Launching the Imagination / Pg. 38-54 / 355
The Element of Color
-"Color immediately attracts attention. Color has great emotional power, and designers carefully choose a color palette that supports the mood of each project." (Ch.2, Pg.38)
I love these quotes in the first page of this section. It portrays one of the ideas I was set on when I created my digital self portrait, "Checkered Past".
-"Color theory is the art and science of color interaction and effects". (Ch.2, Pg.39)
To get a better understanding of colors: how primary colors create secondary colors, and how secondary colors create tertiary colors I suggest following this tutorial on creating a color wheel. It's easy and fun to explore while teaching you some things you may not know about photoshop.
This is the color wheel I created in Photoshop CS6:
Additive color consists of the primary colors Red, Green, and Blue. You may be familiar with the initialism "RGB" that our computers use. Using only Red, Green, and Blue I created the color wheel which further explains that, "millions of colors can be mixed from these primaries" (Ch.2, Pg.39).
-"Subtractive color is created when white light is reflected off a pigmented or dyed surface. The subtractive primaries are blue, red, and yellow" (Ch.2, Pg.28).
The book explains that, when printed, it used the transparent, or process colors, Cyan blue, Magenta red, and Yellow. Something that I didn't know is that Black is abbreviated as "K", this is because Blue is already abbreviated as "B". It is simple but sometimes the simple things bring me excitement in knowledge. So when you see CMYK, it is telling you that Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black were used, or can be used when this is selected in your program.
An additive is a substance added to something in small quantities, typically to improve or preserve it.
-"Beams of red, green, and blue light are used to create a full-color video projection. The mixture of adjacent beams creates cyan, magenta, and yellow, which are the secondary colors in the additive system" (Ch.2, Pg.40).
In terms of the color wheel, I would begin with Red, Blue and Green, duplicate the layer, rotate the layer a small degree, change the occupancy from 100% to 50%, this would then blend the colors, and repeat which, slowly but surly, would change the outcome of the original, thus creating more colors by "adding" or mixing colors together.
I thought it was really informative and interesting to read about how we perceive color through our retina's and into our minds.
-"In the human eye, two types of cells, known as rods and cones, are arranged in layers on the retina. These cells serve as photoreceptors. The rods record lightness and darkness, while the cones distinguish the hues, such as red and blue. According to the opponent theory, the cones can register only one color in a complementary pair at a time. Constant shifting between the opposing colors creates a visual overload at the edges of the shapes, resulting in an electric glow" (Ch.2, Pg.42).
I didn't know what an "afterimage" was until I read about it in chapter 2. An afterimage is what the cones, color censors, in our eyes produce after being fatigued by an intense color. My eyes produced a light, neon blue color after staring at a red square for 20 seconds, that was placed inside a white square, then looking away at a blank white square.
The hue of a color is the name of the color. Each color is based off the original colors, or "primary colors". The primary colors consist of red, yellow and blue. The second set of colors are aptly called "secondary colors". These colors consist of orange (red+yellow), green (yellow+blue) and, purple or violet (Blue+Red). The third set of colors are called tertiary colors. "The mixture of a secondary color and the adjacent primary color creates a tertiary color" (Ch.2, Pg.43).
The temperature of a color refers to the physical and psychological temperature of a color. Think of a white room, If you were to place lights all over the room it would begin to feel warm, lights themselves produce heat but the heat also bounces off the white walls and generates more heat. If you turn all the lights off and wait a while the room will begin to drop in temperature due to no lights therefor no heat bouncing around the room in terms of color.
-"Color temperature can help create the illusion of space. Under most circumstances, warm colors advance, while cool colors recede" (Ch.2, Pg.44).
If we take hue out of the equation we can place the colors within a value scale. The value of a color describes the darkness or lightness of that color. A blue color is "darker" than a yellow, where yellow is "lighter".
You could also take a single color and change the value of that color by itself, then use it to create an entire piece based on one hue in different values.
I didn't know about harmony and disharmony until I read this section beginning on page 49.
-"Relationships among colors are critical to the success or failure of a design..." (Ch.2, Pg.49)
Monochromatic Color Schemes are variations of a single hue and when this system is in use it produces color unity, where all the colors are strongly related but their is a lack of variety.
Analogous Color Schemes are based on adjacent colors and, much like Monochromatic Color Schemes, when in use they produce color unity and they offer more variety of hues
Complimentary Color Schemes consists of complimentary colors giving the user a wider range of colors to work with.
-"Complementary colors are opposites on the traditional color wheel. When mixed together, they can lower intensity and produce a wide range of browns. When paired in composition, complementary colors can become powerful partners. Each increases the impact of the other" (Ch.2, Pg.50)
Split Complementary Schemes produce an even wider range of color. "Rather than pair colors that are in opposite position on the color wheel, the artist completes the scheme using the two colors on either side of the complements" (Ch.2, Pg.51).
Triadic Color Schemes takes colors from the color wheel that would create a triangle if connected by an imaginary line. The example in the book uses, Yellow-Green, Red-Orange, and Blue-Violet.
The idea of color disharmony is beautiful because if it is used right it will create a harmony. I like to think that the people or peoples who created harmony from disharmony were a rebellious group who didn't want to be a puzzle pice within the world of art. They said no to the traditional color pallet and created something that was uncomfortable while also being beautiful.
