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Cavebear
cave painter
Username: Cavebear
Post Number: 2873
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, September 24, 2006 - 6:08 pm: |     |
I was driving along the road today and I passed a pedestrian wearing red shirt, red shorts, red shoes, red socks, and carrying a red tote bag and a red umbrella. Obviously, he likes red.
I have my own color preferences, too. Why?
I understand the other senses reasonably well. I can sense degrees of touch, I can distinguish the difference between the smell and taste of a ripe banana from a ripe tomato, I hear sounds and I "feel" the differences. But I don't have a "sensation" of seeing color. The colors just seem to all exist equally.
So, when I look around the house and closet, why do I see no orange, yellow, or pink? Why do I prefer black, burgundy, and dark green?
Why do any of us have a preference for some colors over others?
Thank you, Carl Sagan... |
Annie
storyteller
Username: Annie
Post Number: 1899
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, September 24, 2006 - 8:41 pm: | |
--- Why do any of us have a preference for some colors over others? ---
While we may, or some of us may, actually have some innate color preference, I think cultural conditioning may have something to do with it too. "So what's your favorite color?" is just one of the most frequent of those inane questions that adults at a loss over what to say to kids they are expected to speak to, love to ask. 
I actually remember (one of my few earliest memories) being very puzzled by that question. Why should I prefer one color over any of the others?  AFAIR, eventually I picked some colors I liked (though not originally really more than others) to name as an answer, just so I won't have to stop and think about it each time I'm asked. Can the development of color preferences be that simple...? 
Chess is the purest form of debate, unadulterated by a topic. |
Sweetsunray
storyteller
Username: Sweetsunray
Post Number: 1060
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, September 24, 2006 - 9:21 pm: | |
Hmmm, and colour preference can change over time, too.
Actually, colours are not equal, not even physically... light reflected from a surface and coming in your eye has different wavelengths, which is translated into a colour in your mind. So, at least on some unconscious level different colours have a different influence.
Then there is the cultural annotation to colours that you learned to associate with certain colours.
And lastly, your preferences may differ for what needs to have colour (house versus clothes) as well as age, or even mood of the day.
As a toddler, I loved red and green. I thought they were strong colours, and not ninny colours, and I disliked anything ninny-like. But on the other hand, the majority of toddlers prefer very bright colours. So red and green are common colours to prefer as a toddler.
On the second hand when I painted as a toddler, I would mix my paint into some dark-murky-kaki-green-brown. And I've always preferred darker, moodier, earth colours when painting, until I turned abstract.
Then from 6 till about 11 I had no favourite colour.
I had a short fushia and pink period at 12. But that didn't last long, and altered into black. I remained with majorly black until about 18. By then I picked earth green and kaki for my clothes as well. They have been my predominant colours for over a decade in clothes, and interior design.
The last five years I interchange that with bright colours, such as red and warm yellow, and sometimes a day wearing all black.
Can't say I have a prefence for colours anymore, except for the broad range of earth and forest colours, but I know what I look good in. And pastels or cold colours ain't it.
Everyone has a motive for giving arguments. But only the arguments given matter. |
Rhi
hunter
Username: Rhi
Post Number: 460
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, September 25, 2006 - 12:36 am: | |
I know for the past 12 years, I've preferred purple and yllow to anything else. Why? Don't know... maybe because yellow seems cheerful and happy and sunny and purple is calm and twilight and peaceful.
Strangly, my wardrobe doesn't reflect my color preference, prolly because fashion doesn't. I have a yellow sweatshirt and a light yellow tee shirt, a purple sweater, and a few purplish/maroon shirts. Most of my wardrobe is blue, red, green, black, or pink.
Today, I was purchasing a handheld video game system. It came in blue (old model, cheaper and not quite as good) or black, white, or pink. I chose pink, because I prefer color (and it was pretty), but black and white are too common.
I decorate my house according to my preferences. My bathroom has been dark blue (to accomodate my partner), lavenedar/purple, and yellow (with hints of other colors). Its the only room I can afford to redecorate every few years.
Frankly, I prefer any color, with black, white or silver accents, when decorating. Other things... it depends upon the object.
Mostly Harmless
A Knock on the Duir "If ye don't be belaving innything what fun are ye going to get out av life?" Judy Plum, LM Montgomery |
Hitman84
bear cub
Username: Hitman84
Post Number: 4
Registered: 9-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 - 11:32 am: | |
Hi everyone, very interesting thread,
I dont know if the effect of colours on our mind can be generalised but researches say that light cream coloured walls on the inside is ideal for educational institutions.
