any color blind artists out there???

[Tad]

Hi, just curious,
are any professionals out there who have some sort of colorblindness?
Yet still work in color every day??

ever cause any problems/ friction for you?
Or is it not really a problem?

Just like to hear any stories on this one
thanks
:)

[~Faust~]

There's a certain kind of purple that's gray to me. With this handycap I'm afraid I won't ever be a pro. :nohope:

[Red_Rook]

im colour blind when it comes to a having two colours similar value and really high brightness and saturation, in green and yellow, if there right next t each other i have trouble distinguishing

[waronmars]

when i close my eyes i see NOTHING. strange but true.

[Mavrick71]

There's a certain kind of purple that's gray to me. With this handycap I'm afraid I won't ever be a pro. :nohope:

Just never use purple, or put in "gray" where you want purple.

[fukifino]

There's a certain kind of purple that's gray to me. With this handycap I'm afraid I won't ever be a pro. :nohope:

I know some pro's who are color blind. Buck up, little camper!

[Tad]

ok good, so there are some folk who do this and are colorblind

[Onis M.]

I have heard something about contact lenses that help color blindness, but I'm not sure if it's 100% correct information. I suggest asking local eyeglasses store?

[peterhurman]

during a medical for a new job i started a couple of years ago i was told im red green colour blind. id never noticed it before and havent really since. although it probably depends on how sever the colour blindness is, i would'nt worry about it too much.

[flatliner]

I have heard something about contact lenses that help color blindness, but I'm not sure if it's 100% correct information. I suggest asking local eyeglasses store?

Ive heard of similar things, they're tinted different colours, to filiter out certain colours I assume. but im no expert so :P

[pvrhye]

Not all art is colorful as well.

[chukw]

Red, green and browm, but I get by... I think! When in doubt I sample from photos (but never the illustrations of others). Cheers!

[Danilo]

I have professor of design, who is blind 90%.

[SteveO]

are any professionals out there who have some sort of colorblindness?
I'm just a noob/student but I'm partially colourblind.

ever cause any problems/ friction for you?

For 6 months I was completely unaware that my missus had dyed her hair red, other than that, na.
I occasionally make "interesting" palette choices as a result of colourblindness though..

[Hamsta]

Waronmars - that really is strange. when I close my eyes I always start seeing all these afterimages, all sorts of starfield effects, afterimages of the blood in my eyes, strange stuff like that...

As for being color blind - I'm sure someone, somewhere used it to their advantage - making better b&w art, hiding secret messages for color blind people...

[James Kei]

Robert Fawcett (http://www.illustration-house.com/bios/fawcett_bio.html)
Who is one of my all time favorite artists was severely color-blind.
His wife would have to label all of the colors on his pallette.
But because his line work and values were so dead-on, it didn't matter.

[waronmars]

it's not really strange, just me being a dickhead. although i did wonder what you would see if you pulled your eyeballs out. never got round to checking though.

[Tarn]

My doctor told me about 6 months ago that i was red/green color blind (whic apparently is fairly rare for a girl). It's really annoying because a lot of colors look just gray to me, and i get yellow/green and purple/blue mixed up. I also get black and blue mixed up, but thats pretty common anyway. I'm known as the "mismatched socks" girl at school ;)

[jfwalls]

I'm red/green color blind (which means yellows and greens, and blues and purples of similar value can get mixed up), but I have gotten comments on some of my art that my use of color was great. It just depends how you deal with it. I see it as more of an annoyance than an obstacle. Of course I like to have things labeled, and painting from life isn't my forte, but with careful planning it doesn't really interfere. I've also trained myself to see a little better. I can distinguish colors much better now than I could a few years ago.

[shaoshao]

peter de seve is also color blind

http://www.peterdeseve.com/

[Flake]

I also view the world in Goofyvision (TM)

[Justin.]

I know we had one member who was totally color blind, but he was really good. He used alot of bluish, tealish, and purplish colors. Some pinkish too.

