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armocromia drapes kit in the meadow
13 Jan 2025
By Admin | 13 Jan, 2025 | | 0 Comments

How to Use the Drapes Kit for Color Analysis

Position the drapes so that they are easily accessible for the test. Before starting, it makes sense to explain to the client the basic principles of the color type, showing examples of warm and cool tones, saturated and muted, vibrant and bleached hues.

1. Identifying the undertone of the facial skin - Warm or cool?

To avoid interference from worn colors, cover the client's torso with a white cloth. Long, voluminous hair should also be hidden. If we want to determine the natural undertone of the skin, it is clear that the client should not wear makeup.

To work with the "temperature" of the color, it is convenient to use "intermediate" shades, that is, those found between warm and cool colors on the color wheel of Itten - these are green and red, because we can take warm and cool shades of the same color. Usually, drapes of red tones of different temperatures, brightness, and saturation are taken, along with a few others.

warm and cool colors on the color wheel of Itten

  • Select some warm tones and some cool tones from the set. For warm tones, take, for example, warm red tones (tomato red) plus orange; for cool tones, take cool reds (cherry red) plus blue.
  • Place the drapes from the "cool" and "warm" groups under the client's face, one by one. Colors from the "wrong group" create a clear dissonance with the skin tone, emphasizing dark circles and giving the skin an unhealthy tone.

identifying the undertone of facial skin

Left: Cool colors like cherry red or blue suit a cool skin color type,
while warm colors - tomato red or orange - suit a warm undertone.
Right: Incorrect combinations.

Additionally, to confirm the result, you can use metallic-tone fabrics. Silver - cool, gold or bronze - warm.

2. Determining the predominant undertone of the skin-eyes-hair "portrait area"

We check if the face, along with the hair, favors warm or cool colors.

Remove the white cloth from the client's head, if worn. The undertone of the hair is usually determined visually. If it matches the skin, determining the client's color type will be easier, as it will be pure (see the color type table below).

determining the predominant undertone of skin-eyes-hair

In this illustration, incorrect combinations are deliberately shown on the right. It is evident that warm-colored drapes look inappropriate under a face with cool tones, and vice versa.

If the hair undertone does not match the skin, it is necessary to determine which one predominates. To do this, repeat the same procedure as in the first step. In this visual assessment, eye color inevitably plays a role. Naturally, if the client has "cool" blue eyes, in an ambiguous situation, they can shift the overall balance towards cool, and vice versa.

3. Determining the intensity of the portrait area

After determining the clear tendency of the complexion's temperature, experiment with shades of the same temperature but with different brightness and saturation.

determining saturation

Here we see that if the fabric matches the face in saturation, it appears harmonious and natural next to it. On the right, examples are shown where the fabric's temperature is chosen correctly, but its saturation is wrong: either a bright color overwhelms the face, or a muted tone looks too pale.

It is important to determine which color saturation the client's face can "handle." The fabric's color should not dominate or stand out over the face. If at first glance we see the test fabric before the face, it means we need a more muted or bleached tone.

At this point, we can already discuss the basic color type (the macroseason) of the client. If dark and saturated tones suit the client well, do not overshadow the face, and create a harmonious impression, their basic color type is Winter (if the face's undertone is cool) or Autumn (if the undertone is warm). Conversely, if vivid, intense colors overwhelm the face, it means the client is "Summer" (cool) or "Spring" (warm). See the Armocromia subgroups in the image below.

4. Determining contrast

Contrast is a comparative characteristic - the difference between the brightness of the skin, hair, and eyes. A subtle contrast analysis will help create more suitable tone combinations, that is, a personal palette, and specify the color subgroup.

determining face contrast

On the left, the contrast between the pair of drapes matches the contrast of the portrait area (skin-eyes-hair). On the right, the mismatch is clearly visible because the contrasts between the face and fabrics do not align.

Since this concerns the brightness of the color, not the color itself, drapes in achromatic tones are ideal for determining contrast - black, white, shades of gray. This time, apply two test drapes of different brightness and observe how the brightness difference corresponds to the difference in the client's skin, hair, and eye brightness.

5. Creating the right color palette

After understanding the contrast of our client's face, we can proceed to create their color palette. Since we already know the undertone, we begin to use fabric colors of this undertone, pairing them in brightness and saturation so that the contrast between the two drapes roughly matches the face's contrast.

Additionally, you can experiment with drapes of other temperatures, applying them as accent elements. Finally, we will find the most harmonious tone combinations for our client, corresponding to their color type, which is the goal of the color analysis.

Examples of such combinations for pure color types are shown in the center of the Armocromia subgroups table.

Armocromia Subgroups Table - Color Types

Armocromia palette and subgroups

According to the seasonal theory of Armocromia, the color type is determined by the temperature of the skin, eye, and hair undertones, and the contrast between these tones (which, in turn, depends on their brightness and saturation).

  • Winter - low temperature, high contrast.
  • Spring - high temperature, low contrast.
  • Summer - low temperature, low contrast.
  • Autumn - high temperature, high contrast.

The subtype is determined by the variation of color parameters on the chart.

For example, increasing the color temperature of a pure Winter's skin tone yields a Warm Winter.

It is easy to notice that Soft Winter is very similar to Contrast Summer, while Contrast Spring resembles Soft Autumn. It is difficult to draw a clear boundary between them, as it is determined individually by a specialist for each specific case. Therefore, the difference between subtypes is very subjective.

In the center of the chart are harmonious shade palettes for each pure season - "Clear."

Note: The names of the subtypes in different sources may vary depending on the specific characteristics of the subtype and the preferences of each individual image consultant.

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