Light, Value and Color

1. Light - artists use natural light in architecture and sculpture to create shadow patterns over the course of the day to create dramatic effects. Painters use these same shadow patterns to also create a dramatic focal point in their paintings as seen in Thomas Eakin's "The Concert Singer".

2. Value - is the lightness or darkness of a color

a. High Key is when the predominant values are light.

b. low key is when the predominant values are dark.

3. Color - is a function of light

Color affects us both psychologically and physiologically in our response to it.

What responses do you get from color?

a. cool colors recede in space.

b. hot colors come forward in space.

c. cool colors are calm.

d. hot colors evoke active emotions.

1. Color Theory

a. light travels in a straight line

b. refracted light produces different colors.

1. white light goes into a prism

2. the spectrum of light waves are bent into the different colors.

c.  What we perceive as a color is reflected light.

example - if light strikes a blue surface, that surface absorbs all the light except the blue spectrum and reflects the blue back to the eye.

d. What are the properties of the color wheel?

1. Primary colors

a. Red

b. Yellow

c. Blue

2. Secondary Colors

a. Orange

b. Green

c. Violet

3. Tertiary Colors

a. Red-violet

b. Red-orange

c. Yellow-orange

d. Yellow-green

e. Blue-green

f. Blue-violet

4. Complementary Colors

Those directly opposite to one another on the color wheel - those colors compliment or work well together.

Be sure you can draw and label a color wheel!

2. Color Properties are hue, value and intensity

1. Hue is the name of the color

a. red

b. yellow

c. blue

2. Value is the lightness or darkness of the normal color.

3. Intensity is the purity of the color, you can only lower intensity, to do so you add black, gray, or the complementary color.

1. Color Harmonies - or color scheme is the use of two or more colors in a single composition.

What are the types of color harmonies?

1. Monochromatic - all the same hues or colors, though the value and intensity can be different

2. Complementary Harmonies - hues of directly opposite values on the color wheel are used, i.e.: Red and Green.

3. Analogous Harmonies - color adjacent to one another on the color wheel are used, red and red-orange.

4. Triadic Harmonies - the use of three colors equidistant on the color wheel.

2. Optical Effects of Color

1. Simultaneous Contrast - if you place two complementary colors next to each other both of them will seem more brilliant, i.e.: red seems redder and green seems greener.

2. After Image - a particular phenomenon of complementary colors where after staring at a color for a minute or so, the glancing away at a white piece of paper the same image will appear in the complementary as a ghost image, i.e.: the American flag.

3. Pointillism - optical color mixture - is when patches or dots of color are placed together, the eye will blend them to produce a new color, i.e.: Georges Seurat's study of El Chahut.

4. Emotional Qualities - color effects emotions and conveys symbolism

A. green-envy.

B. blue-sadness.

C. red-anger.

D. yellow-cowardice.

E. warm colors are active and happy - red, orange.

F. cool colors are passive - blue and green.