On Color Perception

[holland]

How we perceive each aspect of a color is highly contextual. Metaphorically speaking (because the actual mechanisms are complex and happen at multiple layers), you can think of our eyes as having built-in "auto-correct" that tries to identify things in context.

So if you give a gray square a cyan background, it will look like a dull red. Whereas if you give the same gray square a red background, it will look like a dull cyan.

What often happens when we try to identify colors in a reference is that we go way, way, too extreme.

Just as our brain thinks of shapes in terms of symbols, it also likes to think of colors in terms of symbols. We learn to associate certain hues or colors with certain names when we're young, and then those colors are the ones we see whenever we look at something.

We might see a light wrapped around a cloud and think it looks yellow, when in reality, it might be a light gray that feels yellow. It's technically "warmer" because it's not as saturated as the blues around it, and that's causing it to be perceived as an actually warm hue by the brain over-correcting the situation.

Then we naturally try to copy what it feels like instead of what it actually looks like, but we lose that feeling in the process, ending up with something symbolic and child-like in its coloring.

There are all kinds of color picking tools to help you identify the actual color that's present when looking at something. But you want to practice trying to figure it out yourself first, then use the tools to correct it, and see what the difference is. That will help your sense of perception gradually improve until you don't need the pickers anymore.