-"Color theory is the art and science of color interaction and effects". (Ch.2, Pg.39)
To get a better understanding of colors: how primary colors create secondary colors, and how secondary colors create tertiary colors I suggest following this tutorial on creating a color wheel. It's easy and fun to explore while teaching you some things you may not know about photoshop.
This is the color wheel I created in Photoshop CS6:
Additive color consists of the primary colors Red, Green, and Blue. You may be familiar with the initialism "RGB" that our computers use. Using only Red, Green, and Blue I created the color wheel which further explains that, "millions of colors can be mixed from these primaries" (Ch.2, Pg.39).
-"Subtractive color is created when white light is reflected off a pigmented or dyed surface. The subtractive primaries are blue, red, and yellow" (Ch.2, Pg.28).
The book explains that, when printed, it used the transparent, or process colors, Cyan blue, Magenta red, and Yellow. Something that I didn't know is that Black is abbreviated as "K", this is because Blue is already abbreviated as "B". It is simple but sometimes the simple things bring me excitement in knowledge. So when you see CMYK, it is telling you that Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black were used, or can be used when this is selected in your program.
An additive is a substance added to something in small quantities, typically to improve or preserve it.
-"Beams of red, green, and blue light are used to create a full-color video projection. The mixture of adjacent beams creates cyan, magenta, and yellow, which are the secondary colors in the additive system" (Ch.2, Pg.40).
In terms of the color wheel, I would begin with Red, Blue and Green, duplicate the layer, rotate the layer a small degree, change the occupancy from 100% to 50%, this would then blend the colors, and repeat which, slowly but surly, would change the outcome of the original, thus creating more colors by "adding" or mixing colors together.
I thought it was really informative and interesting to read about how we perceive color through our retina's and into our minds.
-"In the human eye, two types of cells, known as rods and cones, are arranged in layers on the retina. These cells serve as photoreceptors. The rods record lightness and darkness, while the cones distinguish the hues, such as red and blue. According to the opponent theory, the cones can register only one color in a complementary pair at a time. Constant shifting between the opposing colors creates a visual overload at the edges of the shapes, resulting in an electric glow" (Ch.2, Pg.42).
I didn't know what an "afterimage" was until I read about it in chapter 2. An afterimage is what the cones, color censors, in our eyes produce after being fatigued by an intense color. My eyes produced a light, neon blue color after staring at a red square for 20 seconds, that was placed inside a white square, then looking away at a blank white square.
As a test I created a green square.
Stare at the green square (for about 20 seconds),
then look away and into the blank square.
You should see a purple or red square appear.
The hue of a color is the name of the color. Each color is based off the original colors, or "primary colors". The primary colors consist of red, yellow and blue. The second set of colors are aptly called "secondary colors". These colors consist of orange (red+yellow), green (yellow+blue) and, purple or violet (Blue+Red). The third set of colors are called tertiary colors. "The mixture of a secondary color and the adjacent primary color creates a tertiary color" (Ch.2, Pg.43).
The temperature of a color refers to the physical and psychological temperature of a color. Think of a white room, If you were to place lights all over the room it would begin to feel warm, lights themselves produce heat but the heat also bounces off the white walls and generates more heat. If you turn all the lights off and wait a while the room will begin to drop in temperature due to no lights therefor no heat bouncing around the room in terms of color.
-"Color temperature can help create the illusion of space. Under most circumstances, warm colors advance, while cool colors recede" (Ch.2, Pg.44).
If we take hue out of the equation we can place the colors within a value scale. The value of a color describes the darkness or lightness of that color. A blue color is "darker" than a yellow, where yellow is "lighter".
You could also take a single color and change the value of that color by itself, then use it to create an entire piece based on one hue in different values.
I didn't know about harmony and disharmony until I read this section beginning on page 49.
-"Relationships among colors are critical to the success or failure of a design..." (Ch.2, Pg.49)
Monochromatic Color Schemes are variations of a single hue and when this system is in use it produces color unity, where all the colors are strongly related but their is a lack of variety.
Analogous Color Schemes are based on adjacent colors and, much like Monochromatic Color Schemes, when in use they produce color unity and they offer more variety of hues
Complimentary Color Schemes consists of complimentary colors giving the user a wider range of colors to work with.
-"Complementary colors are opposites on the traditional color wheel. When mixed together, they can lower intensity and produce a wide range of browns. When paired in composition, complementary colors can become powerful partners. Each increases the impact of the other" (Ch.2, Pg.50)
Split Complementary Schemes produce an even wider range of color. "Rather than pair colors that are in opposite position on the color wheel, the artist completes the scheme using the two colors on either side of the complements" (Ch.2, Pg.51).
Triadic Color Schemes takes colors from the color wheel that would create a triangle if connected by an imaginary line. The example in the book uses, Yellow-Green, Red-Orange, and Blue-Violet.
The idea of color disharmony is beautiful because if it is used right it will create a harmony. I like to think that the people or peoples who created harmony from disharmony were a rebellious group who didn't want to be a puzzle pice within the world of art. They said no to the traditional color pallet and created something that was uncomfortable while also being beautiful.
Works Cited:
Steward, Mary. Launching the Imagination: A Comprehensive Guide to Basic Design. 4th ed.
New York, Ny: McGraw-Hill, 2012, 2008, 2006, 2002. Print.
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