Color Vision

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

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The Purple Still Life Setup

Over the course of many years teaching both the science and the art of color, one thing becomes very clear—everyone sees colors a little differently. We’ve learned from science that women are genetically wired to better discriminate between yellows and greens than men are. (See: Perspectives No. 128, Tomato, Tomahto). While we can’t do anything about the wiring, we can devise exercises aimed at increasing color sensitivity and accuracy across the spectrum.

In our oil classes, we decided to focus on working to improve color perception, one color at a time. We created still life arrangements featuring mainly one color or color family, but with some very subtle shifts in temperature and value. Not only is this a fun exercise, but it is one that most artists we know don’t take the time to do on their own. And, like Richard Schmid’s color charts, the learning is in the doing.

Our first step is to visit ou…