The Psychology of Colors
By Owen Demers, author of Digital Texturing & Painting.
Colors can have a psychological and physiological effect on all of us. As an
artist, a user and manipulator of color, you need to be aware of some of these
effects. This article on color psychology and physiology is a combination of
personal observation and the ideas and observations of two major authors and
their books on the subject: The Power of Color by Dr. Morton Walker and
Color Psychology and Color Therapy by Faber Birren. These two authors,
and the experts they cite, delve much more finely and deeply into this vast
area of color theory than there is room for here. I have taken the highlights, as
it were, from these sources just to give you an idea of what it is you are
dealing with when considering color.
From this research, it seems that the jury is still out on the definitive
psychological effects of color on living things. Yet, certain professionals,
such as chromotherapists (therapists who use color for medical purposes),
believe color affects us so powerfully that subjecting patients to different
colored lights has curative qualities for their various ailments. This is not a
new age idea. On page 32 in his book The Power of Color, Dr. Morton
Walker states that
"...The ancient Egyptians, for example, built temples for the sick that were
bedecked with color and light. They set aside special colored rooms as
sanctuaries where the sick could be bathed in lights of deep blue, violet, and
pink. Native American Indians also used color for healing ... to fight chronic
illness and to heal injuries sustained during buffalo hunts and intertribal
warfare."
According to William G. Cooper, president of the Cooper Foundation, (a
nonprofit educational organization offering natural methods of healing to the
public), in The Power of Color (p.xiii),
"...Light is a nutrient and, like food, is necessary for optimum health.
Research demonstrates that the full spectrum of daylight is needed to
stimulate our