If your art is not getting much attention, or people's attention are drawn to details that shouldn't be the first things to notice, you might reconsider your thoughts about colours.

Let's draw our attention out of the art world, and focus on the real world and the human nature.

The human eye is one of the most developed kinds of vision in the animal kingdom. It is estimated to have the equivalent to about 16 megapixels worth of resolution. It also has a very interesting way of sensing movement, only capturing colour around the center of the image, and capturing black and white shapes for the peripheral vision.

The colour "sensor" inside the human eyes is called the fovea. The fovea provides the brain with natural, discrete RGB signals, and as such, Humans are able to see in colour the world that surrounds them.


Inside the Fovea, there are small discrepancies which are called the cones. Each kind of cone captures a specific tone of colour, namely red, green or blue. There are some facts about the distribution of these cones that can be worth noticing:


The fovea has an awareness of 64% to red

This means that, in a picture, the red, and hot tones are the ones that stand up more to the eye. In nature, red typically presents danger, and as such, the brain is programmed to act accordingly.


The fovea has an awareness of 4% to blue

This means that blue objects are not processed by our brain with as much resolution, and therefore, they don't stand out as much as the other colours.


The fovea has no blue cones on it's center

Ever felt like you can't focus a small blue led light in the distance? The human fovea has no blue cones on it's center, and therefore, small blue objects are very hard to focus, and can go by completely unnoticed.


What is to be learnt from here:

If you want something to be noticed, you should probably make it red.

If you have red elements on your art, it is most probable that they will be seen first.

If you want something to go unnoticed, the solution is simple. Make it blue and small. (for example, a small blue note in a black and white regular text.)



Final Thoughts:

I hope this small lecture in colour can help the artists of dA to further improve their art, their culture, and themselves. Each one of us should give to the community a little of what the community has given to us so far