Teaching about color: coloring for permanent makeup masters

All the laws of color mixing: a memo to permanent makeup masters

2020-03-13

Important information about color and the fundamental principles of the doctrine of color for tattoo and permanent makeup artists, as well as for those who are going to become one

Color systems are the classification of colors in a certain order, using hue, lightness, saturation. Today, there are various types of color systems (about 47 color systems are known), ranging from ordinary color wheels, atlases, scales, fans, digital tables, volumetric color systems to modern color pantones.

The founder of scientific color science, I. Newton, was the first to propose a real-life linear spectrum of colors for the convenience of studying their relationships, to depict them in the form of a color wheel. Newton's color wheel included seven consecutive and radially oriented sectors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. I. Newton's color wheel turned out to be a very convenient tool for calculating the results of color mixing.

I. Newton's color wheel

I. Goethe did not want to recognize the teachings of I. Newton about the light nature of color and proposed his own version of the circle - 6-sector. His circle was formed by three primary (in his opinion) colors: red, yellow and blue, located at the corners of an equilateral triangle, between which there were colors resulting from mixing the colors flanking them: purple (between red and blue), orange (between yellow and red) and green (between yellow and blue).

But it was a long time ago. Today, the doctrine of color, having developed and replenished with new data, is one of the natural sciences. The doctrine of color describes the processes of interaction between light and the organ of vision. All the laws of color mixing are nothing more than interpretations of the laws of the visual analyzer.

Color wheel I. Goethe

color mixing

Anyone who wants to learn the fundamental principles of the doctrine of color should devote enough time to practical work with color. However, not everyone has the time and opportunity to study the law of additive mixing (obtaining certain colors by mixing them), making optical experiments with filters and projectors in a darkened room. We also do not want to go into scientific details about mixing formulas, spectral regions, saturation, and other special concepts. In the classical conservative doctrine of color, the laws of mixing are divided into two areas: "additive mixing" and "subtractive mixing" (from the English word subtract - subtract, obtaining colored light by subtracting its spectral components from white light). In total, there are eleven laws of color mixing, which differ qualitatively and quantitatively and are precisely defined.
Additive mixing explains the mixing of the three primary colors.
Subtractive blending describes the transparency of color layers or color filters.
The laws of additive and subtractive mixing apply to the entire color space, both based on the quantum theory of the structure of light.

The rule of "integrated mixing" has a completely different character. It refers to opaque coloring agents that are first mixed and then applied in a single coloring layer. Its principle is the redistribution of colors.
Next, it is worth mentioning "gray mixing" , the law of "hue mixing", which allows you to create new partial color spaces.
The law of mixing dyes applies in cases where shades of colors are obtained from white mass with the help of concentrated dyes. Optical mixing explains the limited ability of the human eye to separate colors. Temporal confusion refers to the reaction speed of the visual organizer.
So briefly you can describe the laws of the doctrine of color.

Practice for permanent makeup masters

The most useful and impressive activity for learning is the practical work with the painting opaque paint. The most convincing visual aid is mixing paint with a brush. For this, a simple student palette is quite enough. Mix six bright primary colors. When mixing adjacent colors, new bright colors are obtained. By changing the ratio of colors, warmer or colder shades are obtained.
Professionally speaking, we now understand the expressions "warm or cold red" that often appear in the terminology of permanent makeup. Brown can also become warm or cool depending on the addition of different colors. Now it is clear which pigmentation dyes need to be mixed to get the desired shade.
With a basic stock of pigmentation dyes and knowledge of their mixing possibilities, we can obtain a wide range of shades at any time and offer customers individual colors designed specifically for them.
Directly related to this topic is the question of how to correct unwanted color changes in the pigment in the skin, how to neutralize the color of old dyes, refresh, revitalize or lighten them.
Adding black pigment to, for example, lip color to make it look darker can lead to a bluish discoloration of the lip contour later. The depth and intensity of the color should always be achieved only by the amount of pigment applied. The same, of course, applies to eyebrow dyes, which should also never be mixed with black pigment. White pigment added to lip color can result in a white liner.

Knowledge of the doctrine of color is the main prerequisite for successful work in the field of permanent makeup. Only those who know what color tone to choose, how to get it by mixing and how it will look on the skin will get a good result. Successful color correction is possible only when all the features of color interaction are studied and known.
The so-called “color correction”, in which a skin color pigment (so-called Skin) is applied over an unwanted color, indicates the ignorance of the beautician. Unfortunately, this method of correction in practice can be seen very often.
If you remember that the skin is renewed as it grows from the bottom up, it becomes clear that the dye layers located above begin to “fade” earlier. Over time, when the top layer peels off, the wrong color becomes visible again. Maybe it would be wiser to immediately neutralize the wrong color with a contrast, and not cover it?
In addition, pigments in "skin" shades contain titanium dioxide, which does not remain stable to light for long, and after a while the pigmentation may turn gray or blue.