[2b BOY]

I'm red/green as well. about 30% of males have it, it's no biggy. Ofcourse dont use me for an example on that I havent really done any painting.:[

[Ilaekae]

I'm nearsighted to the point of near blindness, but the color thing is okay.

I once shared a house with three Carnegie Tech students, two of whom were completely red/green color blind--one was a painter, the other went on to a design career and actually designed a stamp for the US postal system. They both worked in a flat, almost "posterized layer" style where they could mess up the colors without anyone noticing, though their pieces looked a bit flat valuewise.

[jfwalls]

The worst part about it is when I tell someone who isn't color blind, and they start showing me colors like blue and think I'm gonna say it's red or something. They think because the word blind is in there I can't even see colors or. Because of that I don't like to bring it up around most people.

[DavePalumbo]

I believe that nearly everyone is colorblind a little bit, but to a negligable degree. I also hear tell that women have more red sensitivity than men.

I'm not 100%, but I've heard that James Bama was color blind and would have his wife lay out colors for him before a painting.

[2b BOY]

The worst part about it is when I tell someone who isn't color blind, and they start showing me colors like blue and think I'm gonna say it's red or something. They think because the word blind is in there I can't even see colors or. Because of that I don't like to bring it up around most people.


Ditto. I try to tell them I have a color deffeciency and most people "correct me" saying "oh your colorblind?" then the color questions pop out.

[blanquish]

I think my lcd moniter is colour blind:P

[Jabo]

Physical examination for the military revealed I'm slightly colorblind (red-deficiency), but I don't have any problems reading signs or street lights. I never bought green apples instead of red ones too. The whole color-deficiency thing is overstated. Nevermind.

[CGMonkey]

Either I have a far developed sense of color than my peers around me or I'm color blind around the area brown / purple :]

[nicolas]

Mike Allred (Madman comics, and other) is colorblind (his wife does the coloring^^)

[Arne S.]

the three days i was in the armee...
they told me i´d have a problem seeing red. i tryed to fake the first test and had to do it again, so i think they where right.
but red is probably the color i use the most...

__________________
WORKING CLASS HERO
http://www.comicagentur.de/banner/01.jpg (http://www.comicagentur.de)

[Prometheus|ANJ]

I have 'perfect' color sight according to my military drafting test, but my eyesight is just shit. I wear the thickest glasses. I'm hoping maybe laser stuff in the future might take care of that, otherwise I'm gonna have to get a funky pair of cybereyes when I'm old.

Anyways, value seems to be more important than color. Being value-blind would be a much larger obstacle.

As for closing eyes, yeah, there's all sort of strange shapes floating around as the eye tries to focus on them. With my eyes closed I see this fuzzy noise, sometimes a large flat grey-green torus with thin red edges. When looking at led lights with no glasses on I see little transparant worm-shapes that overlay, creating dots/circles. Maybe those make up the noise I see with eyes closed.

[le capitan]

dont lie prom, we all know you see panties when you close your eyes.

Everyone see's stuff differently thats part of what makes art interesting. Everyone gets something different out of it.

[Erilaz]

I'm another red/green. The advantage of working in a digital industry is you've always got colour tables to check against. :^^:

I've found as i've studied more and more colour that i'm getting better at picking the colours that are "right". They mightent LOOK right, but they seem to be the colours that ARE right.... if that makes sense.

[Crush]

I have 'perfect' color sight according to my military drafting test
Am I the only one not suprised by this? :P

[Ilaekae]

Ha! It was worse in the 60s. the guy in front of me got in and they made his guide dog an officer...

[DavePalumbo]

those guide dogs are smart, man...

[Elwell]

those guide dogs are smart, man...
Yeah, but they're all colorblind.

[emily g]

Yeah, but they're all colorblind.
Bada-bing!

emily

[2100]

you can still do b/w.

if i were color blind, i'd paint anyways because all my coloring would be natrually tripped out ;p

[Jabo]

Anyways, value seems to be more important than color. Being value-blind would be a much larger obstacle.

