Seeing Colors

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I would define a visual artist as one who knows how to see.    If you can legibly write this sentence with pen and paper then you have the fine motor skills to be a de Vinci.  What Leonardo had is the ability to understand what he was seeing.

One simple method to help people see is to abstract objects to simple rectangles, circles, triangles, etc.  Most people can draw those, so if you start there and slowly refine your drawing you can eventually learn to see the shapes.

So how about color?

A few weeks ago I read an article on the BBC web site (http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140905-the-women-with-super-human-vision ) about some women who can see more colors than most people.  It is always women because they inherit two different red-green cones, one from each parent, on their X chromosome.  One of the women with this ability is an artist and art instructor.  She would like to help others with her condition, tetrachromacy, fulfill their sight potential.  She would also like to help normal people, like you and me, see more colors than we do without training.

There is a photo in this article that shows a painting of a tree made by the tetrachrome artist and a photo of the tree itself.  She claims she took very little license, that the colors in the painting are the colors she sees in the tree.  I looked and said, “Yeah, right.”  But then, the more I studied the photo of the actual tree the more the colors came out.  After a while I could see every one of the colors she used, but not as vividly.  Also I see more reds and oranges, but that could be because of the time of day the photo was taken compared to when she painted the picture.

It’s amazing.  When I went back to this article for my current post and looked at the tree it was almost monochrome at first.  Again, the longer I looked the more colors I saw.

After reading this article I decided to look at the trees around me a little closer.  I quickly noticed more colors than I expected.  So, what color do you see in the trunk of this tree?

Trunk 000

Answer quickly and then sit and look for a few minutes.  Try to pick out lavenders and fuchsias.  Look for the limes and burgundies; the turquoise.   Look closely and try to figure out where one color blends with another, or where there’s a boundary. (If you click on the picture you can see more detail in the larger size.)

I found that what might seem like the most bland, boring part of the tree, particularly during Autumn Leaf-Peeping Season, turned out to be quite intriguing.

Look at this trunk.  Do you think it’s a boring monochrome white?

Tree Trunk Bland

Look closer.  There’s a lot more than at first meets the eye.

I just want to mention that I tried to make these photos as neutral as possible.  I took several shots and only kept those that approximated what I was seeing.  I have not enhanced anything unless stated.  With the photo below I took the above photo and greatly increased the color saturation.  All subtlety goes away, but you can quickly tell that it is anything but monochromatic.  There’s a wide variety.

Tree Trunk - Over Saturated

Look at were the different colors are in this version and then look back at the original.  Do you see the differences now?  Yes, those oranges, golds and even hints of purple exist in the original.

The gallery below might seem boring at first.  Your assignment is to look at the pictures (full size) and try to see the various colors.  Some of them have a huge assortment.  None of them are bland (You’ll notice that I posted two versions of a few pictures: one straight out of the camera and another with boosted color saturation.  You should use the over-saturated pictures as guides to the normal pictures.)

17 thoughts on “Seeing Colors”

  1. Pingback: Seeing Colors (Part II) | Trent's World (the Blog)

  2. lifeconfusions

    Wow what an interesting and realistic concept ! I looked at all the pictures again and again to see all the different colors that danced before my eyes which I wasn’t able to see before. Thanks Trent for sharing this with us. Extremely informative and fascinating !

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  4. Karen

    Awesome, Trent. Watching Bob Ross and listening to his explanations taught me to look at nature with different eyes. Your pictures steer the viewers’ perception of the different bark colours in this direction.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Thanks Karen! It might sound obvious, but I believe perception is the key to the arts. Bob Ross seemed to use his inner eye a lot, but I think he developed that inner eye by perceiving the world around him.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Thanks Prior! Our society puts very little emphasis on things as esoteric as seeing colors so we usually don’t notice the colors unless they’re bold and eye-popping.

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  6. eloisedesousa

    Incredible how much you see if you stop to look. I have a picture of a tree with multi-coloured bark. I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was, lying there in the forest. I think it’s in one of my photos from a blog called, take a walk with me. If you get a chance, check it out and tell me what you think. 😀

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Hi Eloise. It is amazing. We take so many of these simple sites for granted yet if we take a few minutes to look (or to listen) we are usually rewarded. I liked your picture – its another one where you could see a lot of color.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Thanks for reblogging! Your statement reminds me of a quote from the movie Pleasantville – “Must be awful lucky to see colors like that. I bet they don’t know how lucky they are.”

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