HUE CIRCLES BASED ON OPPONENT COLOURS

Figure 7.6. Simple hue circle based on opponent colours or "psychological primaries".

A hue circle based on opponent colours or "psychological primaries" shows how we experience colour. Opposing colours on this circle are entirely opposite experiences having nothing in common. Hue circles in this category therefore seem particularly relevant as a conceptual framework for any questions involving our experience of colour, as opposed to light stimulus or paint mixing. Such questions would typify the interrelated fields of:

1. colour psychology: objective studies on the mental and physiological effects of colour.
2. colour symbolism: investigations of the symbolic use of colour in different historical and cultural contexts.
3. colour expression: theories of the "meaning" of colours, usually purporting to draw to some extent on studies of the first two types.

Hue circles based on the opponent colours have also been used as basis for general classifications of colour, particularly in Europe. Examples include the colour classification system of Ostwald and the Swedish NCS system.

Figure 7.7. Hue circle from the Swedish NCS System.

Opponent relationships and their importance for colour vision were first explicitly described by Hering in the nineteenth century, but it is interesting to note that the four opponent colours were singled out by Leonardo da Vinci, along with black and white, as his "simple" colours. The four colours also appear along with black and white in an unpublished diagram Sigrid Forsius (1611), widely regarded as the first colour sphere.The latter interpretation has however been challenged by Kuehni (2003), and in any case the opponent pairs are apparently not arranged opposite each other.

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