That's another thing. My retina rods are very weak, so driving at night or dawn requires a shitload of concentration and I'm often nearly blind (and don't tell me to turn on the headlights :P). When I look at darker values in pictures, it's the same, can't really keep them apart.

[Jushra]

so after getting a mouthful from another member about how they've seen three other posts on color deficiency and telling me to just do a search instead of starting a new topic, i'll post my two cents here, being that i'm also color deficient.

i have troubles with yellow/green if they are similar in hue, as well as green/brown/red, depending again on how similar they are. sometimes, a dull orange and green can also throw me off. apparently people don't seem to think it is an issue, they just tell me i have an interesting palette.

those dot tests are failed miserably, although some of the numbers i shouldn't see, i do see and vice versa. then there are those people who ask, as a poster above pointed out, what color is this, or what color is that... most people are ignorant to our blessing/curse.

[Dile_]

Oh man.. really..stop being so silly. And yes, This was the thread I was particular thinking of ;)

[Jushra]

also, those military tests are whack. yes, they will filter out those without normal color vision, but as another poster has said, not everybody has the same severity of color deficiency, nor affected detrimentally by it. i've heard of people with 'normal' color vision failing certain military color vision tests.

i suppose it boils down to asking when needing to, or just guessing. i'd choose guessing more than asking, being as it will make a more unique piece. if there were strict 'rules' governing it, be it a contract piece or whatnot, that may be a different story.

as far as corrective procedures go, there are none. sorry kids, we are stuck with this for now. even if there were a 'cure' i'd leave my eyes alone, it leaves for more creative opportunity.

[Bowlin]

Mike Allred (Madman comics, and other) is colorblind (his wife does the coloring^^)

Oh yeah! I remember reading that. Kinda puts a lot of the story of Madman in better perspective. (Awesome comic)

[flip the master]

Im not color blind but I have a tendency to say the wrong names for a certain color. For example the yahoo im symbol on each of your posts is a purple, red thing color.

[Jushra]

Im not color blind but I have a tendency to say the wrong names for a certain color. For example the yahoo im symbol on each of your posts is a purple, red thing color.

check out the link below. it isn't really related directly to what you are talking about, but it came to mind as i was reading your response.

Stroop Effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroop_effect)

[0shade0]

dont lie prom, we all know you see panties when you close your eyes.

Everyone see's stuff differently thats part of what makes art interesting. Everyone gets something different out of it.
hahaha
that's going in my signature! :D

[talbot]

John Byrne is partially color blind. When he was drawing "Iron First," he thought the character's costume was gold and brown, not gold and green.

[Hybrid_75]

Finding this thread made me feel a little bit better about being colour blind knowing there are professionals around who are and are working. I was starting to wonder...

[Anid Maro]

any color blind artists out there???

Well yeah, the majority of 'em are. Just look at the artwork.

...

Oh, you mean the actual visual handicap? Whoops...

[StarbonesCoffin]

I only have one sight of my eye...

[s.ketch]

Tim Sale. He did Gray Hulk (lol?), Daredevil and penciled/inked most of the paintings on the show Heroes. He just does what he can and has people with normal sight finish the paintings. Damn good artist though.

[Gory]

My brother is red green color blind, thankfully I missed that boat. ;\ Although his vision is many many times better than mine.

Although I guess it could be worse. I saw some heinously thick glasses working at an eyeglass store. (To anyone who this means anything to: Try -20 in both eyes, then count your blessings)

[tomwaits4noman]

red green colour blind found out in a medical...

not sure how affects my art

also short sighted... I used to wear glasses but everything was too clear too in focus...

[Stoat]

I've worked with two people who are colorblind. One was in video, the other was the head of the art department I worked in. It posed occasional problems for both of them, but didn't prevent them doing their jobs.

My grandmother was colorblind (unusual in a woman). She sometimes did unintentionally hilarious embroidery as a result.

[TZA]

I have a pretty bad case of visual snow which can make distinguishing colours a little hard at times, looking at large blocks of colour is quite horrible too.

[skyfry]

I'm severly color blind, not to the point of shades of grey, but show me a color and i most likely will not be able to identify it. I am also an artist in a prestigious art class. I am actually starting a series using colorblindness as an expression, which brought me to this forum in my research. I think some of my colorblind associates who have posted on this page are kind of overreacting to people quizzing them on color. Colorblindness is something to be embraced, but people don't understand how it really works and they're very curious. There's no way (at least right now) that they will be able to see what we see, so asking questions is the closest way they'll get to. Don't get angry or annoyed with people if they're curious, curiosity is just a basic human instinct.

[Malum Sonitus]

I am also color blind and skyfry has good way to look at it to embrace colorblindness as who we are. There were many times in the past when I would fear painting a sculpture or just dealing with anything that involved color. But I have accepted my colorblindness as something that makes me see the world in a different way and sometimes I believe a better way.

[Extollere]

Chiming in too here as a color blind artist... 99% off all color deficient people suffer from R/G color blindness. I believe it has something to do with the wave length of the percieved color coming in incorrectly. The problem may also be associated with the brain. There is a lot of info and speculation, but not enough money being put into research I think. The problem isn't exactly dire to most people who suffer from it. I don't think it was mentioned but J.P. Targete is also R/G color blind. I have seen the guy work and his pallet looks pretty unorganized. Even I don't know how he does it, or how he can distinguish the hues, but I know I have gotten a lot better and telling the differences between certain hues and subtleties through practice, correction, and focus. Hopefully someday they will find a fix for this, but as it stands I don't think enough people care. Anyways, yeah.. I try not to let it bother me very much. It's a mild handicap, if that.

[Dile_]

Extollere: Most people with R/G "colorblindness" aren't "colorblind" they only have troubles distinguishing , for example, red berries in a very green forest.

my father told me that when he looked at red berries in the same situation, he only saw the outline of the berries.. no color what so ever related to 'red'

also.. Most people who are R/G color deficient goes through their whole life without ever noticing. Also 'statistics' say that every 7th man and every 100th woman are born with red/green color deficiency...

[Seedling]

Wikipedia's article on color blindness explains the different types of color-blindness.

Thanks for the thread! I'm not colorblind, but I carry the gene for red-green colorblindness. We'll know in a few years if my son is red-green colorblind or not. He's got a 50% chance. I was curious how that would effect him if he chose visual arts for a career.

[sweetoblivion314]

Extollere: Most people with R/G "colorblindness" aren't "colorblind" they only have troubles distinguishing , for example, red berries in a very green forest.

my father told me that when he looked at red berries in the same situation, he only saw the outline of the berries.. no color what so ever related to 'red'

also.. Most people who are R/G color deficient goes through their whole life without ever noticing. Also 'statistics' say that every 7th man and every 100th woman are born with red/green color deficiency...

You don't quite have it right. What you said is true, but we also see the colors differently then most people. For example, my painting teacher put a green backdrop behind the model who was to be painted. I only know it was green because he said it. To me it looked like a purple brown. However, under a natural light source I could see that there was some green in it because color changes under natural vs tungsten light.

One interesting thing I have noticed though is all of the artist I know who are color blind have a very strong value sense.

[Mayu_Zane]

I have difficulty distinguishing shades of light yellow with shades of light green.

[Costau D]

Present! R/G Blind.

[Extollere]

Extollere: Most people with R/G "colorblindness" aren't "colorblind" they only have troubles distinguishing , for example, red berries in a very green forest.

my father told me that when he looked at red berries in the same situation, he only saw the outline of the berries.. no color what so ever related to 'red'

also.. Most people who are R/G color deficient goes through their whole life without ever noticing. Also 'statistics' say that every 7th man and every 100th woman are born with red/green color deficiency...

"Colorblind" is just the term. It's not an accurate description of the condition itself. When I say R/G colorblindness, it's the same as R/G deficiency - which is more accurate. People who have R/G deficiency suffer from it to varying degrees.

