Color, gradients, and blurry boundaries
What I have learned from working with color in a fuzzy context
Between 2018 and 2020 I created over 1500 abstract digital color explorations as an attempt to understand how color works and how to make it “shine”. In these explorations, I repeatedly relied on gradients and blurry boundaries because of their inherent softness. Hard color edges, at least at first, felt harsher.
Besides, I liked the idea of creating atmosphere through color, and gentle transitions were perfect for that — just look at a Mark Rothko or Peter Alexander!
As I practiced, I eventually collected a few tricks to control “blurriness” and make color look its best in this context. Here are a few that have been particularly useful to me.
How blurry do you want it? From full-on gradients to fuzzy shapes
Early on, I noticed there were nuances to gradients I could play with. Gradients could range from soothing, spread out transitions — recalling a cloudless sunrise — to slightly harder transitions happening on shorter distances — which I liked to refer to as the “frosted glass effect”. Or “out of focus on purpose”, if you prefer.
Within this range, I created options where colors gently blended together and others where the transition was more abrupt yet retained a certain amount of softness.
Depending on the colors and their respective lightness, the latter was always harder to work with. In that respect, the next two techniques were helpful.
Keeping it flat
A recurring method for obtaining pleasing transitions has been to keep value constant. In other words, if I switched to greyscale, the resulting image would be flat or have minimal light-dark variations. This also allowed me to avoid any unwanted volume effects and keep the focus on the colors.
Of course, if you do wish to simulate three-dimensionality, as in the example below, then changes in value are your friend!
In the cases where I did use visible shifts in light and dark, I tried to keep the transition slow and in one direction. These were often inspired by nature, particularly the sky!
Closer hues blend beautifully
Generally, I noticed the closer the hues are from each other in the color wheel, the easier they will blend. The further they are — or closer to being complementary — the “dirtier” or greyer the transition. That is not necessarily a bad thing, as it creates less saturated areas that can complement vivid colors.
However, if the transition color is unsatisfying, one can take control and manually add a less murky one! Something half-way in the color wheel works great, hence reducing the distance between one hue and the next. I like to keep these adjustment colors desaturated to avoid stealing the original colors’ spotlight.
In my explorations I often recurred to placing close hues next to each other. So simple, yet effective!
Harnessing intensity
Because gradients are so soothing, one can get away using very intense colors. The effect is less stimulating compared to hard-edge shapes. Still, a party of different bright hues, even slowly transitioning, felt a bit much for me. When using intense colors only, I personally liked to keep it simple and use two to three base colors, plus the mixes naturally created between them.
What I enjoyed even more was to welcome greys and dull colors in the mix. These less conspicuous colors help bring out and balance the more vivid ones.
Making it warmer
Even if they are inherently soft, digital gradients can have a cool aura to them. In order to make them warmer — as well as to help correct banding or other imperfections that may appear — I have been adding a small amount of noise to my final images. I’m a fan of the subtly imperfect and tactile feel it gives them.
This article on noisy textures came in handy when it came to create my own.
Going really subtle
As I worked with soft transitions, I realized really subtle shifts — of hue, lightness or saturation— can be enough to add richness to something that would otherwise be a plain flat color. And I have since been joyfully testing the limits of these shifts.