I feel colour preferences also represents your personality.
Colour sicence is too complicated for me because my physics sucks none the less I found these interesting,
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/colors1.html
http://www.colour-affects.co.uk/how.html
I have always wondered why the text has to be black and the background white ?
The best answer I could think was, black absorbs all colours ie radiations of any wavelength and white reflects back the same radiations hence black and white form an ideal pair for writing/reading purposes.
Primary colours are not red, blue and yellow ? Read on..
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~mer/colour/primaries.htm l
My Chess Blog |
Sweetsunray
storyteller
Username: Sweetsunray
Post Number: 1064
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 - 1:43 pm: | |
Primaries depend on what sort of colours you're speaking of
With textural (as in paint)it's magenta, cyan and yellow... whereas light has a different set of primaries.
The difference is also that if you'd add all colours together in paint you'd have a blakish brown (and in theory that would be black)... whereas if you add all coloured light together you'd have white.
A black background with white is imo no less readable than vice versa. But it saves you ink. ;-) Actually the best reading colour combination with black is yellow-black, not white black. But again... ain't economical really.
Everyone has a motive for giving arguments. But only the arguments given matter. |
Hitman84
bear cub
Username: Hitman84
Post Number: 6
Registered: 9-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 - 5:21 pm: | |
Ha, yes the primaries are different for light and paint. I actually never knew that magenta, cyan and yellow were the primary colours, yes I have taken painting classes
My favourite colour is navy blue.
I was an amateur painter in my school days and my teacher had this piece of advice, "I see a lot of patches in your painting the next time you colour mix white." When I painted a colour mixed with white there were no patches.
This still beats me, whats the reason behind this ?
The colors had some really funny names...
Let me try and recall some..
Lemon Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Navy Blue, Crimson Red, Vermilion - LOL! What a shame, I've totally forgotten 
My Chess Blog |
Sweetsunray
storyteller
Username: Sweetsunray
Post Number: 1065
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 - 10:37 pm: | |
The texture and paste (the chemicals) of white paint has a better quality to cover... Like the best ground (first layer) paint on a wall in the house is white (again textural cover reasons). So, it's not the colour itself that covers better... it's the chemical substance itself that covers better... and that substance just happens to yield white. (Made a thesis on pigments for chemistry in my last year of HS.)
Now of course if you were to paint a wall pure white, there's an advantage to white, that it reflects so much light, that this brilliance can be used to hide blemishes and imperfections. But that logic does not apply when you mix white paint with darker paint. As I said, for the latter, the non patching then has to do with the grain and texture of the chemical that renders the colour white.
Personally, I rarely paint with white for paintings... but then I use the patching on purpose. I'd first put down a full background colour, with patches and semi-transparent (so very much liquified), and then put the figure or abstrahation upon the background with a slightly thicker paint (less water for acrylic, less terpentine for oil) while using the patches of the background to form the body of the figure or abstrahation. So, what looks like a sweater, may just be absolute background, with a coat painted around it.
Everyone has a motive for giving arguments. But only the arguments given matter. |
Hitman84
bear cub
Username: Hitman84
Post Number: 9
Registered: 9-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, September 28, 2006 - 5:27 pm: | |
Thanks for the explanation.
Wow cool, what's this type of painting called where you fill in the colour before you draw the outline ? pardon me for my non technical terms.
I have zero experience in oil paintings. I guess you're an oil painter as you have to wait for some time for the background coat to dry before putting the abstrahation.
My Chess Blog |
Sweetsunray
storyteller
Username: Sweetsunray
Post Number: 1072
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Friday, September 29, 2006 - 12:32 am: | |
Have no idea what's it called. Perhaps it's called lazyness?
I used to prefer oil painting, but I work solely with acryl now... in my small appartment oil painting would be very unhealthy. Had to get used to painting from dark to light though with acryl. Oil is from light to dark.
Now, oilpainting always happens in layers... and I guess it's just experience where you use what's alredy there (such as a background).
Everyone has a motive for giving arguments. But only the arguments given matter. |
Hitman84
bear cub
Username: Hitman84
Post Number: 22
Registered: 9-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, October 01, 2006 - 5:34 am: | |
The thread mostly focuses on objects.