Couple of links here:
First is a program called EyePilot. You select a color on screen and the rest grey out, letting you see that color a little more clearly.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/11/04/eyepilot-to-help-color-blind-people/

Next is an interesting program called Vischeck, and Daltonize
http://www.vischeck.com/daltonize/
Vischeck gives people with normal vision a simulated color pallet of the R/G deficient. Daltonize takes any image and enhances Red and Green contrast...

These both seem interesting, but I'd actually be more interested in a program that can change your monitor settings, so that all green and red tones can be adjusted to fit the color blind person's exact deficiency. As it stands Daltonize seems like it does the right thing, but it's a web program limited to uploading images only. This could be useful if there were something like it, but it made permanent changes to your monitor while you used it, so you could paint digitally and have an easier time selecting colors.

Hmmm

also interesting is this monitor for color blind people:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/flexscan/flexscan-lcd-monitor-for-the-color+blind-is-24-inches-326224.php
Expensive for what it is though...seems like a software program could simulate the same thing. The only problem would be amping up the contrast (or maybe even the saturation) of Red and Green tones without affecting the other colors.

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

I suffer from red green deficiency but to be perfectly honest it doesn't affect me too much. I study Design at university and had no problems as of yet. I can imagine if I were studying fine art doing painting it might cause a few problems but at the same time would possibly make for some interesting results.

I remeber when I was small I drew a rendition of Monet's Poppy Field without the use of red. My tutor was not particularly impressed...

[slowcheetah]

I have trouble telling whether something is blue, purple, or in darker cases black... Does that mean anything?

[Elfhands]

I'm curious if anyone knows of a color perception deficient matte painter working professionally. That'd be something.

[Droid]

I for one am colourblind.

But nowhere near as much as I used to be, which is strage.

Doesn't affect my artwork at all, but I have trouble seeing red writing on green paper clearly.

[Liz Edwards]

My doctor told me about 6 months ago that i was red/green color blind (whic apparently is fairly rare for a girl). It's really annoying because a lot of colors look just gray to me, and i get yellow/green and purple/blue mixed up. I also get black and blue mixed up, but thats pretty common anyway. I'm known as the "mismatched socks" girl at school ;)

'sup fellow rarity :teeth:

I have trouble with green/brown the most. I'd colour trees in wrong a lot at school (and lots of people got green hair :^^:), and I go by the locations of the colour picker in Photoshop rather than my eyes if I'm painting with greens or browns. But I don't think it's too big a deal.

My dad is colourblind too, worse than I am. He has been wearing pink shirts for months and only realised when his friends made fun of him for it, haha. And my granddad was too. He fancied himself as an artist, but had to go by the name of the paint on the tube. He ended up with the most garish landscapes and apparently no one had the heart to tell him.

I'm trusting that my friends will let me know if I'm painting anything horribly wrong!

[jedininjaman]

hah. ya ive always wondered why CA chose this weird green background color.

[Extollere]

I'm curious if anyone knows of a color perception deficient matte painter working professionally. That'd be something.

Yes there are a few. There are a number of ways to work around errors digitally. It's rarely an issue.

[ARTMANIC]

"Color Deficiency", of course to varying degrees is the Medical term.
My deficiency causes me trouble in determining blues from purples of similar values,& in poor lighting,red & greens also. Lighting is a major factor for all. True light is necesarry for the best results. Nearby Color reflections also effects results. Simply, the problems are related to the 3 primary colors in varying degrees. Men 90% to some degree, Woman 10%.
I have found looking for the colors you DO know, in a questionable color, ie; Purple problem, look for the Red, or lack there of. Same w/Green from Brown.
There is a "Magenta lense" that can help some ID colors, I'm sure there's better options by now. Seeing grey? Likely a dulled color, try brighter lighting or magnifier(?). I'll be getting specialized medical info soon.I'll share what I learn.
THANKS 2 ALL of YOU
JT

[DavidSmit]

My uncle is a (as for as I know) R/G color blind. But he does percieve dozens of different types of Kaki. He's also an artist and actually uses the colorblindness in his favor and plays with it to create different things. He's quite popular and get a lot of requests for portraits in his style.
So yeah commercial succes is possible with colorblindness, maybe not through the obvious route, but then again isnt the obvious route boring?

