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To paraphrase a classic riddle, which weighs more: a pound of yellow feathers or a pound of red lead? Color may be a weighty subject, but the spectrum can't be gaged in terms of tonnage. The Swiss painter Paul Klee observed that colour can be "neither weighed nor measured. Neither with scales nor with ruler can any difference be detected between two surfaces, one a pure yellow and the other a pure red, of similar area and similar brilliance. And yet, an essential difference remains, which we, in words, label yellow and red" (On Modern Art, 1948). Klee was right—even though colors don't technically have weight, they can appear quite heavy and substantial or extraordinarily light and vaporous.
ColourLover Steph6 attempted to bridge the gap between heavy and light colours. She coined a sandy colour "Heavy Light."
Other COLOURlovers have attempted to classify weightless colors and palettes:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
On the opposite end of the scales, heavy colors and palettes include:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(Thanks to Paul Dean for his colorful research.)
2 December, 2007 9 
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retsof2 Dec, 2007
We need one for heavy water. (Deuterium Oxide). It was thought to be so important for the German nuclear energy effort that a sabotage mission destroyed a heavy water plant in Norway and sent a shipment of tank cars to the bottom of a lake.  2O" />
Steph63 Dec, 2007
Thanks for using my color! I'm glad you wrote this article because there are definitely times when I think of colors and palettes in terms of weight. Here are a couple of examples:
I can just see this palette being caught by a gentle breeze and carried aloft...
This palette has such weight that it is almost tangible. I can see this palette draped across a chair and slowly sliding to the floor under it's own weight...
Steph63 Dec, 2007
Oops! That second palette was supposed to be this one
 
codename_…3 Dec, 2007
Just think-- if colors could be "weighted"-- the force of gravity would determine the amount of tint and shade of literally every object under the sun-- can you imagine what that would do for our spacial intuition?! Of course, that's if the sheer weight of all those colors didn't cause the very universe to implode on itself and be sucked through a black hole... "it's a little heavy" indeed!
What a wonderful breath of fresh "weightless" (particularly of molemouse's variety)... 
lizcrimso…4 Dec, 2007
wow, gimmick. that's a heavy subject. :P  You must be logged in to post a comment. 
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