Now what I want to know is..
Why some people prefer redheads, some blondes, some brunettes etc..
I also cant understand why they give preferences to skin colour(dark, light, tanned etc..)
Do all these have a scientific explanation ?
My Chess Blog
"Everything in the world is relative"
- Albert Einstein |
Ted
hunter
Username: Ted
Post Number: 480
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 4:08 am: | |
hitman:
Now what I want to know is..
Why some people prefer redheads, some blondes, some brunettes etc..
Picky, picky.
Those people who have preferences like that for the opposite sex have rocks in their head.
Maurice Chevalier said (sang) it best..
"Sanks 'eavens, for little girls, for little girls get bigger every day......."
Ted
Do not go gentle into that good night...Rage, rage against the dying of the light
Benjamin Disraeli: "The Jews are a nervous people. Nineteen centuries of Christian love have taken a toll." |
Sweetsunray
storyteller
Username: Sweetsunray
Post Number: 1089
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 7:36 pm: | |
Don't think you can always treat a physical attraction preference as a conscious choice.
I tended to be attracted to blue eyes for years, without me even realizing it even. It was my mother who pointed the pattern out one day. And even when I knew about it, the pattern would still persist without me having much control over it. I never thought, "Darn, he has brown eyes... nope." Just happened to be the case that whenever I was attracted big time, they'd have blue eyes. And honestly, I always have a hard time discerning eye colour about someone I'm in love with for the first few dates. I'd really have to consciously ask myself "What colour are his eyes?", and then look hard, before able to say which it is. Si, IME for a long time I chose based on certain eye-colour without me consciously knowing what eye-colour I preferred, without even me consciously knowing what the guy's eyes had as colour.
Finally, only unconsciously broke that pattern after the last blue-eyed one severely broke my heart. The majority of men I was attracted to since then were brown-eyed, but again this happened without my conscious preference.
There are other physical appearances I leaned towards... more dark-haired than blonde-haired... that too has changed the last few years, to a subconscious level that it doesn't care about hair much, except for having it.
"race"... I definitely used to be only attracted to Caucasian... even though I could find some Asian, Arabian Native American and Black men objectively handsome. Again, fairly recently, exceptions to the "rule" have occurred.
I think that ona subconscious level we associate certain physical appearances with emotional and intelectual concepts. At first glance, this seems entirely wrong, but we need to make many choices per day based on first appearances, and we will make 'em. And sometimes they are warranted. For example, can anyone here deny that the way somebody moves may discern how that person feels about hirself at that moment? Can body language show you how another person reacts to you? Can body language show you whether someone is self-confident? Or attentive? Do any of you watch body language consciously or do you register and react to it unconsciously?
Some of the subconscious associations to physical appearances I made were wrong. I was able to correct them. But none of them had anything to do with superficial preference.
The blue eyes... Before I knew I even had this preference, I used to say "No preference on eye colour... I do prefer expressive eyes... eyes with playlights in it." Physically of course, clear blue eyes will tend to have a startling expressive effect, and will tend to reflect more light. Hence, my past tendency to fall for blue eyes.
But what did my association reveal... that I obviously searched for someone witty, happy and healthy. In order to get rid of the blue-eye preference, I had to ditch the "playlights in the eyes" preference. And yet "expressive" eyes, does not seem wrong to me as a physical genetical principle... Can't fault my subconscious self for checking on clues about a partner's physical health. Watery, dull eyes are a possible hint of illness.
The hair thing... It's a fairly well known association... people with blonde hair will tend to be associated with the image of young and youthful. Obviously, I wanted someone "mature", but not so mature that he could be my dad. Of course, a blonde man may be actually more mature than a dark haired man... but one cannot deny that the younger someone actually is, the greater the chance they are less experienced, and thus less mature. Hence if someone looks young, as is the case when having blonde hair, the higher the chance I would not have been attracted. Since I'm 30-something and the men I fall for about the same range (from 28-40), they tend to show other physical attributes associated with maturity, other than the effect of hair colour... and thus hair colour has ceased to matter to me.
