Season’s Speak

Seasons Speak — Warm & Cool Colors

Oct 312008
 

Let’s look at a color wheel.  There are three primary colors on a color wheel:  True Red, Blue and Yellow.  You can not mix any colors to make a primary color. 

                                                

As you begin to mix the primary colors together you get secondary and tertiary colors.   The secondary colors are green (equal parts yellow and blue) orange (equal parts yellow and red) and violet (equal parts red and blue). The tertiary colors are red–orange, red–violet, yellow–orange, yellow–green, blue–violet and blue–green.

Warm and Cool Colors

The first basic way we can categorized colors is by dividing them as  “warm” or “cool”.   We can consider the true primary colors along with true green (equal parts blue and yellow) as neutrals or swing colors in this discussion, t
hey by themselves are neither warm nor cool.

What colors do you think of when you think about things that are physically hot or warm?  Think about the sun, fire, a red hot burner on a stove or the desert.  These colors in general have a lot of yellow to them.  When we look at the color wheel, the “warm” colors are colors that are mixed  with yellow.  On our basic color wheel they are orange, red-orange, yellow -orange and yellow-green.  These colors convey sort of  earthy warmth.

                                 

Just the same,  the colors that we tend to associate with being cold or cool, with things like ice, snow and water, are blue based colors.  On our color wheel they are violet, red-violet, blue-violet, and blue-green.  These colors convey a sort of cool conservative classic quality.

                                

Which Colors are Warm and Which are Cool?<
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So by the very definition, virtually any color can be warm or cool, simply by adding a little yellow or a little blue to it.  You can have warm grays and cool grays, warm navy’s and cool navy’s,  even warm violets and cool violets.  Warm “pinks” (salmon) and cool pinks. So when someone tells me they can’t wear… green for example… I have to guess that they just have not found the right green for them yet.

How Do Warm and Cool Colors Apply to Me?

Our skin, hair and eye colors cause us to be predominately warm or cool in coloring.  Our coloring is based on three pigments we have in our skin: 

  • Melanin (blue/brown)
  • Carotene (yellow)
  • Hemoglobin (red/pink)

So depending on your ratios of these three pigments you would be predominately warm or cool.  Any skin tone from light to dark could be warm or cool. 

Now here is where it gets a bit complicated for people to understand.  We want to compliment the under tones of your  skin, not necessarily the surface colors.

  •  A sallow or olive skinned person may appear yellow on the surface, but have cool blue undertones. Warm colors placed against their skin may cause them to look jaundiced and unhealthy. 
  • Some one with  very milky skin may appear cool because of their lack of color,  but their undertones are warm and cool colors placed against their skin may make them look pale or chalky.

Am I Warm or Cool?

This is extremely difficult, to nearly impossible to do online.  To truly determine, you would need a professional to drape you in colors, but I can give some guide lines to help you analyze your own coloring.

And before I go any further I should mention that we are talking about your NATURAL coloring,  NOT the color you die your hair, or the color of your contact lenses etc.  Just changing your hair color will not put you in the category you want to be in, it just confuses the matter.

Warm  Coloring 

  • Hair—golden, honey, and auburn tones
  • Skin—often milky complexion, may have golden freckles
  • Eyes—brown, dark brown, green

Warm  colors worn on someone with warm coloring will cause a lift to their face and eyes and a brighter appearance. Cool colors will wash or fade their skin and cause white areas and  drag in their nose, mouth chin & jaw line.

 

Cool Coloring

  • Hair—ash tones, no gold tones
  • Skin — often olive or sallow complexions
  • Eyes  —  blue, hazel, violet, gray

Warm colors on someone who is predominately cool in nature  will give a sallow or faded appearance with dark areas around the nose, chin or jaw line giving  an aged, unhealthy appearance.  Cool colors add lift  to the face with focus on the eyes, giving a brightened, younger and healthier appearance.

What Next?

Obviously we can not group the entire world into only two categories of color.  Next time we will break it down a little further by the four seasons, and then we will fling some fun and flow into the mix.  See you then!

 

~Lori

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seasons Speak–What’s the Big Deal with Color?

Oct 242008
 

I think all too often, the importance of color in our life and our wardrobe, make up & hair choices gets dismissed as unimportant.  And in some respects a bit passe.  But I still stand firm on the fact that color makes a HUGE impact on all of  those things in multiple ways.  Today I want to give some reasons why your color choices can make all of the difference in your look.

