Colour Lesson III

A Belief System in Colour

A colour system is a belief. Each one teaches us a different way to mix the world.

When we describe or mix colour, we aren’t revealing something absolute.
We are choosing a model. A lens. A language.
Each one draws its own borders. Between light and matter. Between digital and physical. Between what can be seen and what must be felt.

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The Painter’s Circle: RYB

Used in traditional art, early education, hand-mixing.
Primary colours: red , yellow , blue .
Subtractive by nature.

RYB is often the first model we meet. A colour wheel of touch and instinct.
It speaks to childhood brushes and muddy palettes, where red meets blue and becomes something bruise-purple and raw.

But it is a conceptual tool, not a complete one. RYB cannot describe all colours. It holds only the familiar tones that live in pigment and paint.

RYB remembers how we began to see colour as story, not spectrum.

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The Light Model: RGB

Used in screens, photography, digital displays.
Primary colours: red , green , blue .
Additive by nature.

RGB belongs to light.
Where pigment subtracts, light adds.
Here, mixing all colours yields white. The full glow of a pixel.

It isn’t just a tool of computers. It reflects how we see.
Our eyes are tuned to red , green , blue . RGB mimics the retina. It is the code behind every luminous screen.

RGB works because the body does.

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Ink and Pressure: CMYK

Used in print media and packaging.
Core inks: Cyan , Magenta , Yellow and Black.
Another subtractive system.

CMYK lives in presses and cartons, in the quiet hum of rollers and drying ink.
It does not begin in light, but in surface.

Not just for shadows, but for clarity, contrast, and economy. The paper doesn’t glow, so this model subtracts light, rather than adds it.

CMYK is the memory of ink, layering until the page breathes colour.

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Perception Made Measurable: LAB

Used in image correction, colour fidelity, perceptual design.
Defined by three axes: L for lightness, a for green to red, b for blue to yellow.
A perceptual space.

LAB does not mix colour. It describes it.
It contains all coloyrs the human eye can perceive, even those screens and printers cannot recreate.
It is device-independent, a system not for display, but for comparison.

It asks: How far apart are these hues? Will the eye see a difference?

This is where Delta-E lives. Here, fidelity becomes a distance, and subtlety becomes geometry.

LAB is not what colour is. It is how colour differs.

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A Simple Compass

System	Where It Lives	Nature	Colour Axes or Primaries	Purpose
RYB	Art, painting	Subtractive	Red , Yellow , Blue	Traditional, conceptual
RGB	Screens, lighting	Additive	Red , Green , Blue	Digital, perceptual mimicry
CMYK	Print, publishing	Subtractive	Cyan , Magenta , Yellow , Black	Physical colour reproduction
LAB	Imaging, correction	Perceptual	Lightness, a, b	Colour difference, neutrality

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Reflective Thoughts

Think of a colour you’ve used recently. Maybe in clothing, or a photo edit, or a design choice.

• Which system shaped it?
• Was it crafted through light, ink, or intuition?
• Would it shift or vanish if placed into another model?

My deep navy shimmered online, but dulled in print. It left only a shadow of itself.

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Closing Thought

Each system is a way of seeing.
Not just how colour is formed, but how it is measured, remembered, and shared.

Colour isn’t fixed. It changes as the world changes around it, and the tools we use to define it change.

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References

• Josef Albers, Interaction of Color
• Bruce MacEvoy, handprint.com
• CIE (International Commission on Illumination), cie.co.at
• Bruce Fraser, Real World Color Management
• Wyszecki & Stiles, Color Science
• ICC Color Profiles, color.org
• Munsell Color Science Lab, Rochester Institute of Technology