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CHROMATISM, A New COLOR PERSPECTIVE
for Artists.
When the spectrum is made into a circle we have the artist's color wheel, in which recession takes place from red through violet. The reverse is true, with advance taking place in both the spectrum and the color wheel from violet through red.
The implication is that we are not limited to two complementary colors in order to show depth. But is there a basis in science, not only for the optical illusion that color pairs advance and recede but which also proves that the whole spectrum can be used for that purpose? We determine that by a brief examination of optical behavior.
Join me in this experiment. Close one eye and focus on your thumb with the other. Continue to focus on your thumb, but direct your attention to the surrounding scene in your peripheral vision. While the thumb stays in focus, everything else, near and far, up and down, right and left is out of focus, is it not?
Now focus on a window across the room. Observe that while you are focused on the window, your thumb has gone out of focus
Focus on the thumb, then the window, back and forth a few times and it will become apparent to you that you cannot focus on both the thumb and the window at the same time. Both are visible on your retina, but only one can be in focus at a time.
Let's examine how our eye lens worked when we focused from thumb to window.
Focus is the point where rays of light refracted by a lens meet. How does the eye focus? Not like a magnifying glass that can be moved back and forth or like as camera lens that can be lengthened or shortened. The human eye lens is elastic, and focuses by changing shape, by stretching from round to flat, and vice-versa.
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