Let’s get inappropriately emotional for a moment. Names for the color commonly known as “beige” are as informationally descriptive as the banal term implies. No matter how you dress it up (“Kentucky Storm,” “Dirty Harry Putty,” or “Witches Broom Gray”) beige remains stripped of its genealogy and birthright, its parental color and hue. Beige is a color orphan, and that’s a crying shame.
This name game has repercussions. Architects and interior designers often have trouble combining beiges and their siblings grays and off-whites with strong colors and natural materials. Creating an interesting building or interior space that doesn’t put you to sleep or keep you awake is hard, especially when trying to get colors to match under different lighting conditions. The key to color selection is understanding undertone composition. Undertones are easily perceived for most colors, but difficult in neutral colors.
What is an undertone? Every color and neutral is composed of two hues: a main tone and an undertone. Together, they produce a composite color. For example, purples are combinations of red and blue, one being the main tone, the other the undertone (see color wheel below).
In my own work, I use a system of four primary main tones: yellow, red, blue, and green. When mixed together, these four hues produce only eight possible combinations of composite colors: yellow/red, red/yellow, red/blue, blue/red, blue/green, green/blue, green/yellow, and yellow/green. All colors, including neutrals, can be identified as one of these eight composite colors, with a tendency to reveal one of the four primary undertones: yellow, red, blue or green. The same is true for any color or off-white, regardless of value (light/dark) or chromatic intensity.
In addition, every color has an opposite. Red is opposite green or aqua. Blue or purple are opposite yellow or orange. When combined, opposites will either blend or clash, with red and green combinations having the most potential for clashing.
FOUR PRIMARY COLOR WHEEL WITH 8 COMPOSITE COLORS
An artist friend who works in two dimensions (on canvas with pigments she can manually adjust on the fly) recently remarked, “It is very difficult to combine beige, gray, and white with other colors.” Imagine the problem interior designers and architects face combining colors and materials within large and varied three-dimensional varied planes: walls, ceiling, floors. Changes in the perception of color and material stem from variable lighting sources. Changes in color with artificial light occur with dimming and temperature controls and also as lamps age. Daylight color moves with the sun, seasonally and geographically. Designing a color palette is, therefore, a four-dimensional problem.
Some people have an innate ability to perceive undertones through observation. Others form judgments by comparing a neutral color with other colors. Unfortunately, surprises await even seasoned experts when hidden colors are revealed after paint is applied to a surface. If you’ve ever stepped back from a freshly painted wall and thought, Hmm, that didn’t quite work out know what I mean.
Let’s begin by using the following samples and figures to compare undertones of four off-whites with the same lavender (light purple or blue main tone/red undertone) For our purposes, any beiges, grays, and off-whites will be considered as neutrals. Since the identification of undertones is a process, I have set three objectives. This article will deal only with objective #1 and requires your feedback to proceed with objectives #2 and #3. There are also existing systems of measurements that can be used to determine the undertone in a neutral color. We can explore them as objective #4 at a future date.
Objective-1: Determine the undertone in neutral colors through comparison with other colors.
Objective-2: Determine if colors harmonize well with each other or with natural materials.
Objective-3: Understand how lighting alters the perception and color.
The following figure illustrates a lavender sample with four “whites”. Can you match the undertone?
Which white has a “green undertone”, a “red undertone” , a “yellow undertone” , a “blue undertone”?
Which white is on the first ceiling? White #1___,White #2___, White #3____, White #4___
Which white is on the second ceiling? White #1___, White #2___White #3___White #4____
Message me at g-jar@live.com with answers and any comments on this presentation
Objectives #2 and #3 will follow.
Gloria Jaroff, AIA
