The Illusion of Transparency!!

• Simulated Transparency: a type of color interaction where opaque media (like your color aid paper) creates the illusion of actual transparency.

• Actual transparency is using actual transparent materials like glass, filters, or transparent plastics to create color mixtures.

• For this illusion to work, the ‘mixed’ color should not be darker than the darkest ‘parent’ color or lighter than the lightest ‘parent’ color

• It should sit between the two colors in saturation also

• If one ‘parent’ has an undertone of a specific color, that undertone should show up in the mixture—IF a parent is yellow-green, there should be a yellow and a greenish tinge to the mixture

In this example, the beige sheet first seems to sit on top of the black square, but on the bottom, the black square is on top of the beige sheet

The color that seems to dominate the mixture will be perceived as the color on top.

Michael Dotson, a contemporary painter who is working with paint to simulate transparent films

Student example of the illusion of transparency