Once you understand the different colors in a print (Analyze Print Color Combinations), it’s time to analyze the print color lightness and darkness. That’s comparing your favorite colors to the other colors in the print for their relative lightness and darkness. Why is this important?
My skin is light and both my hair and eyes are dark. As a result my Color Contrast Profile is high. I need to wear very light colors and fully saturated colors together. If I wear colors all on the same rung of a color wheel I look just ok. But when I add white in the mix then my coloring comes alive.
Depending on your Color Contrast Profile you should wear colors on the same rung, just above or below or on opposite ends like me. As a result when looking at prints to wear, you need to analyze the print’s color lightness and darkness.
In this post you’ll first learn about the color theory behind color. Then take a look at the prints we analyzed for color combinations last week.
Analyze Print Color Lightness & Darkness -- Color Theory
The outer rung on the intensity Color Wheel and the third rung on the Value Color Wheel are the fully saturated colors. As the colors on the Intensity Color Wheel get closer to the center the colors get greyer and greyer until no color is visible with the naked eye. As the color gets greyer it gets lighter. For the Value Color Wheel as the colors get closer to the center more white is added making the colors look lighter. On the other hand, the colors get darker as they move out from the fully saturated colors.
To analyze print lightness and darkness you’ll look at the relative lightness and darkness of colors paired with your favorite colors.
Analyze Print Lightness & Darkness -- Relative Contrast
When analyzing a print’s lightness and darkness you’re looking for the relative difference between the colors. You can have:
- Low contrast
- Medium contrast
- High contrast
Low contrast means the colors are on the same rung when the color combination is either analogous, triadic or complementary. For monochromatic color combinations low contrast is two or three colors right next to each other.
Medium contrast means the colors are one or two rungs apart from each other for analogous, triadic or complementary color combinations. The colors are two or three rungs from each other for monochromatic color combinations.
High contrast means the colors are on the first and fifth rungs for all the color combinations.
Analyze Print Lightness & Darkness -- Dress Prints
Using the prints from the previous post, you’ll learn how to analyze the print colors’ lightness and darkness in general.
Monochromatic
The colors in the first print go from a white to navy blue. It creates high contrast.
The second print’s colors have a cream base and orange (second rung) flowers with splashes of a dark grey/blue. The overall feel is low to medium contrast.
The third print also has a cream base with flowers of yellow/oranges on the fourth and second rungs. This combination creates a medium contrast print.
Analogous
The blues and blue/greens in this first print vary from a blue/white to the darkest color navy. This combination in color lightness and darkness creates high contrast.
The second print colors vary from white to medium blue and green to a dark green/black. It also creates high contrast.
The last print colors vary from a light yellow/orange to a medium orange to a darker red/orange (fourth rung) creating a medium contrast.
Triadic
The overall feel of the first print is medium contrast. Its colors range from a first rung blue/green to a fourth rung blue/green and red/violet to a second rung yellow/orange.
The second print also has an overall feel of medium contrast even though there are splashes of light blue flowers. The majority of colors are on the third rung with navy blue as the background.
Finally the last print also has an overall feel of medium contrast. The colors range from a background of light violet with flowers of violet and orange on the third rung and green leaves on the fourth rung.
Complementary
The base of the first print is a medium yellow/orange with flowers of a light violet and darker violet (fourth rung) and splashes of green. The overall feel is medium contrast.
Colors in the second print also create a medium contrast. They range from the third rung to the first rung.
The reds in the third print range from the first and second rungs, while the greens are on the second and third rungs. These colors create a floral design on the background of black. The overall feel of this print is high contrast.
As you may have noted most of the prints above are medium contrast with a few high contrasts. I choose these prints randomly for the color combinations not thinking about the relative lightness and darkness of the colors.
You’ll find most color contrasts in the ready-to-wear world will be medium contrast because most (in their eyes) fall into this range. I don’t know if that’s true or not but it is what it is.
If the colors of your skin, hair and eyes create high contrast or low contrast, you’ll have a harder time finding prints best that are for you. Just keep a lookout for ones that do.
The next blog post is the final one in this series of posts on analyzing prints. In this post you’ll look at the print scale. It’s called Analyze Print Scale.
Wear Your Greatness!!
