Is Red Warm or Neutral (Color Analysis vs Color Theory)
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- čas přidán 8. 09. 2024
- Here I discuss if red is warm and neutral, and where I believe the confusion is stemming from--color analysis defines warm colors differently from color theory because our purposes are different.
If you know who made the art pieces that I didn't credit, please leave a comment and let me know and I'll credit them in the description! I couldn't find who made some of these!
merriamstyle.com
I’ve been binge watching your videos Merriam, and learning so much. I decided to research where the undertones in the skin actually come from. What I found is that the surface of the skin contains more or less melatonin and that’s what gives the yellowish colour but underneath that you have the blood which will be some bright red oxygenated blood and some purplish deoxygenated blood. Finally there will be carotene which is an orangish pigment that actually absorbs UV and blue light. I suspect that it’s the amount of carotene that really changes the undertone. Apparently it gives a ‘healthy’ glow and may protect from uv.
One other thing I discovered is that skin is translucent so it allows some light through. If you put a torch against your hand in a dark room some of the light actually comes through your hand and you will see a red glow.
yeah my impression is that all of those different translucent layers of skin combine to form the skin color. and depending on if it leans blue or yellow at the end of the day will determine if it's cool or warm. sometimes people look like different undertones in different lighting, I suspect this is because depending on the angle, wavelengths, and intensity of the light, it will hit the skin differently and sometimes 'show'/reflect off of more of one layer of the skin than another.
@@merriamstyle Interesting. I have learned so much from you. Thankyou.
Well, I think I love you 😄 your theories have simplified everything for me! 20+ years ago, I was termed a Deep Autumn-which felt a bit off to me (dark ashy -brown hair, dark eyes, light skin) so I mainly focused on using the shared Autumn-Winter colours in my palette. Since going silver/salt&pepper, though, things have changed. I sort of now believe that I may have had a more neutral-warm type undertone all along, but that now with age, illness and Life, I may have moved into the neutral-cool type. (I always looked really terrible in orange). So I tried the straight Winter palettes of cool and bright-not always great or comfortable-and I’ve never felt comfortable in reds. However, with several months of interesting endeavor using natural, plain lighting selfies (no sunshine) and color matching apps, I’ve come to the conclusion that I have cool and muted colouring. But your assertion that all you need do is compare the two primary yellow and blue to see whether you are cool or warm was really so very helpful and decisive. The average person has trouble identifying cool or warm colours-but primary colours just are. I’m learning a lot from you. Many thanks!💜
Alexandra StayAtHome I am a warm muted Autumn, but with age my surface color has lightened ( five layers of sunscreen!) and on days when I am have auto immune issues my skin appears much cooler. All that said, my Autumn colors still work well for me.
This makes a lot of sense. For style (color analysis) I have considered yellow is the key for warmth, not red. Red can be cool or warm. I’m glad to hear I’m not alone here!
I'm also glad to hear I'm not alone!!!!
@@merriamstyle Also if we take blue and yellow, then a red is actually equidistant and b everyone's blood is red so everyone can wear red, just differently accented ones as filtered through their melanin.
There is only one problem with the colour theory of primary colours as red, blue and yellow: red and blue are not actually primary colours in the physical sense of creating ALL colours the eye can see through mixing. This colour theory/wheel is in fact somewhat outdated, as the actual subtractive primary colours are: Cyan, Magenta and Yellow (CMY). (Try mixing magenta with red and blue paint - it's impossible) So actually you can mix magenta and yellow to get red and mix magenta and cyan to get blue. So there seems to be only one warm primary colour in the form of yellow, maybe this helps with explaining the choice of yellow as the warm undertone?
In the opposite the additive primary colours are Red, Green and Blue (RGB): in mixing red and green light, you get yellow, and same with the other colours.
It's weird, I know, but this is optics. ^^°
Very interesting take. I really appreciate you using art examples and the color wheel. I think the main difficulty with red for people trying to wear it is that it can be very difficult to find a garment that is a true (neutral) red; it can be tricky for people to identify in a store whether they are looking at a warm, cool or neutral red. Same with makeup.
i agree with the red. the red from her example looks warm to me. probably somewhere in the world is a perfect neutral red, but i don't think it would look good both on someone with a warm and a cool undertone.
