Discrete versus Continuous Colour Pickers Impact Colour Selection in Virtual Reality Art-Making

Colour selection is an important task in digital art and 3D modelling applications. Most colour pickers are based on continuous colour spaces or a representative sampling of them, such as the Munsell colour palette. Continuous colour space-based pickers enable users to select from all colours by displaying full saturation hues with options to lower saturation and modify value. The two-step process of colour selection from continuous pickers requires understanding of 3D colour space, e.g., where to find “brown” or “sand”. In this research we investigate how continuous versus discrete pickers affect colour selection in virtual art. We compared an HSV picker with a discrete picker in a study with 40 participants aged 16 - 60. We found that the colour picker impacted the kinds of colours used in artworks, with significant differences in colour distribution characteristics. We discuss implications of colour selection tools for virtual reality art-making.