Light Summer in the Dark
We’ve covered a lot of ground now. We’ve learned how temperature and tonality come together to create palettes, which include clear versions, pastels and darks of all twelve hues, in addition to their neutrals. What does this mean for colour analysis?
You might expect that so many colours in each palette, might make colour analysis more complex. Surprisingly, it does the opposite. What makes the difference is being able to drape independently for temperature and tonality is a total game changer.
If the drape colour looks colourful and clean (i.e. the tonality is right) but the hue feels weird (i.e. the temperature is wrong), we can simply make an adjustment only for temperature. We pick up the drape set that belongs to the neighbouring palette that has the same tonality but a different temperature, and see if it’s a better fit.
If, on the other hand, the hue looks fine but the brightness of the drape is off, we can keep the temperature and try a different tonality. And because all palettes are in a logical order, it’s super quick to make adjustments. We can simply look at a drape and tell if it is too light or dark (too much white or black will come up) or too bright or soft (colour is louder than the person, or comes up grey). We then move to a palette that has more fitting qualities, lighter/darker and/or softer/brighter, and check again. We follow the logic and hone in on the right palette with every step.
Once we come up with a favourite, I will spend a good portion of your analysis doing ‘back-checks’: testing every neighbouring tonality and temperature to see if we really have found the optimal palette for you. I want to be triple sure.
And then we have your definitive palette. Which is just the first step, actually.
Next, we determine your orientation. This is how your temperature and tonality compare to the palette’s settings. In what direction is your sweet spot, relative to the palette? This affects where you find your ultimate harmony colours, and how you will want to compromise, based on what’s available in stores. If you lean cool for example, then compromising in a cool direction will be much easier than compromising in a warm direction. If you are located dead-centre in the temperature range, it matters less which way you compromise, and only how far.
Next, there is affinity. This is about what regions of your palette you have particular affinity with. While every singular colour is technically harmonious (and won’t induce any negative effects in your skin, such as shadowing, redness, etc), they won’t all look equal. There are hues that are just fine, and there will be those that are staggeringly beautiful.
This might be certain hues or entire tonal classes. The hue of your eyes will likely be among them, but there will be more. Affinity also determines your tolerance for colours from outside your palette. Blue-eyed people will likely have affinity with their blue and look truly fantastic in it, but also look half-decent in blues from other palettes.
Affinities can be surprising, too, or even appear contradictory. To use myself as an example, my clear colours look lovely, my pastels look nice, my neutrals look fresh and clean – but nothing beats my dark colours for how good they look. Yet my tonality is on the lighter-leaning side. I am a Sphere B2, which is the cool-neutral (B) Bright-Light (2).
If dark colours look so good, should I have put myself in a B3, the cool-neutral Bright-Dark instead? Obviously I’ve checked this, and the answer is a resounding no. The Bright-Dark clear colours eat me alive, way too thick and deep. And those dark colours are blackened well beyond what I can balance. I end up looking pale and sad.
Another example of affinity appearing contradictory is a woman who was analysed as a Dark Autumn (Warm-Neutral Dark, D6), but who doesn’t sit comfortably in the palette and can also wear really cool acid yellows. I’m not entirely sure yet, but she might turn out to be a cool Dark (A6) and just have really strong affinity with, and thus tolerance for, olive, camel and rust brown.
Which begs a question: how many people are appointed a certain Season because of their affinity rather than their tonality and temperature? Seasonal colour analysis is not equipped to handle that distinction.
Draping me in 12Seasons gives Bright Winter as a clear winner, leaving behind Light Summer by quite a margin. Even Dark Winter looks better than Light Summer. Surely, in that comparison, my affinity with the darks tonal class is overpowering my harmony needs.
And that makes our next reason against 12 Seasons:
Reason 11: Seasonal colour analysis can confuse affinity and tolerance with colour harmony.
So instead: Sphere colour analysis carefully tests for harmony, orientation, affinity and tolerance.
For all that seasonal colour analysis genuinely tries to be scientific, the colour science just wasn’t available to make it possible – I had to research it myself to get the information I wanted. It mostly runs on vibes, instead.
Speaking of vibes, that will the topic of our final article in the series.