Are there any colour-blind visual artists here. How do you cope?

Answer 1

Believe it or not, most people who are color blind go through through life never knowing they are color blind. They probably wouldn't ever know unless they were given tests.

Think about it this way: If I look at the color red and see the color green instead and have seen it this way all my life I will never know green is red. When I'm learning the names of colors as I'm growing up and I'm holding a red Crayon and someone tells me that the name of the color Crayon I'm holding is green I'll grow up believing that the name for 'red' is 'green' and the name for 'green' is 'red.'

This affliction wouldn't affect an artist painting an apple 'red' even if he thinks the color is called 'green.' The artist will still know that this color, no matter what name title it is given, is the standard color for an apple.

Only in the most extreme cases of color-blindness, about 3% of those affected with colorblindness, will there be serious problems. That's because with these extreme cases different distinct colors (usually shades of blue and green or browns and yellows) look the same. These extreme cases, it they are artists, they should stick to abstracts.

Answer 2

Actually women see more shades of red than men do. Yellow tones may elude people who would normally not consider themselves color blind. In the book "Color, The History of the Palette, by Victoria Finlay, she describes how scientists see color as vibration. That there is not actually a red colored object, but an object 'being' the color. That you can actually walk around a garden of red bougainvillea flowers in the sun light that appear to flash in and out of color. Try it.
The secret to really great art is less about color and more about contrast, light and darks, and the impact of good design. Abstract art, really good abstract art is tricky because the artist does not have the image to fall back on. So the artist with a limited color palate faces unique challenges and perhaps is able to let the world see art in a way that was not possible if all the spectrum of colors were available.
Remember the good design can be reduced to just tones of the gray scale.

Answer 3

I am not one of them, but my late husband had serious problems with colour blindness. The first time I knew he had it was when we decided to go to an evening art class and were given some materials to work with. It was just a small landscape to begin with. I actually thought he was doing an abstract when he made red grass and brown coloured sky. He admitted to me then that he was colour blind and got mixed up with every colour unless the name was on it. He knew that grass should be green but the pastel chalk he use, he thought it was green. No name on it. He was also a driver and only knew which lights were which because of the sequences of the changes. Mind you, it perhaps had its advantages when driving. He was an excellent driver and very careful. It used to fascinate me when I asked questions about various things in colour. He never saw things as I saw them. I later found out that his 4 brothers were all colour blind as well and one was an electrician. So it looks to me that folks cope with it.

Answer 4

No completely blind, truthfully before each and every thing, we don't see human beings's faults and hangups till we are deep in a courting and then that falls away after time, then as quickly as the shutters are up then one may well be extra effective on the subject of the guy we choose for to spend our lives with.

Answer 5

Ask Scott Fadness, wild life artist. He knows how to switch gray and red and green.