Purple undulated contours adjacent to orange ones are perceived as two unknown shapes evenly colored by a light veil of orange tint spreading from the orange contours (coloration effect). The two shapes show a strong figure-ground segregation and a solid figural appearance comparable to a bas-relief illuminated from the top and to rounded surfaces segregated in depth and extending out from the flat surface (figural effect). On the contrary, the complementary regions appear as empty spaces with the appearance of holes. The Watercolor illusion or watercolor effect was the discovery of Baingio Pinna who came upon it in 1987. However, he wasn’t the only one who stumbled upon the optical illusion, but Gavin Brelstaff and Lothar Spillmann published their findings in 2001. Since the optical illusion has become well known, several scientific experiments have been conducted to understand the phenomenon of the watercolor effect. The phenomenon is quite amazing.
Watercolor Illusion: The Phenomenon of Melting Colors
A dark chromatic color outlines a figure flanked in the brighter chromatic color. The brighter color spreads into all the enclosed area, thus the use of the phrase “melting colors,” as you see the color fill up the enclosed shape.
Most often, you will see purple and orange grouped together, as it is the most complementary pair. The watercolor illusion depends on the combination of color contrast and luminance of the outlines in order to perceive the watercolor effect.
In order to get to the bottom of this illusion and to find out how it occurs, researchers, as we already mentioned before, have conducted experiments. But out of all the experiments, the watercolor effect’s comparison to the Gestalt principles stands out.
The Comparison of the Watercolor Illusion to the Gestalt Principles
The introduction of the watercolor effect in the circles of researchers and scientists led to many comparisons, but one comparison that held the most weight against others was the Gestalt principles. People were quick to associate the effect to the figure-ground perception.
According to the figure-ground perception, elements are combined together based on size, brightness, color, and shape. The seven principles of the figure-ground perception were used as the primary basis for the comparison. These seven include continuation, symmetry, closure, amodal completion, convexity, and previous experience. Using the seven principles, researchers began to run tests.
Watercolor Illusion: The Phenomenon of Melting Colors
A dark chromatic color outlines a figure flanked in the brighter chromatic color. The brighter color spreads into all the enclosed area, thus the use of the phrase “melting colors,” as you see the color fill up the enclosed shape.
Most often, you will see purple and orange grouped together, as it is the most complementary pair. The watercolor illusion depends on the combination of color contrast and luminance of the outlines in order to perceive the watercolor effect.
In order to get to the bottom of this illusion and to find out how it occurs, researchers, as we already mentioned before, have conducted experiments. But out of all the experiments, the watercolor effect’s comparison to the Gestalt principles stands out.
The Comparison of the Watercolor Illusion to the Gestalt Principles
The introduction of the watercolor effect in the circles of researchers and scientists led to many comparisons, but one comparison that held the most weight against others was the Gestalt principles. People were quick to associate the effect to the figure-ground perception.
According to the figure-ground perception, elements are combined together based on size, brightness, color, and shape. The seven principles of the figure-ground perception were used as the primary basis for the comparison. These seven include continuation, symmetry, closure, amodal completion, convexity, and previous experience. Using the seven principles, researchers began to run tests.
The Tests
However, it wasn’t until 2006 that Reeves and Pinna were finally able to provide the world with some insight on the watercolor illusion. Together, they conducted experiments to determine the thirteen elements of the coloration effect of the watercolor illusion. The elements include uniform, stimulus, solid, perception on black, white, and colored surface, the orange shade on wiggly lines, its ability to work with basic shades, and it working better on lines with a higher luminance contrast.
The other remaining elements state that the line with a decreased luminance will always create the coloration effect, reversing the lines with the orange on the outside with the purple outline on the inside would appear as if the orange shade is spreading outward.
The coloration effect will extend approximately 45 visual degrees, it is completed by the smallest measurable unit, the line width created the most optimal effect, the color will spread in different directions than the line, and finally, it can stimulate a complementary shade when one of the line is chromatic and the other is achromatic.
What is Responsible for this Phenomenon?
In your brain, there are two stages of parallel processing, parallel boundary processing and feature processing. The feature processing stage the surface around the lines creates tiny interactions between lines, leading the color to spread. The second stage manages the stimulus’s geometrical structure found in color spreading. to edit.
However, it wasn’t until 2006 that Reeves and Pinna were finally able to provide the world with some insight on the watercolor illusion. Together, they conducted experiments to determine the thirteen elements of the coloration effect of the watercolor illusion. The elements include uniform, stimulus, solid, perception on black, white, and colored surface, the orange shade on wiggly lines, its ability to work with basic shades, and it working better on lines with a higher luminance contrast.
The other remaining elements state that the line with a decreased luminance will always create the coloration effect, reversing the lines with the orange on the outside with the purple outline on the inside would appear as if the orange shade is spreading outward.
The coloration effect will extend approximately 45 visual degrees, it is completed by the smallest measurable unit, the line width created the most optimal effect, the color will spread in different directions than the line, and finally, it can stimulate a complementary shade when one of the line is chromatic and the other is achromatic.
What is Responsible for this Phenomenon?
In your brain, there are two stages of parallel processing, parallel boundary processing and feature processing. The feature processing stage the surface around the lines creates tiny interactions between lines, leading the color to spread. The second stage manages the stimulus’s geometrical structure found in color spreading. to edit.
© opticalspy 2017
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