two colors that vibrate
put two strong colors of the same lightness side by side and the edge between them starts to move. the eye cannot settle which one is in front. Josef Albers made whole courses out of this effect; here it takes five minutes.
lesson 1 · color studio · 5 minutes
the goal
find two colors that seem to shimmer where they meet.
the steps
- pick a strong colorstart with a saturated color from the wheel, not a tint.
- go to the opposite sideits complement sits six steps away. that is your first candidate.
- match the lightnesssquint. if one color looks darker, the edge will not vibrate. choose a neighbour that is closer in value.
- look at the edge, then remove one thingmake the two blocks the same size and touch them. then take one away. the vibration is the relationship, not either color.