Value relationship to Warm vs. Cool

[Anid Maro]

A'ight, so last night I was playing around with some color charts. Every now and then I'll make digital swatches and arrange them in different ways, to see if any apparent correlations pop up.

Typically I would arrange Warm vs. Cool colors with Yellow being the warmest and Blue the coolest. This works out neatly since when viewed in grayscale Yellow has the lightest value while Blue has the darkest, the values then radiate outwards with Aquamarine and Fuchsia being neutrals with a sort of middle gray value.

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However this time around I organized based off of the "apparent" neutrals. That is I just intuitively picked out what looked neutral to me and went from there. I ended up with my neutrals being Green and Magenta instead.

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I spent most the rest of last night thinking about how Warm and Cool colors should be organized. While sorting them by value fits neatly, I end up with two neutrals that I'd peg as either cool (Aquamarine) or warm (Fuchsia). On the flip side, working with Green and Magenta neutrals screws up the values, but the hues visually fit better to me and the additive/subtractive primaries make more sense this way (RGB/CMY, a cool a warm and a neutral).

I'm leaning towards the G/M neutrals, but my only justifications are the primaries fit and it looks "right". So my question to you is...

Is there any correlation between the value of a color and how warm or cool it is? If not, then what seperates a warm from a neutral from a cool?

Here's the rest of my chart for reference. The value relationships that are clear is that the additive primaries are the darkest three colors, the subtractive primaries are the brightest three colors (makes sense when you think of how additive/subtractive mixing works), teritaries are in the middle, and the compliment of a color sits opposite on the value scale (a "light" color has a "dark" complementary, and vice versa).

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[briggsy@ashtons]

I'm leaning towards the G/M neutrals, but my only justifications are the primaries fit and it looks "right".


I worked out that by "neutrals" you mean hues that are neither warm nor cool, but the word means something else, so using it in this way is confusing.


Is there any correlation between the value of a color and how warm or cool it is? If not, then what separates a warm from a neutral from a cool?


To quote myself:
'Since "warm" and "cool" are psychological associations, it is not surprising that there is a great deal of inconsistency in usage. At the extremes some authors, such as Arthur Pope, regard yellow and violet as marginal hues, neither warm nor cool, while others regard yellow as the warmest and violet as the coolest hues respectively. However the commonest positions in the literature seem to be to regard red, orange-red or orange as the warmest hue, and blue or blue-green as the coolest'. (http://www.huevaluechroma.com/077.php)

On that page I go on to recommend a choice based on the yellow-blue and red-green opponent channels:
yellowish and reddish (orange) = warmest
bluish and greenish (cyan) = coolest
yellowish and greenish = neither
reddish and bluish (magenta) = neither

Depending on what you choose to regard as the warmest and coolest colours, there may be a correlation (mathematically speaking), but there can't be a simple relationship, since the lightnesses of the RGBCMY colours go up and down all around the hue circle (see attachment).



... the compliment of a color sits opposite on the value scale (a "light" color has a "dark" complementary, and vice versa).


Hopefully this also makes sense makes sense when you think of how additive mixing works.

[Anid Maro]

I worked out that by "neutrals" you mean hues that are neither warm nor cool, but the word means something else, so using it in this way is confusing.


Yes, that's what I meant. And yes, you are quite right I should've used another word. :P


To quote myself... the commonest positions in the literature seem to be to regard red, orange-red or orange as the warmest hue, and blue or blue-green as the coolest'. (http://www.huevaluechroma.com/077.php)

On that page I go on to recommend a choice based on the yellow-blue and red-green opponent channels...

Depending on what you choose to regard as the warmest and coolest colours, there may be a correlation (mathematically speaking), but there can't be a simple relationship, since the lightnesses of the RGBCMY colours go up and down all around the hue circle (see attachment).

Ah, I knew I should've looked at your page prior to asking, I've yet to have a color theory question that I couldn't find an answer to there. Thank you for taking the time to explain this and I'll be (re)reviewing that page shortly, every time I go there I figure out something I'd missed before.

Hopefully this also makes sense makes sense when you think of how additive mixing works.

Of course, it quite does. I've seen that before on your site, but didn't give it much thought before. Now though, it makes an awful lot of sense.