Chapter 10: Color Readings and Exercises
Videos
Color Theory for Noobs
Readings:
Defining Warm and Cool Colors Just Paint
Color Theory and the Color Wheel Canva
Warm and Cool Cool Color Reflection: Art In Context
Important Terms
Transparent colors allow a light source to pass through them.
Translucent allows light to reflect off objects behind the surface replicating their own color wavelengths.
Opaque substance does not let any light pass through, in paint, a solid color.
Sketchbook:
Color wheel:
Make a color wheel for each color media you own, color pencils, oil pastels, dry pastels, etc. Include the three primary, three secondary, and six tertiary colors. Use an organic or geometric shape to trace for each color, this will make the wheel interesting or contain some sense of narrative.
How to spin the colour wheel, by Turner, Malevich and more… from TATE
Gradients:
Illustrate shifts of color with soft transitions. Make at least two gradient examples; one based on warm colors and the other cool colors.
Bezold:
Design a composition of an interlocking or connecting pattern that extends across your picture plane. Use acrylic or oil pastels and a minimum of three colors to illustrate the Bezold Effect.
Bezold is an optical illusion, named after a German professor of meteorology. Wilhelm von Bezold discovered that a color may appear different depending on its relation to adjacent colors.
Clear Objects:
How can you illustrate or represent, plastic, or plastic wrapped object? To paint or draw something white or clear, you need color. Select at least three objects that are glass, ceramic, porcelain, plastic, metal for this assignment. Look for your highlights to start, once you’ve established your brightest areas using color can help you develop your subject matter.
Look at masters of reflective objects, Janet Fish and Carolyn Brady.
Janet Fish Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
Neo Impressionism Self Portrait (or Divisionism not Pointillism):
Look at the examples located in the links below. Notice the different styles and approaches that were taken to develop a subject or location. Some works have thick bold marks (Robert Delaunay) while others have smaller intricate strokes (Théo van Rysselberghe). Whatever style you prefer to work with, it should be evident that there is a color relationship happening on the paper that is translated visually from a distance by the viewer.
Videos
Divisionism Style – also called chromoluminarism
Impressionism in 8 minutes: How it changed the course of art
What is Impressionism
Readings
Neo-Impressionism from TATE
Divisionism Britannica
Use the links listed above to learn about Impressionism and Neo Impressionism/Divisionism. Think about how artists observe color and utilize it in their work.
Josef Albers:
An artist and influential educator, worked in various media, including photography, painting, and printmaking. He is best known for his abstract paintings and color theory. His book, Interaction of Color was published in 196