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Tone on tone

radicaldog

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A sky blue shirt with a navy sweater looks fine. A pink shirt with a red sweater is an eyesore (to my eye, at least). Why? Is it because blues of different tones are often accosted in nature (sky/sea), whereas reds aren't? But what about some sunsets?
 

imatlas

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Josef Albers had some ideas about that:

Homage-to-the-square--1969--Josef-Albers-162683.jpg


Homage to the Square (1969)
 

radicaldog

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Originally Posted by imatlas
Josef Albers had some ideas about that:

That's another interesting point, perhaps worth of a separate thread: why is it that some colour combinations lare fine on a canvas but not on a wearer of clothes? Is it because (at least on some views) the paiting is trying to make a point and has a life of its own, whereas clothes are there to serve some ulterior purpose, and should therefore be less stark -- unless it's a Guantanamo suit, where the purpose is of course to attract attention? So the point is that Albers' paiting doesn't actually look good, but it's good art. But clothes should just look good (to competent judges, of course).
 

TRINI

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Originally Posted by radicaldog
A pink shirt with a red sweater is an eyesore (to my eye, at least).

I like this combination personally.
 

RyJ Maduro

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Originally Posted by radicaldog
A sky blue shirt with a navy sweater looks fine. A pink shirt with a red sweater is an eyesore (to my eye, at least). Why? Is it because blues of different tones are often accosted in nature (sky/sea), whereas reds aren't? But what about some sunsets?

The equivalent for sky blue and navy would be pink and burgundy. Which, in my opinion, works very well.
 

anon

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Originally Posted by radicaldog
That's another interesting point, perhaps worth of a separate thread: why is it that some colour combinations lare fine on a canvas but not on a wearer of clothes? Is it because (at least on some views) the paiting is trying to make a point and has a life of its own, whereas clothes are there to serve some ulterior purpose, and should therefore be less stark -- unless it's a Guantanamo suit, where the purpose is of course to attract attention? So the point is that Albers' paiting doesn't actually look good, but it's good art. But clothes should just look good (to competent judges, of course).
might have something to do with skin tone, which the canvas doesn't have
 

TheFoo

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Pink and burgundy or very dark red can work. It's just that we wear fire engine red more often thand we do electric blue. An electric blue sweater over a pale blue shirt wouldn't look too hot.
 

radicaldog

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Originally Posted by mafoofan
Pink and burgundy or very dark red can work. It's just that we wear fire engine red more often thand we do electric blue. An electric blue sweater over a pale blue shirt wouldn't look too hot.

Fair enough. But I still think that pale blue on electric blue wouldn't look half as bad as pink on fire engine red.
 

radicaldog

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P.S. So the obvious and more general way of putting the point is this: tone on tone of blues looks better than tone on tone of reds, ceteris paribus. Why?
 

radicaldog

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Originally Posted by anon
might have something to do with skin tone, which the canvas doesn't have

Quite mundane, though there might be something to this. Yet I was trying to argue that paintings just don't have to look good in the way that clothes should, so it is somewhat beside the point.
 

radicaldog

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Originally Posted by anon
I still think it's color temperature. green on green looks better than yellow on yellow, imo

I'm beginning to think you're right. So tone on tone works best with cooler colours. I can't think of any counterexamples. Thanks!
 

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