Color is usually talked about in visual storytelling, like movies and plays. But can it play a role in books? I think that the answer is yes. But how? Can colors impact what people imagine, similar to how they affect what people see on a screen? Let’s take a look and imagine.
Color in Visual Art
Colors in visual art have been used for centuries. Dating as far back as art itself, people have been making colors from all kinds of things, including bugs. People paint with colors, they draw with colors, and some of the most famous pieces of art are filled with so many colors most of us would have a hard time counting them! Take the Sistine Chapel, for example! The Sistine Chapel was painted in the 1500s by a man named Michelangelo. His paintings are some of the most famous on the planet and include a vast collection of colors! The paintings in the Sistine Chapel were based on things Michelangelo read in the bible! So, his imagination was probably quite full of colors!
Color in the Imagination
Books are a unique combination of visual art and imagination. The words on the page mean something that most people understand. For those who can see color, the color on books and described in books seems to play a big part in how the story unfolds in someone’s imagination (like how Michelangelo saw some of the bible’s stories), making reading a little bit more visual (not counting the actual reading part). For some people, the colors and actions they read about on the page are so vivid in their imagination that it is almost like watching a movie in their head! So, what can colors do for people reading books?
Colors in Books
Colors are often associated with different things. Depending on the culture and the artist’s background, some colors are associated with certain feelings and ideals. In many cultures, green is associated with life and abundance, while it can also represent jealousy! Red can represent love and romance, but it can also represent death! Some cultures see blue as the crowning color of royalty, while others prefer yellow or purple!
Psychology Today says that “Warm colors, such as yellow, orange, pink, and red can motivate and energize us. However, if they’re too intense, they can also be irritating. Cool colors, such as green, blue, and violet, can have a calming effect on us” (resource 1). As a result, authors often use color to help tell their stories. They include specific colors on their covers to help elicit a particular feeling from people when they look at the book. Some authors clothe certain characters in specific colors to help readers see or guess what their true role is, a kind of color foreshadowing. Still others use color to help show emotion, such as explaining how someone’s face turned white or red. In short, color is extremely helpful in written literature and helps the reader not only imagine what the book’s world looks like but also how it feels to be there and how the characters within the world feel as well.
In short, colors are instrumental in writing and seem to have a significant impact on the stories contained in books! Authors regularly use colors in their writing and may even use them to hint at big giveaways later in the story! So, next time you read a book, make sure you pay close attention to the colors!
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