Colour, colour, colour

ere you one of the lucky people that were first to notice my newest artwork "The 3 Wondrous Siblings of the Grimm Family" since the first moment I listed it on Saturday night? Did you lose your eyesight?!? :D It was only in the shop for a couple of hours and then it mysteriously disappeared... and when I say “mysteriously disappeared” I mean that I pulled it out! :D You see, it looked like the most blinding red thing... something between a traffic light and Rudolf's nose! lol ........ So I pulled it out for the night and got on to it in the morning again to see what was wrong. “Didn't you intend to blind me with all that red?” you may ask..... Well, no, not at all. The actual artwork when printed is not blinding at all, though it certainly is red! When you see it in the shop though.... that's a whole different story.

And with that, let's go into a small introduction on colour! This will make more sense to people who design using their computers but I'll keep it simple (and interesting hopefully?) for the rest lovely people.

Take the purest red: your computer recognises it as “Red:255, Green:0, Blue:0” in the standard RGB system that monitors and TVs use. You can say it looks like this:

At least that's how it looks on your screen right now.... Increase the brightness of your screen and that same Red changes, right? Lower the contrast and it changes again, right? Go ahead and try it for fun. But it's not just the monitor settings at play here! The actual materials of your screen have a unique way to express the same Red, that is different from every other screen. Same goes for every printer, each one expresses the same Red differently. Even different software in your computer express the same Red differently!

So this is the same Red in your screen in your internet browser:  

And the same Red in your screen in Photoshop:

And the same Red when printed with your printer:

“Oh dear, oh dear.... How can you ever make your artworks look exactly how you intend them too when printed, since the screen and print output don't match?”, you may ask. And rightly so.

Well, we are lucky enough cause the smart people form the International Color Consortium have come up with a plan years ago and they have called the solution “International Color Consortium Profiles” or just “Colour Profiles” if you prefer. This is for another conversation though and quite a long one at that.

So finally my problem is clear: my pretty artwork, so very dear to me, gets massacred when viewed with an internet browser in my shop. The beautiful and subtle, muted reds become blinding and overwhelming, almost hurting the eyes through some monitors. I tweaked the snapshots in the shop so that they look closer to the printed output but there seems to be a big gap between my printer and computer monitors in this case. Maybe too big a gap to bridge......

Here's a simulation of the effect:

So what should I do? No one can see the artwork for what it is in the shop. Only when printed can someone truly appreciate it and understand my full creative monochromatic intent. Sure the same holds for all the other artworks, but at least all the other artworks look fine and close to the original on screen. So do I keep the new artwork online as is? Do I change it so that people don't think that I'm trying to cause them temporary blindness? Maybe a third solution? I'm entertaining the idea of releasing a multi coloured version of it. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Many warm bear hugs,

xxx Hidden Eloise xxx

Comments

[gemma]

Thanks for such a great post full of great facts. I always find that myself with colour and i find it very very frustrating! I also find depending on what paper you print on depends on how rich the colours appear. For instance....glossy paper seems to print lighter than normal paper and Photo quality! oh the trials and tribulations of day to day life...nothing can be simple in this life ahhhh
At least the sun is shining!
Wishing you well on this sunny day
Gem
x

[Hidden Eloise]

I understand your frustration my dear Gem and it's exactly as you say. Use of Colour Profiles minimises all these issues (though not all of them as it's evident in my post above :D).

It takes an investment of a bit of money and a lot of time but you can take firm control of your colours in the end. There's much to share and i will share it all certainly :)

Many sunshines and bear hugs your way too sweetheart,
Eloise xxx

[ayelet (nishale)]

what ever the colors are, I adore this painting of yours!
hugs
Ayelet(nishale)

[ayelet (nishale)]

ho! and you are very welcome to visit my blog! I will be very happy!!!!!!!!!

[Jodi Queenan]

I treat my paintings as photographs... using a pro-spider for my monitor.... Using labs that have collaborated equipment verses a printer.... I wish I could find a lab that had paper that is more like watercolor paper... "can't win them all".... I don't worry about what other people see... their monitors are off.... most of the time...

Any hoot... you are just awesome... thanks for the tips and I'm going to follow along with you...

[Hidden Eloise]

So good to see other artists taking colour seriously my dear Jodi!
I use a colormunki for my monitors and for casual printer profiling. The munki buckles on some papers though! Can never win them all indeed :)
Bear hugs,
Hidden Eloise xxx

[becky farley]

Oh my gosh I am so glad to hear you explain and understand the process!! I work at a print and design co. and people give us files in RGB all the time! And then are very disappointed to see them in CMYK. I wonder if you design in pantones or PSM colors if that would change it. I'm not really sure! Crazy colors lol

No matter.. your artwork is beautiful! You are very talented!

[Hidden Eloise]

Thank you for your kind words sweetheart! I will try to write more and raise awareness on the matter because i know few people mind their digital colours.
Since i am practically painting digitally, there are constantly complex gradients created so using set palettes won't do it for me.
Also, a little trick that may work for you: instead of converting an RGB file to CMYK directly, convert the colour profile of the file (from sRGB or AdobeRGB or whatever) to the CMYK profile you use. That way you have much more control of how the colours change. This is for Photoshop only though.
Thanks again and talk to you soon!
Bear hugs