[crossmirage]

I'm blind to a small part of the red/green spectrum, but it's not too much of a hassle for me.

[Rognvaldr]

I've been told I have a red/green colour deficiency. Some blues and purples look a like to me as well as some yellows and oranges. Certain shades of pink look grey to me and I actually have had art teachers call me stupid and make fun of me in front of the class numerous times because of it. Because of this I didn't work in colour up until a couple years ago.

I think the most noticeable mistakes I make are when I colour people. I always either make them too green or too red. I was playing pictionary the other day and had to draw 'skin' everyone kept guessing rash, burn, disease because I chose a reddish pink by accident.

the good thing about using a computer to pick colours is that I know where the colours should be when I go to pick them so it's rare when things turn out a different colour than I mean to. Other than making skin too red that is.

[nofu]

My grandfather, who used to do book illustrations later in life, lost one eye in the war so either because of that or something else maybe he had trouble seeing depth. Like when you look at a hedge you can't tell which branches are closer, which further. I dunno what it's called though.

[Jacob Kobryn]

I just found out the other day that I'm slightly color blind! :o There goes my art career! ;)

What ever, I prefer grayscale anyway.

[Asahi-SD-]

Sorry to bring up this thread , but i though it was interesting as a color blind myself (red green) that cause me trouble to make difference between some blue and purples , some brown and red , and yellow/green .
I've always avoided colors ( you're not proud when the teacher ask you why the face you painted is all green when you spend time on it ) , but i figured out that digital painting is a good therapy , not that will make you sight better but at least by not being afraid to use colors , working digitally make it less an issue as you can check the amout percentage of R/G/B , and ending up making less and less big mistakes !

As to use colorblindness to an advantage i have some doubt, as a color blind is not using weird colors on purpose but more because he thinks those are the right colors, actually it's kind like the palette is missing colors and values for normal sight people .
So an art made by a color blind generally end up with good colors ( the one he actually see rights) and wrong colors , and it just doesn't fit really well to be honest ( heard from my teachers and co-workers sometimes ) .
But well , i'm happy that i didn't gave up art like one my teacher recommended me , working digitally ( with time and by remembering place of the colors in the chromatic circle) almost make me feel normal ..yeah almost .
Anyway i really recommend for all colorblind artist, kind of afraid of using color, to try on digital media , it really help . The only thing i cannot use are levels and color parameter options, cause i dunno what i will end up with , but by placing directly the color i know what color i use even if i don't see it right at least i can "guess" that's the good one looking at RGB values.

And for people who wants to try what a color blind sight looks like you can check on this website

http://www.colblindor.com/coblis-color-blindness-simulator/

( just upload a picture like a chromatic circle like this one on the website )http://vainsfaktory.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/colorjack.jpg
I'm not sure if this is really accurate but it may be quite close actually ( well i'm not the one to ask for the color accuracy haha )

Sorry if my english is not really clear :)


P.S : And yeah that's really annoying those color test when people find out you're color blind -_-

[BlightedArt]

Hi guys, I feel it's kinda appropriate to ask this here....

I've noticed recently that I've got a very hard time distinguishing colours... I can see individual colours just fine I think (meaning I can see when something is red, or orange, or yellow)... but when I'm trying to get the tone right, I can't even concentrate on an area of one solid colour (e.g. a cloudless, solid blue sky) and pick out what tone it is etc.... because I see a sort of overlay of noise..... red blue and green tiny specks I guess? It's quite hard to explain. I'm already short sighted due to prolonged exposure to monitors and tv screens from a young age, and I'm wondering if I'm slightly colourblind as a result too...

I'll be seeing the optometrist soon, but am wondering if anyone else has this problem too. Any replies would be much appreciated.

[kingshaj]

my color theory instructor was red/green colorblind...
no lie