创建。

“If one says ‘Red’ (the name of a color) and there are 50 people listening, it can be expected that there will be 50 reds in their minds. And one can be sure that all these reds will be very different.” — Josef Albers.

“如果有人说'红色'(一种颜色的名称)并且有50个人在听，那么可以预料他们的脑海中将有50个红色。 可以肯定的是，所有这些红色都会有很大的不同。” —约瑟夫·阿尔伯斯。

References: Interaction of color: 50th Anniversary Edition, Josef Albers. Yale University Press, June 28, 2013 — Art — 193 pages.

参考：色彩的相互作用：50周年纪念版，约瑟夫·阿尔伯斯。 耶鲁大学出版社，2013年6月28日-艺术作品-193页。

Thanks for reading!

谢谢阅读！