Eva wrote:kuvasz, there may be another reason for your ability to detect the smallest differences in the violet dyes...
Years ago, when I was studying graphic art in college, my optometrist informed me that my pupils were larger than average. (I could not wear hard contact lens because in low light I saw around the edges of the lenses...terrific eye strain headaches, as you can imagine!) The optometrist told me that it is very common for people with this physical trait to go into visual fields, because they actually can see more tiny variations of colors than most people can. He gave me a test, where small squares of color gradations appeared in sequence, sometimes repeated. He asked me to tell him how many different shades of a color were on each line. I could identify more than the average.
When I worked for an ad agency, I was the one they quickly chose to do press proofs because I could instantly detect too much magenta, cyan, etc. This "fundamental sensitivity" led to an even greater "trained sensitivity" (patiodog) as I continued to work in that field. Although I have not done much press proofing in recent years, I find I am still able to correct color better than most, and I still drive the people at the paint store crazy!
dlowan...very interesting questions. I remember reading a lot of color theory relating to individuals' emotional/psychological states and needs influencing color preferences. In fact, color tests were given in European workplaces in the '70s and '80s as a way to profile personalities. They had it down to an exact science.
well, in those my salad days, i was smoking a lot of ganga and dropping acid regularly, so maybe i had enlarged pupils?
but you hit on a salient point. in the dyeing industry, the best color matchers are women, and the "red eye" to which i referred is a trait older men get with age. and is anathema to guys who run dye houses. they lose sensitivity to blues and yellows and see see more red.
i do a lot of fiber arts.. batiks, marbling (ugh! its damn tough) and of course, tie dyes, and with the dyes and pigments i use i can almost "taste" the colors and how to combine them for the colors i want to produce. it's a lot like being a chef.
and about those tie dyes, ask around, many a2kers have one and they can tell you about the colors i use.
c.i.
:wink:
