It’s been said so often, but here it is again: most people are relieved by their Sci/ART-/Twelve-Tone draping result. Many people have an instinctive response to their best colours, and feel validated when they see them in the mirror and fanned out before them on the palette. They might have been expecting the final verdict or their season might have come as a complete surprise/shock, but now it all starts to make sense. Their previous experiences with colour now have a context, and they begin to rethink their understanding, and to grasp and appreciate their new 12-Tone “fan”.
But what about those who aren’t so happy and aren’t so satisfied? What if doubts and reservations are present at the analysis or surface later? What if there is a sense of concern rather than the promised liberation? Why do a minority of clients subsequently spend a lot of time, money and energy revisiting the whole notion of PCA when the process is supposed to bring about a satisfying close?
As so often in life, there is no one simple answer. Most people have a long history of personal experiences and preferences when it comes to colour, whether they are consciously aware of it or not. They may have specific favourite colours while others have unpleasant associations, or they may bring firm opinions based on their own perceptions and those of others as to what “looks good on them”, right or wrong.
Every client has different hopes, concerns, ideas and expectations. The psychology of colour runs deep, and can be culturally learnt. It is influenced by previous reading and teaching on the subject, and all of this is overlaid by different individual perceptions.
In what follows, we will explore the issue of “palette restlessness” from the point of view of the SciART/Twelve-Tone philosophy and tonal placement. We will look at some of the factors that might lead to it, and suggest some ideas that may help this discontent to be understood and addressed. It is hoped that readers will recognise a lot of what follows and find it helpful, regardless of their point of view.
Glossary of terms used:
Tone/tonal: preferred term for the 12 divisions as defined in the SciART/Twelve-Tone system (“season/seasonal” are often used interchangeably but strictly speaking this was not the system’s originally preferred terminology)
12-Tone: refers to the “Classic” and “Corporate” personal colour palettes made by True Colour International.
Season/seasonal: refers to the parent 4-handed groupings: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter
Palette: the consumer reference book/swatchbook, aka “fan”
Colour/s: the individual hue/s found in each tone, the representative samples in the palettes
Hue/s: the individual colour/s found in each tone, the representative samples in the palettes
Neutral/neutrality: in SciART/Twelve-Tone contexts, neither purely warm nor cool, or the 8 tones falling between the wholly warm and cool tones
Fashion neutral: used to refer to “neutrals” in the sense used in the fashion industry generally: blacks, browns, whites, creams, browns and suiting darks
Accents: colours that are not fashion neutrals: reds, pinks, blues, greens, purples, yellows and so on
Personal Colour Analysis/PCA: the process of placing a person in their SciART/Twelve-Tone tone.
PART I
Tonal Harmony, the SciART/Twelve-Tone Philosophy
Before any analysis happens, before the cap and gown goes on and before a drape is handled, the client needs to be very clear about what SciART or Twelve-Tone analysis is and what it represents, and to be equally clear about what it is not.
SciART/Twelve-Tone PCA is based on a single deeply held “core” value as defined by Kathryn Kalisz: that visual tonal harmony, like musical harmony, is instinctively perceived and inherently pleasing and satisfying. The process of analysis places the individual within one of twelve pre-determined sectors of natural colour harmony, based on the principle that everyone has one such array of colour that sits most comfortably and harmoniously on with their natural colouring and which colours they, in turn, enhance. Referencing Itten, Kalisz called this one’s “subjective timbre”, a gamut where the individual has a sense of instinctive recognition and belonging (Kalisz, K: Understanding Your Colour, 1996).
The True Colour blog is called “Colour and the Human Being” for a reason: the system is constructed around the natural human perceptual spectrum and the colours that harmonise with the natural range of hair, eye and skin tones. Every individual will have a best “home” tone, and this must be discovered for each person regardless of ethnic origin and rules of thumb regarding hair, skin or eye shade. While rough associations may be noticed, concepts like “blonde hair” and “brown eyes” can cover a lot of ground, and a person’s colour home cannot be predicted based on generalities.
Although individual palettes are often discussed in terms of fashion neutrals and accents, the system avoids the usual fashion notions of “pops” of colour (disharmonious colour chosen for attention), but at the same time there is visual interest and variety built into each palette in a way which suits that tone’s governing characteristics. The tonal system and palettes have a very clearly defined goal: to give the individual an accurately measured and reproduced series of colours which will work harmoniously and easily on the client, and which will all work with each other.
SciART/12-Tone harmony does not aim to startle or draw attention through disharmony. It aims to please, soothe and yet energise, as does natural colour harmony in nature itself. The central concept is that each palette is intrinsically satisfying, and that the right match between person and tone mutually enhances both wearer and colours. Bright tones sit easily on the right person, as do the lowest chroma colours on the soft tones. A lifetime of being flooded with striking visual disharmony can make it hard to see and appreciate this natural harmony, just as artificial colouring, flavourings, fats and salt can make it harder to appreciate natural tastes, but it is rewarding when you learn to see it again.
Each Palette Is Clearly Defined
The SciART/Twelve-Tone palettes were originally constructed by the late Kathryn Kalisz. She had superb colour perception and a deep understanding of colour, honed over many years of practice as an artist and in her expert work as a Master Munsell Colorist. In the Munsell system, colour is organized and coded based on the three axes along which humans perceive colour – hue, chroma and value.
Kathryn Kalisz was not the first to propose sub-divisions of the four basic “seasonal” groups (winter, spring, summer, autumn), but she brought an artist’s eye and the precision of the Munsell system to the question, and was the first to systematically and formally codify the 12 tonal groups in terms of unique, harmonious and stable areas of colour space.
While colour space could of course be subdivided further (see True Colour blog post “Are There More Than Twelve-Tones?” July 2011), 12 divisions were chosen as giving meaningful scope while still being easily differentiated and thus useful in practice to the average, untrained eye. In Kalisz’ view, the tonal subdivisions derived in this way occupy defined areas which can be identified in terms of hue, chroma and value, and there are no truly shared individual colours.
It is sometimes stated that humans are “more unique and complex than 12 categories”, and that systems which select colours from outside these naturally harmonious tonal gamuts are to be preferred. Advocates of these systems note that many service areas of life are increasingly customised and tailored, from exercise to software to therapeutics, and suggest that colour analysis should be no different. This criticism makes three assumptions: that the palettes represent the sum total of all colours that will ever be available to a person utilizing their native tonal area (in fact the palettes select from the widest possible gamut in order to define the tone, but they do NOT exhaust its variations, and it has never been claimed that they do), that there is no scope within the palette for individual emphasis and preference and even “off-palette” exploration for studied effect (we will discuss this later) and finally, that “bespoke” systems offer an inherently superior result.
Practitioners of individualized palette formats may have a good eye and deliver satisfying colour arrays along broadly internally consistent principles, and it is always possible to converge on similar conclusions by different routes. However, such results can also be idiosyncratic, poorly controlled in terms of hue, chroma and value, and may not harmonise the way the SciART/Twelve-Tone system conceptualizes this (in term of colour behaviour in the natural environment).
Further, in some systems (both individually assembled and seasonal) there is no onus to demonstrate the appropriateness of the choices to the client in the form of draping, who must take the results on faith and who then does not have the opportunity to study the effects of large blocks of colour until they try to match their palette in the shops.
In saying this, it is important to acknowledge that the process of learning to “read” the effects of colour can be challenging, and that there are far more colours available a 12-Tone palette than will ever be formally demonstrated in the analysis. Further, while the test drapes themselves explore and are keyed to the seasonal and tonal limits, the client will not necessarily see their tonal colour/s on themselves during the diagnostic process and will see a representative selection of their colours over the course of their consultation.
However, SciART/Twelve-Tone practitioners believe that it is of utmost importance that the client is able to see key effects – good and bad – for themselves, an educational experience which aims to give the client confidence in the result and to help hone their capacity to evaluate colour choices for themselves. The draping process with its rapid comparison of effects should raise expectations of colour permanently, and is the key to real independence in the use of personal colour. Draping informs the consumer and makes them a participant. It potentially empowers a client to more readily assess – and indeed question – their results than does a more passive process.
One consequence of the graded and organised SciART/Twelve-Tone approach is that each palette has natural limits, and these limits vary from tone to tone. There is no bright colour in a soft-tone palette, nor orange in a winter tone, as these colours simply do not “grow” there naturally, something which can be visually demonstrated. The “menu” of colour available to each tone is different because of the varied ways individual hues behave as value and chroma change; this is why the dark seasons may appear at first glance to have more variety built into their palettes, while some seasons have some colour areas more heavily represented. The overall “feel” of each tone is therefore different.
There are no token representations on the classical palettes, nor are there “universal colours” as concessions to the idea that everyone as a whole or everyone in a “related” tonal group can wear all things more or less equally (although black and white are often seen as an exception to this, the winters in fact have subtle tonal versions of each as their best pick). This can be a difficult thing to perceive and accept for those new to the system and it can take time to see why these limits are valid given the overall effect that SciART/Twelve-Tone PCA is seeking.
All colours in an accurate Twelve-Tone palette are keyed to work with all the rest. There is a cool side and a warmer side to each neutral palette, and both warm (yellow-based) and cool (blue) hues in all tones, but these are chosen from different areas of colour space for each tone based on the way colour moves from warm to cool through natural colour space. This subtle tonal variegation introduces some very subtle and satisfying resonances within each tone, as is found in nature.
There are nuances to each palette which may not be apparent until the “fan” is compared with neighbouring tones and with corresponding tones of the same rough area of “hue temperature”, but with time and experience this dimensionality, and the subtle gradations of colour space around and between each swatch and between fans, becomes clearer. There are thousands of ways that any three separate colours from a 65-70 hue palette may be combined, but when we consider harmonizing colours, the range is infinite. Texture and style introduce additional nuance.
That said, individual clients will have colour areas and particular swatches they prefer over others, and hues they prefer to use for some things (lipstick, shirts, bags, ties, work or leisure wear, hair toning) but not elsewhere. This is consistent with dress conventions in our culture and with the natural variations in colouring within each tone, as well as with sheer human variety of taste, and these practical tendencies to variation do not negate the overall value of the palette. While all colours on a palette live happily together, this doesn’t mean they will all be equally apt for every possible application and weighted equally for each user.
SciART/Twelve-Tone does not dictate individual swatch usages beyond broad guidelines which may be given by the analyst after the draping experience, but leaves the final say with the client. Does anyone use grey as blusher? Is it customary to colour your hair the same shade as your favourite lipstick or tie? In theory there is nothing to stop anyone doing so (and it would make for impressively harmonious Halloween makeup if everyone chose the right zombie grey), but most people exercise discretion to some extent.
In real life, everyone has preferences within their palettes, which may be stable over time, or which might change as the eye develops, or as specific needs emerge (see TCI blog post “PCA Myth Busters – Every colour in a palette can successfully be worn next to the face” Sunday, August 12th, 2012) A client may live in the lighter swatches or the darker, may like their blues more than their greens, and so on. A colour may only be used as small detail in a pattern or design, or not at all, while another person may enjoy wearing it in larger blocks.
These preferences may be identified in the draping, or the client may be drawn there naturally, or they may work it out by trial and error and their own “eye” for what appeals to them. Everyone’s tonal “pie chart” of strong preferences in respect of colour accents and fashion neutrals and their proportions will be different, sometimes to the extent where someone unfamiliar with the 12-Tone palettes may struggle to see that two very different usage patterns belong to the same tone.
This, then, is the philosophy behind the system. An accurate Twelve-Tone palette is designed to work as a cohesive and satisfying unit. Each palette is structured as a harmonious whole, but at the same time it is understood and indeed expected that each individual will live differently within their colour landscape. What, then, if the client feels uncomfortable there? We shall explore this in part II and III.