Make sense now. Thx so much again
So random thought. What if we are following the wrong primary? Meaning that instead of Yellow, Red, Blue it is the pigment primary of Yellow, Magenta, Cyan for our skin? That would mean that people can be warm (Yellow) or cool (Magenta aka red/blue) and more Nuetral tones are closer to Cyan (Blue/Green) more. The more Cyan you add to a pigment the more nuetral and grey a tone gets. The more yellow that is added the brighter things get. Just a thought...
I mean it really makes sense. There are primary colors. Yellow Red and Blue. Yellow is warm and Blue is cool so logically Red is neutral.....If we take the Primary Color Red (without any blue or yellow in it) it is obviously a radiant color. Then we take a warm and radiant person and put them in this primary red, it will look good on them. Then we take a cool and radiant person and put them in this primary red, it will also look good on them. Ofcourse both would look best if you added some yellow or blue to the red, but it won't make them look bad. Then if we took that same primary red and added grey to it, it would then look good on a cool and delicate and a warm and delicate. But it is VERY hard to find a primary red color in clothing or makeup. They almost always add yellow or blue to it.
in this video, you gave me the idea that context allows for a color to serve a different purpose than if it is alone. this is i.portant to me because a huge question I wanted to ask was how do I wear purple if it's not "my color"
p.s. porrahis Many people look good in periwinkle, sometimes thrown into that mysterious and debated category of universal colors or colors that are not terrible on anyone. I have usually found that Springs are stunning in a clear orchid, Winters in clear 50/50 blue to red, purple, Summers in dusty plum and Autumns in a rich saturated purple that has some yellow. Hard to describe but this purple does exist.
This was an interesting explanation. At the heart of it, the interpretation of colour is always (or at least usually) in contrast to another colour, be it skin tone etc. Any colour can have cooler and warmer shades, even if the "base colour" is generally cool or generally warm. eg. purple (generally cool)-- warm(er) purple = plum, cool(er) purple =periwinkle.
I don't know--I see what you mean, but at the same time if I'm given a cool red I don't have to drape it against anything to know that it's a cool red.
not to say this is the answer to why color analysis matters objectively, but in my opinion, harmony is very aesthetically pleasing and attractive... just think wes Anderson movies .. very attractive visually
I love your videos, I learn so much!
But I have one question: the red circles at 1:17 , is the middle one actually neutral? I don't know why, but I feel like there's yellow in it. I would have guessed that neutral would be kind of in between the middle one and the right one :D But maybe I just have to train my eyes a little bit more ^^
I also feel like there's yellow in it!! I guess the computer screen just outputs some red wavelength--not exactly sure. But when I put in the color into RGB (with max value for red and 0 for green and blue), it will give me that red that looks a bit warm to me (and to you). -Shrugs- I'm not sure exactly what I could do about that. I could make it cooler in the future to represent a neutral red as we see it (sounds like a good solution now that I think of it/say it, but also I'm sure it'll create more confusion in terms of the consistency of the red that I call neutral red in my video.....siiigh). In real life though, there isn't such a thing as a neutral red anyway because real life isn't perfect. So hopefully it doesn't actually cause any real issues for people. Most people can easily tell warm vs cool red (or at least that's my assumption/hope!!).
Thank you very much for your answer! Hm interesting... but since you say that in real life neutral red doesn't exist anyway, I feel like its not that important to show the exact shade of neutral red.
Btw I'm really looking forward to your next videos :D
Whether painting an albinos skin or olive skin - anyway paint mix will have a serious amount of red in it. If we as a species had lime green as a base skin color, we'd care about red undertones vs blue undertones.
Hello, I was wondering if you are able to talk more about the differences between natural body types (soft, dramatic, etc). I love your videos by the way. I became an instant subscriber :)
I Am a red head who does not know her under tone I've watched several videos and still cant figure it out.
That really clears my confusion!
omg so happy you actually watched it after I mentioned it! Not sure if people actually do. :p
To make sure I understand, red does not determine undertone. I am very ruddy with yellow overtones and people think I am a cool because the red makes me look pinkish but according to this video (which makes perfect sense to me) I am still a warm tone because of the yellow undertone. Correct? I am barely a warm tone vs cool tone and so this makes me a Warm and Delicate, correct? Are there any premade color palettes to be able to look to get a better understanding of what I should wear? I've been wearing a lot of Cool and Radiant colors because I can carry those off when I'm very tan. They're also quite often the easiest colors to find in the stores. Sigh...
I think your comparisons is bit of, your compare magenta ( red with blue undertone) with a "true" red, non of the red dresses had yellow undertones. I think it would have been more useful to compare the magenta with a really warm red or even a more orange red.