Color Sends Messages

Since we humans are so visually oriented, color is one of the first elements of our visual communication.  The colors we wear say volumes about us before we ever have a chance to open our mouths.

  • Dark Colors – lend you credibility, authority, assertiveness, masculinity
  • Light/Soft Colors – give you approachability, gentleness, femininity
  • Bright Colors – generate energy, excitement, animation, and an extroverted quality
  • Muted Colors – give a controlled, conservative, introverted quality

 So you may want to consider what kind of messages you want to convey. Dark colors, for example, are good choices for women who frequently work with men.  And very strong personalities may want to consider softer colors to make themselves a bit more approachable.

Color Reflects on Us

You have to admit, looking around this great big wide world, there is much diversity amongst us all. From the milky white skin with white blond hair to the darkest brown with deep black hair, not everyone can wear the same ranges of colors. 

     

One color on one women will give her an attractive, healthy rested appearance and on another woman will make her look sick and aged, and on another will simply wash her out. 

  • One woman can walk into a room wearing tomato red and everyone says "Wow! She is stunning!"  Another will walk in the same room wearing the same color everyone will think "Whoa! Red!" 
  • One of us could walk into a room wearing a soft pink and everyone would say "She is so pretty," and another walk in that same room in that same color and people will wonder, "Is she here yet?"

This applies to the clothes we wear, the make up we put on our faces, our choice of hair colors, and even the lighting we are standing under.

Color Knowledge Simplifies Wardrobe Planning

When you learn which colors work for you and then "limit" yourself to a certain range of colors you will experience a new freedom in your wardrobe. 

  • As you shop, you can pass right by pieces that don’t fit into your color palette before even going through the hassle of trying them on. 
  • As you develop your wardrobe you will find that every new piece you bring home will coordinate with multiple pieces you already have in your closet. 
  • You will find that you don’t HAVE to buy a new pair of shoes every time you purchase a new outfit.  OK, so maybe you’d LIKE to, but it won’t be necessary.  :)   

This can save you time, stress and BIG bucks from multiple mistakes and pieces you only wear once or twice and then are useless.  As you develop your wardrobe, you will find that you are wearing more like 75% of it on a regular basis instead of only 25% and will not end up donating bags of clothes with the tags still on to the local Salvation Army.

Sound Good?

            

Tune in next time as we go deeper and start to talk about colors more.  Next time I will be discussing some of the ways  we can categorize colors using the seasons as our guide

~Lori

 

Seasons Speak

Oct 232008
 

I love art work.  My house is full of it.  I have art I inherited when my grandmother passed away, some pieces my husband and I have purchased together, and artwork that friends and family have made (my house is a virtual gallery of work by my sister.)  My walls are so full, at this point I have to take things down if I want to add in anything new, and with so many sentimental pieces it is difficult.

I recently stumbled upon the most beautiful prints while browsing shops on Etsy.  I was immediately drawn to their beauty but their theme clinched it and I HAD to have them.  They tell a story and help illustrate a principle I teach to my clients about color theory.  They so beautifully tie into my business and my life.  I ordered them with in a day of finding them and will be soon holding a place of honor over my desk in my office.

        

 The prints have inspired me to tackle something I’ve wanted to do here for some time.  I am going to attempt a series here on my blog about Seasonal Color Flow Theory using these prints as my illustrations.   They do not fully encapsulate what I will be discussing but they definitely get the conversation started.

 Seasons Speak

Does any of this sound like you?

Have you ever noticed that certain colors look absolutely fantastic on you? 

Do you have certain outfits that are guaranteed to bring compliments?

Have you noticed that some colors make you look ill?

Is your wardrobe dominated by a few select colors?

Have you ever purchased anything and brought it home only to discover you have nothing to wear it with?

Is putting together a wardrobe and shopping a chore for you?

Do you have problems packing for trips, and end up packing way too much?

Do you tend to wear a select 25% of your closet and the rest is left untouched?

Are you afraid of color and so stick with neutrals or black?

Have you ever died your hair and suddenly felt like you look older?

Do you have problems making you make up last?

Do you have problems making your make up look natural?

If any of these questions speak to you, tune in to this series, it may just be an eye opener for you!

~Lori

 

 And don’t forget to check out my friend’s shop!

  Mazer Designs – mixed media art, prints and bookmarks.