what color are you?

Color is all around; used to express mood, feelings, category, expression, and much more. We look around and are bombarded by it. Everyone has a favorite color. Perhaps chosen because it makes them the happiest, or maybe because they feel it represents their personality. That's the thing about color; it represents so many facets. Blue for boys, and pink for darling girls. Red means loves and yellow for friendship. Why is this? It has something to do with color theory, or the guiding principles to how we feel about and see color. The often used artist primary colors (red, yellow, blue) lead to secondary and then tertiary colors. Same goes for onscreen primary colors (red, green, blue) and the printing primary subtractive colors (cyan, magenta, yellow). From these come rainbows of colors. Warm colors tend to be the reds to yellow, and cool are greens to violets. Most of this is psychological, with one possible explanation being yellow and orange are associated with a warm sun, while blue green can be linked to a cool river. While plain sense tells us color is just color, as emotional humans it's hard not to associate certain colors with experiences. Red and green Christmas; red, white, and blue American; pink and red Valentine's. Sometimes even the lack of color can become telling. Black and white photography attempts to eliminate emotion of color and focus on shadows and value. Color expresses so much in this society of emotions and association; it can both lift us up or bring down a mood.

pic credit: Photo Articles