[wirrbel]

The way traditional artists think and thought about colors is definitely not in the shape of color wheels.

Traditional artists think in terms of palettes and of mixtures of colors on the palette. They also think about colors in relation to each other. They think of layering, and about the perception of the eye.

The point is, when you discuss colors as a multi-dimensional coordinate space, you already lost (from the perspective of the painter).

Painters will explore the medium they are working in for its capabilities. Is "dark on bright" (watercolors) or "bright on dark" (soft pastel) the way to go? Can I dilute and perform washes (watercolor), or will the medium break down (acrylic).

I can only recommend James Guerney's "Color and Light" book to get impressions.

Then again, if you do digital art to scren, or if you are printing things from a computer, you need to anticipate how the devices render your colors. This is where color spaces and coordinate systems for colors and how to translate between them becomes relevant.

[Daub]

> The way traditional artists think and thought about colors is definitely not in the shape of color wheels.

Slightly disagree. I find that knowing the location of the pigments on the rtyb wheel is a very useful skill. A color too saturated or too light? add its opposite!