Color can bring artwork or anything else for that matter to life. Warm and cool colors as well as intensity and value automatically evoke emotions within us. Everything in the natural world reflects or absorbs light producing color. The intensity and value of these hues make us feel certain ways. The reds, oranges, and yellows of a sunset tends to stand out over cooler blues and greens causing us to feel its energy. If the value was decreased by adding white to the colors, it may produce a more neutral calming feeling. Certain colors also have certain responses based on culture. For example red may make us think of a stop sign or danger. In America, white is a color of purity. However, in many European countries, white is a color of morning.
The additive function, the mixing of light to produce certain colors aspect of color, is incredibly fascinating. As an elementary student I recall learning primary colors, the color wheel, and how mixing certain colors makes new colors. The additive principle is one unfamiliar to me. It’s almost shocking that when red and green light are mixed the outcome is yellow and mixing all colors will actually produce white light. There is a science behind color that is much more than mixing of paints on a pallet.
In the video, "Color"(http://digital.films.com/play/RJ8PAN), artist June Redfern allows us to explore color and emotion with her. In her tour through Venice, I see the colors as completely different than anywhere in the states that I have been. Those colors make me feel nostalgic in a way. I enjoyed watching June work, her speed with changing colors, tossing the turpentine to reduce intensity, and her desire to look at the painting from outdoors to see it under different light. She seemed to be disappointed in the initial outcome as she could not replicate the feeling she got while being outdoors by the river. I usually look at a painting and am first off impressed. Secondly, I have my own feelings and I guess I’ve never really considered whether the artist was able to capture the feeling they want. I like that she states se is not a scientist. Creating just the right color in your mind truly is a science, often of trial and error, and much more than adding some white or black, as I ignorantly may have once thought.
In the video, "Feelings: Art and Emotion" (http://digital.films.com/play/8HLQ96), the history of art is explored in relation to color and emotion. I think one of the most obvious effects of color and emotion discussed was that dark intensities cause a sense of depression, anger, or confusion while hues with lighter intensity have a more positive feel. Middle Ages paintings were light using natural earthy tones showing the “picture perfect” life that everyone was expected to live with the church as the center of life. These painting were flat with little dimension. As societies’ views of the church and life changed, so did the artwork. Later art made use of dark hues and was more rebellious in feeling. Saturn Devouring One of His Children by Goya is an example of how color can cause these dark feelings.
The additive function, the mixing of light to produce certain colors aspect of color, is incredibly fascinating. As an elementary student I recall learning primary colors, the color wheel, and how mixing certain colors makes new colors. The additive principle is one unfamiliar to me. It’s almost shocking that when red and green light are mixed the outcome is yellow and mixing all colors will actually produce white light. There is a science behind color that is much more than mixing of paints on a pallet.
In the video, "Color"(http://digital.films.com/play/RJ8PAN), artist June Redfern allows us to explore color and emotion with her. In her tour through Venice, I see the colors as completely different than anywhere in the states that I have been. Those colors make me feel nostalgic in a way. I enjoyed watching June work, her speed with changing colors, tossing the turpentine to reduce intensity, and her desire to look at the painting from outdoors to see it under different light. She seemed to be disappointed in the initial outcome as she could not replicate the feeling she got while being outdoors by the river. I usually look at a painting and am first off impressed. Secondly, I have my own feelings and I guess I’ve never really considered whether the artist was able to capture the feeling they want. I like that she states se is not a scientist. Creating just the right color in your mind truly is a science, often of trial and error, and much more than adding some white or black, as I ignorantly may have once thought.
In the video, "Feelings: Art and Emotion" (http://digital.films.com/play/8HLQ96), the history of art is explored in relation to color and emotion. I think one of the most obvious effects of color and emotion discussed was that dark intensities cause a sense of depression, anger, or confusion while hues with lighter intensity have a more positive feel. Middle Ages paintings were light using natural earthy tones showing the “picture perfect” life that everyone was expected to live with the church as the center of life. These painting were flat with little dimension. As societies’ views of the church and life changed, so did the artwork. Later art made use of dark hues and was more rebellious in feeling. Saturn Devouring One of His Children by Goya is an example of how color can cause these dark feelings.
Color is also used to make paintings look more realistic adding depth or perception and dimension. People in paintings could look like real people with the use of shading and blending values to give faces a more rounded look. This technique, made famous by Giotto, was used to paint Bible stories.
People were able to relate to these stories now as though they knew the people in them through the amazingly realistic paintings. One thing that amazes me most about color in early artwork is the vast amount of hues, values, and intensities artists were able to create out of all natural resources like the red beetle and the stone lapis lazuli. In today’s world we have so many more resources and chemicals yet the painting of the past are just as beautiful if not more impressive.
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