coloring, paint, makeup
彩 centers on adding color or decoration to something: coloring, painting, or applying makeup to enhance appearance.
彩 combines 采 (picking, gathering) with 彡 (hair, decorative pattern). The compound suggests gathering colors or applying decorative patterns, leading to the idea of coloring or painting.
The left side 采 looks like a hand picking something, and the right side 彡 suggests decorative strokes. Imagine a hand picking up a brush and adding colorful strokes to a canvas: 彩 is coloring or painting.
For サイ, imagine a sigh of satisfaction as you finish coloring a beautiful picture: sigh -> サイ, and the colors make you sigh with pleasure.
colour; color; hue; tints
colourful; colorful; multicoloured; multicolored; varicoloured; varicolored
camouflage; disguise
to colour; to color; to paint
watercolor painting
colouring; coloring; colouration; coloration; painting
coloring; colouring; coloration; colouration
oil painting
iridescent clouds; glowing clouds
iris
conspicuousness (usu. color); prominence; distinctiveness
brilliance; luster; lustre; colorfulness; colourfulness
richly colored; richly coloured
brilliance; splendour; splendor; lustre; luster
gouache
the five colours: green, yellow, red, white and black; the five colors; five-coloured porcelain; five-colored porcelain
optical camouflage
dazzling; brilliant
International Colour Association; AIC
to decorate with many bright colours (colors); to create a beautiful variegated pattern