Sorry I don't want to criticise you, I really like your videos :)
I always assumed that red was perceived as a neutral color when it comes to skin tones because everyone has SOME noticeable amount of red UNDER their skin from their capillaries, so it's kind of taken as a given. It isn't a given that people will necessarily have any noticeable blue or yellow in their skin, so that's the dividing line.
Yeah it's interesting. When color analysts talk about warm/cool they always say 'warm golden yellow' etc, no mention of red. But then as soon as they read about color theory (with good intention of course!) I believe they get confused and start to add red as a warm color. I also think yellow/blue is the dividing line.
I often hear people explainig orange as the warm undertone and pink/purple as the cool undertone...So thats basically yellow and blue but already mixed with red :D
i think in your art picture with the yellow sun and red desert, red still doesn't look cooler than yellow. yes, yellow looks brighter, but the red for me still looks warm. the picture is not a contrast of warm and cold, such as the blue- magenta picutre, but a harmony of warm bright yellow with warm red. it's not a contrast. also, in a picture with blue and green, green won't really look warm (except for a yellow shade of green), but the picture as a whole will be perceived as cool.
What exactly is the difference between color analysis and color theory,like why exactly are they so different, or why is green and red the split point?
Great reasoning , this makes so much sense.
eva longoria's "magenta" on the first two pictures is actually a hot pink, so of course it doesn't look good on her. on the third picture you show a picture of a bright pale magenta, that 100% isn't on here colour pallette. you should have compared a dark magenta (not a pink or pale magenta) to the red. i agree, that the amount of red in magenta doesn't make it look good on an autumn person, but what about spring? would it look better on someone who is spring or winter? i'm deep autumn (same as oprah and eva) and i could probably wear a very deep shade of magenta- i think they both would look great in such a colour.
histerija h Eva is a bright spring
Magenta can't be created from yellow, but a 'neutral red' can be created by adding a bit of yellow to magenta.
Idk again I think maybe it's because I'm studying physics but I keep finding conter examples
We're mixing elements of both synthesis to make this theory, plus psychology and biology, the sun is yellow, it's an important factor in our perception
I think yellow is neutral still: energy talking, he's in the middle red being the lowest and blue/purple /white the highest
On color matching, I think destructive and additive waves theory would be the most logical, we want our clothes to be an addition to our complexion not a destruction so we tend to avoid whatever is too opposite too our undertone
Yes, it's very psychological. So in general, if I had it my way, I would just call the colors blue based and yellow based (vs warm and cool), but I think this won't fly colloquially (people are already accustomed to the seasonal format for color analysis and already tend to know warm vs cool, or so I hope). I guess 'scientifically' you would say that red would be the coolest then, and blue the warmest in terms of the wavelengths. Which is weird and doesn't make sense artistically or psychologically. I guess it might not matter to overcomplicate in this case though--you could easily translate the logic to.....if your skin primarily reflects yellow light, then you should also wear things that reflect some yellow light. If your skin primarily reflects blue light, then wear things that also reflect some blue light.
Maybe the reason why we associate warm with yellow is because most things we see that are warm on earth are a bit yellower, and the desert is orange or something. Then, the things we see on earth that are of cooler temperature is usually water in rivers or something.....so then we start to associate blue with cool. In reality, blue wavelengths are very high energy so would be better described as very hot, but we don't see that in our daily lives. Of course we see a gas stove's fire, or the hottest part of the fire being blue, but fire primarily is still yellow, orange, and red on the tips. We don't usually see those very high energy blue wavelengths, and I'm happy that we don't!! Would be a bad time if we started to see a ton of near-UV wavelengths everywhere/would be some cosmic apocalypse probably and then we would die shortly thereafter, certainly before our minds could learn to correctly associate blue with hot. :P
I think the reason red is neutral for our purposes is because we're ALL red. Blood is red.
Great video!
Merriam, is this not a difference between pigment colour theory and light. The two are different. I have a grounding in PIGMENT use whereas you seem to been using the LIGHT colour wheel.
As far as I know, I'm talking only about pigment. Where do I use the light color wheel?
I get it. I have a lot of red in my skin, but it is not a warm red. it is a healthy blood red.
Sweetheart, do you do style/color analyzis for people? If so, I'm very interested
Yes I do! You can get a style report, or if you want to only do color analysis we can also do that through the same link and I could gear your report more toward color (although the report includes both body typing and color). Here's the link: merriamstyle.com/style_report.html
red is actually not a primary colour. it’s made of magenta and yellow