Playing Colorblind

If you’ve spent some time watching artists on TikTok recently, you’ll probably recognize a trend called the “colorblind challenge,” where artists will make it difficult to see what colors they are using and create something based only on how dark or light a color is. Almost every time, the full color reveal at the end is bright, colorful, and has the artist saying they would never have chosen to put those colors together normally.

I decided to go about this challenge by setting my whole iPad screen to grayscale before using a random color generator to create my palette so I couldn’t be influenced by knowing what types of colors I was working with. Like most other artists who have tried out this challenge, I was nervous to see the finished drawing in full color since I was worried it would look crazy and I wouldn’t like it, but I was pleasantly surprised by the retro, video game/animated dystopian world vibes I got from the crazy color combinations. Also, like other artists, I’m glad I kept my colors completely hidden from myself until the drawing was finished because I would have never chosen these combinations if I had any clue what I was working with. 

One of the reasons I was intrigued by this challenge, other than seeing the cool drawings other artists made by doing this, is because I think the title, “colorblind challenge,” has a lot of rich context and connotations behind it. Color blindness exists in multiple forms and severities, but overall it affects about 4.5% of the population, most of whom are men. For example, my brother has a mild case of protan color blindness, which affects his ability to see red and green the way most people do. Despite being so common, color blindness is not often discussed as something that significantly impacts daily life unless someone has such a severe case that they struggle to identify and distinguish between colors that most people see as drastically different. In a world where we constantly talk about the beauty in colors, it can be easy to forget that even some of the most famous artists are color blind. In fact, Claude Monet, who painted the famous Woman with a Parasol, and Edgar Degas, who painted The Ballet Class, were both color blind. More recently, painter Peter Milton was diagnosed with a very severe case of color blindness, and is now well known for his black and white paintings. 

While this may not be the main goal behind the colorblind challenge, young artists on TikTok are coming to the realization that their art can be beautiful while being completely devoid of color or with the presence of bright, crazy colors that aren’t “correct” to what normal eyes see in the world. More than just a way to create cool art, this challenge is encouraging young artists to break the rules of traditional art and push their own boundaries while subconsciously reminding them to think about the abilities and differences of others who may appreciate their creations for a completely different kind of beauty.

Music: Young Me Dreaming
Musician: Carl Storm