Next class, 2/22, your final color wheels are due. Be prepared to present and discuss your process and concept. Remember, this is a two week assignment and will weigh more heavily in the calculation of your final grade.
Make it spectacular, well-crafted, and unexpected.
I look forward to being wowed!
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In the center of the color wheel are 3 primary colors: Red, Yellow, Blue.
Outside of that are 3 secondary colors, made by mixing the primary colors:
Red + Yellow = Orange
Yellow + Blue = Green
Red + Blue = Purple or Violet
Mixing these secondary colors with primary colors will make your 6 Tertiary Colors: Yellow Orange, Red Orange, Red Violet, Blue Violet, Blue Green, Yellow Green
In-class assignment: create a color wheel that includes primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. Select a format from the examples shown in class. Then, add the 2 lighter shades and darker shades as shown in Ittens color star. This will be the color sample you base your personal color wheel project on.
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Any color can be lightened by adding white, the same color can be darkened by adding black. In Itten’s Color Star, each of the 12 colors of the wheel is accompanied by two light and two dark colors.
Project 5: Create a color wheel with the 12 hues of Ittens color star. Come up with a conceptual representation that is interesting while maintaining accuracy.
This is a two-week project. Next week your first rough draft is due. You will present your idea and a fully-executed sketch.
View color wheel student examples
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Cool Color Scheme
The hues of violet, blue, light blue, cyan, and sea green are generally referred to as the cool colors. As with the warm colors, the cool colors can shift your perception of temperature although they tend to make you feel colder instead of warmer. Compositions that use the cool colors often seem slick and professional, but the coldness these colors radiate often turns people off. Psychologically, cool colors are associated with sadness, depression, and melancholia.
Warm Color Scheme
The hues of magenta, red, orange, yellow, and yellowgreen are generally referred to as the warm colors. These colors produce a synaesthetic experience of heat in most viewers. Studies have been conducted in which test subjects were placed in rooms painted in a warm color and their perceptions of the room’s temperature was almost always much warmer than its actual temperature. The warmth that these colors radiate tends to make them seem warm, cozy, and inviting and they draw attention very easily. Psychologically warm colors are associated with happiness and comfort.
Project 4: Create a color scale that goes from warm to cool, and cut your swatches into 25 1′squares. Arrange them in a composition that exhibits the transition from warm to cool. Mount with a 1′ margin top and sides, 2′ on the bottom.
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The greater the distance between hues on a color wheel, the greater the contrast.
contrast of hue: strongest expression
contrast of hue: greatest luminosity (brightness)
In-Class: Create a grid pattern based on contrast of hue (5×5 squares, 3-5 colors)
Homework: Using the palette you created in class, create a composition inspired by the format of Josef Albers ‘Homage to a Square’. Composition should be 7×7, mounted on black with a 1′margin on top and sides, 2′ margin on bottom.
Posted in Project, Uncategorized
Saturation is the amount of gray in a particular color. A color with more gray is considered less saturated, while a bright color, one with very little gray in it, is considered highly saturated.
In-Class: First, experiment with adding pure WHITE to a color. Then, adding pure BLACK. How does this change the feeling/intensity of the color?
Exercise: Contrast of saturation using 1 hue combined with gray:
On a checkered pattern of 25 squares, place yellow, orange or blue in the center. The four corners are neutral gray in the same brilliance as the pure color (see example).
Mixing gray with the pure color produces intermediate shades of low saturation. The effect of ‘dull-vivid’ is relative. A color may appear vivid beside a dull tone, and dull beside a more vivid hue.
Homework:
Create a collage based on the in-class exercise. Create a composition using 25 squares. Your squares should all be various saturations of ONE pure color (choosen from the guoache you bought). Squares can be different sizes and arranged in any way. It must incorporate contrasts from last semester (size, direction, etc.). Mount it on bristol.
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Color is the perceptual characteristic of light described by a color name. Specifically, color is light, and light is composed of many colors—those we see are the colors of the visual spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Objects absorb certain wavelengths and reflect others back to the viewer. We perceive these wavelengths as color. Johannes Itten was one of the first people to define and identify strategies for successful color combinations. Through his research he devised seven methodologies for coordinating colors utilizing the hue’s contrasting properties:
— contrast of light and dark
— contrast of saturation
— contrast of hue
— contrast of compliments
— contrast of warm and cool
— contrast of extension
— simultaneous contrast
We will be using the methods of Johannes Itten and Joseph Albers this semester to learn about color. Materials will include gouache paint, found papers, and Coloraid for reference.
Syllabus, Spring 2011
Supply List
Today’s Glossary (every week, learn these terms!)
Hue – name of the color (red, green, blue)
Saturation - brightness or dullness of a color (bright red, dull red)
Value - the level of luminosity-lightness or darkness-of a color (shade, tone, tint)
Glossary presentation, week 1 (PDF)
Posted in News, Spring 2011
Project 1: Value Step Scale
Create an 11 step color scale from white to black. Each square should be .7 x .7
Remember, white is your 11th square.
Neatly trim and mount your scale, leaving a .5′ margin around each side.
Posted in Project, Spring 2011
