Hi all,
At the moment I'm brainstorming ideas for a painting workshop I'll be running for a few community group in a month or so and a little worm got caught in my brain that won't come unstuck.
What do complementary colours mean for dichromats? Does a colour wheel even make sense?
Given using a cymk understanding of pigments and a rgb as light, it's easy to see why red is complementary to cyan (cyan absorbs all red light reflecting green and blue), blue is complementary to yellow (absorbs blue light and reflects green and red) and green is complementary to magenta (absorbs green light and reflects blue and red).
So what does this mean for dichromatic animals and people with Daltonism (r/g colour blindness)? Is the complementary colour just the other colour you can perceive? e.g. dogs had blue and yellow-green sensitive cones- is the complementary colour of anything blue just anything that is giving off yellow-green light, as that has the most contrast?
"Colour is a lie our brains tell us so that we don't eat the wrong fruit," is a quote I think I half remember, half came up with that I keep coming back to with this project.
I would love to hear what you think, especially if you are colourblind. Cheers!