The skin colour... Well, it had little to do with skin colour, but more with the behaviour someone showed to me... and that behaviour can be culturally associated sometimes. Alas, the black men I met had a very aggressive come-on tendency which turned me off. They'd grab me and physically require me to give them attention. I am automatically repelled by someone when they demand attention from me. If it was not aggressive, they tended to be self-apologizing all the time, apologizing for things they didn't need to apologize for. This behaviour too turns me off, and is very weary and tiring. I have no problems with someone wanting assurance at times, but if they want it all the time, then they have a serious self-image problem that isn't my responsibility to correct, nor do I suffer from the delusional "help"-syndrome. And any such behaviourin a Caucasian man does turns me off as much.
Now, in Belgium, most black men are political refugees from Africa. And I suspect that the slavery of the past has messed people up there culturally when confronted with white people. And they still tend to act to you as either a superior, or act rather aggressively against this prior-existing demand. Though, I admit Europe is responsible for this in the past and thus for the consequence of it in the now... I am not the one who ought to either pay for it or save them from it.
The exceptions were a diver instructor in Honduras of US nationality. He was very confident, relaxed, and social. The other exception was a Cuban, where the people in general have a cultural pride without feeling either superior or lesser.
Arabian guys... Most I come across who hit on me, just look at you in a way that makes me feel dirty. Any man who looks at me that way makes me back away. But again, here too there have been men I felt attracted to, because they acted in a way I found attractive.
Etc...
So, though I agree that certain associations between physical appearance and non-physical characteristics may be faulty, there are other associations that generally point towards a higher chance of occurrence, and the basis of the association ought not to be waved off as superficial so easily.
It is also often said that physical beauty is not as important as emotional and intellectual beauty. Agreed. But purely on genetical survival reasoning, we tend to accept subconsciously that physically attractive people get more chances in life (I know it ain't fair, but nature isn't fair). So, it's not entirely unreasonable for our subconscious selection mechanism to choose someone to make children with with a bigger chance to produce attractive offspring.
Furthermore, though I don't need to be sexually turned on by my friends, and thus physical attractiveness is of lesser importance there, I do want tobe sexually attracted to someone I have to sleep with. Yes, it wares off, and lust is not the same as love. And when you already love a partner for life and they happen to become suddenly physically impaired to be sexually active I would take it as they come. But to actively expect me to choose someone knowing from the start or from a few meeting that I'd be sexually turned off... hmmm, sorry, no can do. I'm a 30-something female, remember 
And lastly, ultimately, what's the matter with being picky... after all, it all revolves about someone you either try to spend the rest of your life with, and/or someone who will give half of the genetical make-up of your offspring. Both seem reason enough to be picky, rather than non-selective. And in how much is say "expressive", "lively character", "stable" a more appropriate selection criteria than "blonde haired"? In essence, one might always ask you "what's wrong with an 'introvert', 'quiet character' or 'adventurous spirit'=," (and vice versa), the same as with "what's wrong with red hair?". Taken at face, both are relative characteristics... but they become relevant when compared to the person who has the preference. In the end, it is the individual context that makes it either superficial or significant.
If you'd ask me nowadays what I note as physically attractive the first thing nowadays, it's a guy's smile... Just a plain, spontaneous, broad, sympathetic, open, relaxed smile... But there you have it again... all those associations with a certain physical way someone smiles (poor guy who has a mouth defect... or poor guy who has a bad hair-day). But can anyone deny that on some level a smile doesn't reveal something of the inner person?
Everyone has a motive for giving arguments. But only the arguments given matter. |
Hitman84
bear cub
Username: Hitman84
Post Number: 29
Registered: 9-2006
| | Posted on Friday, October 06, 2006 - 5:08 pm: | |
Hi SSR,
Whoa! thanks for the manual.
too bad I'm 22 could you reduce the age barrier for me ? .
quote:But can anyone deny that on some level a smile doesn't reveal something of the inner person?
Yes it does..
I once had this dilemma in high school where I had 5 girlfriends. They used to talk all girly things and I used to come home and share it with my parents and they put me into a martial art school to make me think a bit manly 
One thing I got to know was their wavering mind.
I lived most part of my life with my mother so maybe that's why I have no preferences when it comes to women. I find all women attractive in their own way.
My Chess Blog
"Everything in the world is relative"
- Albert Einstein |
Bats_out
bear cub
Username: Bats_out
Post Number: 10
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Monday, January 08, 2007 - 6:05 am: | |
Back to the strictly color thing, there is also the theory that different colors represent different moods and bring out certain feelings in people. Supposedly, people who like similar colors have similar personality traits.
You could probably say that could be social conditioning as well. |
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