Just some reflections on journal color selection. I started off with a journal that was white on black, when I was in my most cynical and depressed mode. When I started a livejournal I decided to "lighten up," and switched over to black on white with a light grey back drop. I kept that for a long time, and noted that it seemed to be the color theme (or lack there of ;) of choice of people with INTP personality. (Naturally I'm more aware of the cases where it was true than not, although I'm pretty sure that I've observed at least a small but statistically significant correlation between the grey background and people whom I'm aware of being that personality type)

At the time I chose it because I wanted something more unique than just black and white, but I didn't want to "contaminate" my journal with color. Color gives mood, and my moods change and I didn't want a constant mood cast. The flaw in this logic is that any theme or lack there of gives mood, including neutrality or sterility ;) Which is not to say that neutral colors can not have personalities other than sterile: there are other features such as curvature of lines and playing with contrast, among others, which do give personality. Black and white photos are often gorgeous. The main flaw with my choice was that I was choosing it out of fear. Trying to be perfect and pure.

When I took art lessons my teacher talked about how one should never use actual black paint without mixing it with a warm or cool color. It is dead. The warmth or cool are what give it life.

Eventually I switched over to the vibrance of the lj classic blues, and the clean format of black and white with text shapes that I liked and a vibrant spiral for my regular journal. I was pretty happy with the lj theme for quite a while, but I decided its time for a new theme with my new icon :) I really loved the rich warm effect of the candle light, and decided to mirror that somewhat in as much as possible with html. Not perfect, far from it, but well, color can never be perfect ;) And lack of color can have the perfection of stark hospital rooms or futuristic scenes in 80s movies ;)

I love the word richness when I think of it in terms of color. I think of coffee shops and smells. Which got me thinking of how I think of the word richness in regard to wealth. Its an ugly green that seems shallow ;) Why is that? ;) Perhaps wealth is a naked canvas: money is just ugly paper, usually less than that. It is where it goes that has the potential for the richness of a deep dark warm color. Or not.