Question: What is optical blending?

Optical blending, or color mixing, is a visual phenomenon that occurs when small amounts of unmixed colors are placed side by side on a painting. Rather than see the individual colors, the viewer perceives a single color that is a blend of the others. The perceived color is usually one you would see if the color pigments were mixed. The primary difference is that when the pigments are mixed they lose intensity. When colors are mixed optically in the viewers mind they retain their intensity and tend to appear brighter.

This type of color mixing was practiced by the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. The following painting techniques rely on this type of blending: scumbling, stippling, broken color and glazing.

Optical blending may sound like something unfamiliar but it is actually something we experience every day. For example, if you look at a television screen or at a colored newspaper picture through a magnifying glass, you will find that every color is made up of tiny dots of just a few colors. Yet when you look from a normal distance the bits appear to blend together to form the many colors we perceive.

I think this effect is most easy to see in fabrics. Many vibrant fabrics are created by weaving pre-dyed fibers to create the illusion of other colors. In the following example, an orange yarn is created by mixing dark orange and yellow fibers. Here is an image of the unmixed fibers:

Here is the finished batt after being carded a total of four times. You can see that the optically mixed orange is much lighter than the original.

If you look closely you can still see the two uniquely colored fibers.