[Impaler]

That color perception thread really got me thinking. If we all see the same hue, what about shade? As artists and photographers, we train ourselves to "see" light, and to no small amount we depend on this skill to interpret the physical world into 2D. Problem is, the more I read up on the science of light perception, the more I think this ability is more idiosyncratic and subjective than objective and quantifiable. An example, courtesy of Wikipedia.



This one really derailed me, but squares A and B are the same shade. Check it in Photoshop for yourself. It's based off a paper by Edward Adelson that deals precisely with this sort of phenomena. If you can wade through all of the SciSpeak, it's well worth a read (link here.)

But, who knows. Maybe I haven't been doing my homework as much as I should, so my eyes are still "untrained." The evidence seems to point towards the brain being hardwired for this sort of trickery, but I'm still curious. How hard is it for you to see the similarity between the squares as is? How about the other illusions on Adelson's page? My basic question is, can we beat nature, or have we been faking it?
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QED, sort of.

[eyewoo]

That is the best example of that illusion I've seen... Great picture!
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[spyroteknik]

it's very hard to differentiate at first look, it's only when i squint that it becomes obvious, once you see it that way, you can tell straight away unsquinted, weird stuff

[sweetums]

It's another form of an optical illusion. Once you know the "secret," and look again carefully, your perception of the illusion is then lessened. Your eyes will still want to fall for the trick, but the mind will be processing the information of why it is visually disceptive.

For this image, focus for about 10 seconds on the darkest part of the shadow cast by the cylinder, then look at the squares, and the similarity of shadow becomes more obvious.
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[jfrancis]

I've always found that illustration to be a testament to the importance of developing all areas of your painting at the same time. Color and value perception is so dependent on context.

[jinnseng]

I saw this image at another website I checked out awhile back. I thought I had found the link from this forum, but I must have picked it up somewhere else. Here is the link

http://www.echalk.co.uk/amusements/OpticalIllusions/colourPerception/colourPerception.html

It's definitly worth a look, the illusions presented really blew me away.

[jfrancis]

That third one is really good.

[Odds]

Holy crap, illusion 3 is amazing... Wow, our eyes suck

[LadyHydralisk]

Well, here is how it was explained to me at my atelier.

We can all train ourselves up to a certain point to see value and color, but because of genetics some of us have a condition known as "color deficiency". Not color blindness, just deficiency.

Have you ever known someone who couldn't tell navy blue from black? Or mars black from slate black? Let me tell you, color and vision theory is baffling.

There is a special test you can take, called the Farnsworth Munsell 100 Hue test. Using small cylinders or chips of color you arrange the pieces in a gradiating rainbow, to determine how good your color vision is. I have been told that there is a famous portrait artist who is color deficient...all of his portraits have a reddish tone to them not seen in life....YET...

The point of this is that he is very successful. So if you are color deficient, and find it out, it will not be a stumbling block in your career.

If you want to take the test, you might be able to find it at an optometrist's clinic.

As far as VALUE deficiency is concerned, I have no notion that this is not something that cannot be corrected. The traditional way to develop value recognition is via the cast drawing method. Where one takes a white cast of a master sculpture and draws it using vine charcoal, emulating every speck of value...under the guidance of a master, who can point out your deficiencies. Below is my own example, which took about 90 hours to complete....I like the fact that I look exhausted in this pic too, because it FITS. The cast drawing is a monstrous task. And by the way, even after all of that, your pic STILL fooled me.

[Naeem]

VERY interesting. thank u for sharing

[jfrancis]

I see you've updated your site from how I recall it, Ms Hydralisk. i like the design.

[LadyHydralisk]

Aw thanks